Starling Discussion & Feedback

They both use the MasterCard exchange rate with no markup. But whereas Monzo charges 3% on foreign ATM withdrawals, once you’ve withdrawn more than £200, Starling doesn’t.

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Starling also pays interest (even though pretty small one) and also retries failing direct debit

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It just occurred to me…I mean I knew this…but I just thought about the impact.

I have quite a bit of money in various goals now to the point where I can use my overdraft (quite a lot of I wished) without any charge/penatly at all.

If you use pots in Monzo, then it is taken away from overall balance so if you dip into overdraft despite having a grand in pots, you get charged and overdraft fee.

To me that feels like Starling are rewarding me for saving and being responsible, where as Monzo’s…just want my money…

Just a thought.

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I can’t see the issue, if you dip into your overdraft despite having money in Pots then you receive a notification letting you know & can move money into your account on the same day, to avoid the overdraft charges.

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Fully agree!

We had a fairly strong discussion about this practice recently:

Very funny :joy: but you haven’t managed to explain why I’m wrong there :thinking:

No you’re right - Monzo’s solution is fair, rewards saving, is intuitive, minimal taps, and I shouldn’t have questioned it. :+1:

Starling is Purple and has a pointless pulse graph and booooooooo! :laughing:

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I’m pretty sure that Starling aren’t paying interest on your money in Goals if it’s covering the negative balance in your main account :slight_smile:

So that’s more confusion that their solution has created.

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They pay it on an overall positive balance. No confusion.

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And what happens when Starling begin showing their Savings Partners in app? Then it’s confusing.

You’ll have to add up all of your none-third party Goals, dismiss the third party ones, and then add that onto your actual account balance to see whether you’re getting charged or not.

Starling don’t show you what interest you’re being charged daily like Monzo, so you won’t find out until the end of the month.

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Or you can go to the menu that shows you your “Current Cleared Account Balance”? Granted its 4 clicks from the main screen, but its there.

It feels like Monzo has adapted a more “traditional” route for their Pots - Ring fencing the funds like a normal savings account - Therefore needing an overdraft if your account (excluding the pots) goes into a negative figure is a must.

That doesn’t feel progressive… it feels like it’s taking a savings account from a legacy bank … and putting lipstick on it.

The way Starling has implemented their Goals, feels like someone has sat down, and tried to address some common concerns/issues with how it’s been done in the past - Noticeably, not being punished for moving money into “savings/goals”.

Each to their own, but that’s my take.

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Agreed. With the exception of saying that I think that removing interest, sort code and account number hardly seems like putting lipstick on it to me…

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In the app it shows you how many days so far that month you have been overdrawn and how much that had cost you. It is very clear to me.

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Where is that? I had a look, but perhaps not being in overdraft means I don’t see it?

I was about to say something similar. I haven’t decided how I feel about this yet, but I guess it depends on perspective.

The idea seems to be that they don’t want to offer savings accounts but recognise people want to ring-fence some money so provide pots - seems like a useful workaround in some situations.

However, given that it isn’t any more difficult for me to move money from a savings account to my current account at a legacy bank and my savings earn interest there, I would be unlikely to use pots at Monzo.

I guess it is yet another approach and each of us can make our own choices as to what suits us.

However, now that I’ve read about how Starling do things, that’s got me thinking about how I could take advantage of it :slightly_smiling_face:

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In Android app menus, /Account Management, then /Overdraft

Thanks, same in IOS, didn’t know it was there. Nice!

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I have savings accounts with legacy banks, and I have “Goals” with Starling.

Given the pretty poor interest all around, it comes down to ease of use… look… and general feel.

Even little things like being able to personalise your “Goals” with photos make it look appealing.

For my use, it doesn’t make much difference if the Goals are ring fenced or not - Most of my spend is on AMEX anyway - But in general, I think Starling have the best implementation of a “modern saving’s pot/goal”.

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I think I’ve said this before, but (and this is obviously my very subjective opinion) I really don’t get how pots are superior to a proper savings account at all:

  1. I can move money to my “savings accounts” just as easily as I can transfer to a goal/pot (after initial setup with sort code/account number). Additionally I can transfer money into my savings account from any of my accounts, without first moving it to starling/monzo. Usability win for proper savings (for me!)
  2. Interest isn’t really that low. I get between 3-5% on all my savings. Not the world, but once you reach £1,000 it adds up to a coffee or two a months, or taking the family out for dinner once a year. Makes me feel good, so a win in the “general feel” department :slight_smile:
  3. Personally, I couldn’t care less about photos to go with my savings, I’m happy with a loss in the “look” department :slight_smile:

Things like Coin Jar of course, are a different beast. That’s a clear usability win. But once I move money manually myself it really makes no sense at all to me to use goals or pots…

As I said: This is obviously hugely subjective, but I still just don’t get it …

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