Starling Discussion & Feedback

It is super fast, and generally a lot less fiddly than getting wallet, finding card, tapping card, replacig card, replacing wallet. I used it for the first time when I lost my wallet, I now still use cards occasionally, but often i find myself using Apple pay more.

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If you prioritise onboarding customers before implementing technology like Apple Pay, youā€™re putting the cart before the horse, I fear.

I didnā€™t adopt your product for the warm glow. I adopted it for its mobile app experience which, at the time, was second to none.

I love Monzo, but hereā€™s some brutal honesty:

  • I couldnā€™t care less which diversity quotas your HR dept filled this week.
  • I donā€™t care that you want to reach a billion users. Focus on the product and the users will eventually come - and stick around.
  • I certainly donā€™t use Monzo because of your hilarious mobile app release notes. Personality is great, but donā€™t be too ā€œmillenialā€ please.

Iā€™m only a single data point. Feel free to take it or leave the advice. Iā€™m only writing it because I care.

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File under #BugNotFeature:

:man_facepalming:

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Please show me where this is stated?

(Nb: you canā€™t since Apple Pay is NDAā€™d)

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If I got a penny every time someone used the ā€œApple Pay is NDAā€™dā€ line. Thereā€™s no excusing Monzo for lagging the traditional banks (most of which got Apple Pay in 2015), and Starling (which got it this summer).

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Except the fact that building Apple Pay for the prepaid programme would have necessitated the 3rd processor rebuilding itā€™s entire systems PLUS it would have needed re-implementing for the Current Account anyway.

There is a finite amount of engineering time available at for the last few months it has been focused on getting the Current Account out the door. Iā€™m sure Apple Pay will come soon (I donā€™t know when), but moaning on here about them being behind on the uptake will not make it come any quicker!

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Of course there is. Maybe not in your opinion, fair enough, but itā€™s pure hyperbole to make a of generic statement like that.

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I donā€™t know why youā€™re even bringing that up if you already know? Monzo arnā€™t allowed to discuss that theyā€™re even working on it - never mind how near complete it is.

Yes there is, theres a perfectly valid excuse - theyā€™re still building it, obviously. + why do you even mention 2015? You know Monzo got their banking license April this year right??

Thatā€™s great, and your absolutely entitled to your opinion.

Heres mine:
I feel very sorry for you that you could not care less that Monzo thinks ā€œitā€™s better to be inclusiveā€. If you find Apple Pay higher up your list of values than inclusivity - thatā€™s pretty sad.

I donā€™t know if youā€™ve been on the forums recently - but theyā€™ve been pretty busy with this whole ā€œmigrationā€ thing. Apparently building out an entire banking stack and implementing it into a separate app, merging them together, and then moving 450,000 users has taken some time out of one of their engineers day.

You know Monzo have an iOS and a Android team right? They donā€™t stop working on one, to work on the other.

FYI they posted a timeframe https://monzo.com/blog/2017/11/23/2017-todo-list/

They donā€™t need to focus on iOS. Like I said, they can work on them both in harmony. (p.s before you say, I run iOS)

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I would assume Starling got Apple Pay relatively fast because theyā€™re using a third-party card processor which already implemented everything and got certified by Apple, so it was just a matter of flicking a switch.

In Monzoā€™s case they are building their own card processor and I presume thereā€™s actual development work that needs to be done, plus testing by Apple.

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Yes we knowā€¦look at the android app! :joy::joy::wink:

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I never understand why people buy Android only to complain itā€™s not as good as iOS. :thinking:

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Itā€™s a bit like me, an avid Android fan buying iOS and complaining itā€™s expensive!

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Oh no I think android is much better. Its the specific apps that are sometimes inexplicably terrible (Monzo isnā€™t one of them - its more basic, although the card screen is ugly compared to iOS, will be interesting to see how that evolves with pots on Monday (??) )

What I meant was people buy Android and complain iOS apps are better. Which, of course, generally they are. I use both Android (work) and iOS (personal) but Iā€™ve not seen the Monzo App on Android.

I think we just need to accept that these are going to develop slightly out of time to each other. Itā€™s getting tiresome the complaints about one being better than the other or not. Android has the droid equivalent of Apple Pay, I believe. Thatā€™s a plus for Android users of Monzo. Iā€™m not losing sleep over it.

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The Pots UI looks really nice on Android. I prefer it, actually.

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Thatā€™s a good answer! :grin:

Iā€™ve been refreshing the play store, Iā€™m not gonna lie - I thought Beta might have it a smidge early. No luck so far :woman_shrugging:

Going back to the original topic, I too find myself in this situation. I was one of the first Android BETA users back in August 2016 and was in love with Monzo but was a bit frustrated by the slowness of the development. It was actually this that lead me to even contemplate looking at Starling back in July of this year. Back then I also found the forum a bit confrontational but itā€™s definitely evolved over the last few months to something really constructive. Maybe thatā€™s due to the evolution of the Current Account?

Anyway, I started using Starling instead of Monzo and even signed the other half up so we could easily move money around. I should prefer Starling, itā€™s ahead, especially on Android (thatā€™s not a dig, itā€™s just a fact) although given Monzo started on the backfoot are catching up quickly, but I donā€™t.

But despite all this, I keep coming back to Monzo (used the Prepaid Card to manage all our House Improvement finances for example) and I just canā€™t quite put my finger on why exactly!

One place where Monzo definitely excels for me is Customer Service. I like the conversational flow, I like the fact that the Live Chat actually works and doesnā€™t close if you glance away for 5 seconds. I also like that although it might take slightly longer for Monzo to make initial contact, or reply, itā€™s because itā€™s a well thought out answer by someone who actually knows whatā€™s what. A lot of my interactions with Starling are quick but entirely unhelpful and in some cases completely untruthful.

I also like Monzoā€™s transparency, even if itā€™s not the answer you want to hear, theyā€™re honest about it.

Maybe Iā€™ve just answered my own questions by having to think whilst Iā€™m writing this!

Yes, I want features, yes I want better Android support (although Iā€™m thinking of treating myself to an iPhone X and Cellular Apple Watch). But I also want to use a bank that I like using and like what they stand for and like what theyā€™re doing. People say banking shouldnā€™t be ā€˜funā€™ but why canā€™t it. If not fun, at least enjoyable and if not enjoyable at least tolerable!

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Chalky, a fair post.

Unfortunately, thatā€™s my experience, too.

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Monzo easily wins here. I been using Starling for a while and I find they not as open or sometimes will not respond to a comment asking for more information if the topic/question is not in their best light to respond too.

As I say I been using Starling for a while, and all the features on the app is superb. I never had issues with their customer service either.

Butā€¦ here I am on the Monzo forum. I keep coming back. I havenā€™t closed my current account. I am using Starling for the features but I keep coming back to Monzo because transparency, the community, the open and honest development, the involvement. Sure on a spreadsheet level Starling has more boxes ticked, but on heart level its not there. Monzo have created a bank you want to be part of. That is the difference. That is the dilemma I am in.

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