So is it really a secondary account or just to not have to pay Monzo to deposit cash and withdrawal >£200 abroad?
Define “secondary account” if anything other than “my main salary and most/all my bills are handled by a different account”
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I also use Starling as a secondary account, for extra cash withdrawals while abroad, and cash deposits if ever needed.
As Starling offers free cash deposits, completely fee-free foreign ATM withdrawals and a very fair overdraft, I’m surprised more people don’t use them as their primary account. I certainly do.
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in this instance I defined it as an account to avoid charges from the account that handles “main salary and most/all my bills”
So…yes, it’s a secondary account.
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I don’t think that cash deposits are a big deal for a lot of people. Perhaps more so for those working in cash-in-hand jobs. Bear in mind that I’m writing this from the posh south, perhaps I lack some perspective. 
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I don’t use overdrafts ever, and haven’t deposited cash into a UK bank account for years, so the only advantage over Monzo for me, it’s the withdrawals abroad, which I do use occasionally once my £200 limit with Monzo has been reached.
I prefer Monzo’s app and I’m also an investor so I want Monzo to succeed. So I’m full Monzo and use Starling as secondary account for the occasional extra withdrawals abroad.
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Even if I never used overdrafts, foreign ATMs or cash deposits, for me it’s the ethos of the bank that I like. The fact they give the consumer these things for free, or with fair, low charges, makes me like them.
Apart from that I’ve always preferred the app - it looks more “grown up” to me, but perhaps I’m just showing my age 
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I agree - I much prefer how Starling is doing overdrafts and lending.
The Starling app doesn’t bug me for contacts access all the time either - half the Monzo app is this:
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This confused me a little. Yes Starling’s prices are nice and low, but why does lower charges mean a more fair product?
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One example is the Starling overdraft. Apart from the fact that the overdraft APR is competitive when you look at what’s on offer from the competition, they take any money you have reserved in Goals into account. That is, if you have £100 in a Goal and go £50 overdrawn on your main balance, they consider you to be £50 in credit overall. Monzo ignore money in Pots so in the scenario above you would be charged 50p every day you’re overdrawn, despite any money in Pots.
For me, not only are the charges low with Starling, they have a much fairer policy when it comes to calculating overdraft fees. Hence, “fair, low charges”.
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Fair enough. I misunderstood what you were saying and read it as you saying “charges which are fair because they are low” rather than “charges which are fair and are also low”.
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How are Starling doing from a monetisation perspective? I too think their offering is incredibly competitive and generous, but have always wondered if they’re ever going to turn a profit?
Worth reading this article if you haven’t seen it already.
Not just about the extra £75m it raised earlier this year but also about its banking services division which gives it an additional revenue stream
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AFAIK their business services - banking-as-a service, payment services, etc. - are excellent revenue streams that mean they don’t need to claw back a few pounds here and there from personal customers. A very smart business model from Anne and her team.
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Which of course you ARE! I agree with you and I’m a Monzo investor, I think they are both good products but, for me, thats a biggie, you ARE in credit with the bank. Isn’t that the whole point of pots or goals? If you are going to argue its a separate “thing” then why not just open another account (savings)? To me that’s the whole point of goals/pots/spaces, you are merely penciling in a need in your main account.
I should also add that Starling joined my Fintech party later than Monzo but delivered first on, Standing Orders, Direct Debits, Apple Pay, Euro account, business account, joint account, multiple accounts with one payee.
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I have a Starling account but it just sits there doing nothing (and has done for the past year) because development just seems stagnant and there’s nothing about the account that might encourage me to use it. I know people are getting the Euro account (not that I have 
) but I have no clue how it’s meant to be used. I don’t think you can use the card with it, which means it’s of no use for me to stash Euros for holidays etc.
At least when the community was there, there was some means to encourage things to happen (well, try to) or get an idea of the direction they are heading in, or even communicate with staff members. Now I’m completely at a loss, even their Twitter offers little info.
Did Starling ever offer shares? I can’t recall if they did in the early days? See, this is something I’d be able to search a community forum for!
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All comes down to usage I guess.
For my needs, Monzo hasn’t done anything for over a year that changes how I use the account - All of the development has been on other things.
I only know about them because of the forum.
Whist I don’t use Starling regularly, I do have the Euro account which has replaced Revolut (that one time per year of going on holiday and paying for it in Euros).
Nope, I don’t believe they did.
I actually think the removal of the community was a good thing for them.
I find that Starling and Monzo tried too hard to engage with the community to shape the future of the product - I’d personally rather trust in their vision, and do it 100% how they see it based on their research… Rather than put it out there in the community, and tweak it constantly (never fully settling on the idea).
Or worse yet, put it out to the community, and do your own thing anyway.
Either way, I just want to see the Joint Account on both Monzo and Starling developed a bit more! It’s the forgotten love child of the bank accounts…
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The only thing that makes me think is interest bearing pots. Why would I not just chuck all my money in a Cash ISA through Monzo while my account is “overdrawn”? I guess there could be the differentiation between normal pots and savings pots, but that might get messy.