Have they launched first to take the spotlight away from Monzo launch theirs?, They’re making a big fanfare about it. I’ve also seen comments online such as
‘I hope Monzo are paying attention’
‘Starling actually building useful stuff while developers fawn over Monzo’s IFTTT support’.
the competition is the “legacy” banking model - who did what first - Ive come to realise, within limits, who cares, if the app suits what you want that is what is important , both businesses are on different business models with different strategies and different ways of achieving those strategies, some will prefer one app over the other - thats great - each business will make mistakes - they are after all quite young businesses which are growing rapidly , they will have growing pains.
We should all try to resist criticising the other - hey Ive been quite vocal in the past regarding Starlings mistakes which Ive tried to curtail 
it all just ends up in almost a slanging match - which achieves nothing
Absolutely this. Well said, that man…
The difference in features is getting smaller and smaller, that it’s ultimately going to come down to the users preferences over the small things.
It could be the design of the app, the community, the bleeding card colour!
It’s great that we actually have two banks pushing the boundaries, and raising the bar for everyone.
It’ll be interesting to compare how Monzo and Starling differ when they do have a proper working joint account.
That’s a policy I really don’t understand. It seems hostile to the user to be such a long ban.
1 month? Yeah, I could see there being a logic there.
EDIT: Am I right in thinking there’s nothing similar with Monzo? I’ve seen people post that they’ve reopened accounts but no mention of a waiting time for that.
A bit late to the party 
Nope, we can reopen accounts 
I reopened an account with Monzo no problem.
The way I look at it, is that who is going to wait 12 months to rejoin a bank? The customer will go and find an alternative bank, and in all likelihood never return to Starling. Therefore they’re alienating customers.
Their justification for the policy on their website is ‘Starling Accounts are very popular right now’ but so are Monzo’s accounts and Monzo isn’t tangled up with such ridiculous policies and alienating people.
This has been discussed to death @anon12300088 - Monzo have their policy, and Starling have theirs.
I think the one thing that both banks should possibly focus a little more on, is the education of customers who are asking to close their accounts (the fact that they don’t need to… it doesn’t impact anything).
Although saying that without sounding incredibly patronising and “desperate” is quite tricky!
Lastly - Starling will not really care (said in the nicest possible way), about people who open and close their accounts quite quickly - and then want to open it again within 12 months.
I see no issue with the policy in general - Both banks do things their own way
I totally agree with you. It does alienate customers.
And I agree that a customer is likely to find another bank in the meantime. In fact you might as well make it a lifetime ban, as a customer is going to setup with another bank and probably feel stigmatised and not want to return.
I don’t get why anyone feels the need to close their starling account?
I agree with Starling’s policy 100% and don’t understand why they would waste time and money opening and closing accounts from people jumping around.
Look at Monzo’s graph at how much customers are costing them depending on situation - it ranges from -26 to -6.
I’m happy Monzo let me reopen, but I would have agreed with them had they not 
Remember, they’re businesses, not mates… 
Monzo is being really nice to those who closed their account but now wish to reopen it. Having said that, I agree with Starling’s policy of 12-month waiting period for returners. This is not a permanent ban but reasonable admin policy to filter out in-out clients who cost them money. Their policy is clearly spelled out to those who decide to close their accounts
I left starling for Monzo when the CASS was made available but my partner stayed with Starling as she didn’t have suitable ID to open a Monzo account. When Starling made joint accounts available I thought I would be able to reopen my starling account for the joint account but was told about the 12 month policy. I think its quite a poor policy while these companies are trying to get as many customers onboard as they can and new features are being added by the day.
Were you told about this policy at the time of closing?
True but I am not sure they want customers who cost them money by opening and closing their account in a short period of time.
I used the CASS with Monzo so didn’t see any details on a closing policy. It would make more sense if they reopened accounts as a one time only deal, that would prevent people who would repeatedly reopen and close accounts.
Starling are within their right to manage client on-boarding in their way. It is not like what they provide is unique. Contrary to that, their new features will probably by replicated very soon by other neo-banks. Try to join other neo-bank and if you are not happy with them and knock on Starling’s door next year 