This whole subject is blown out of proportion in my opinion.
The amount of people who have closed their account, and want to re open it must be minuscule.
Those who say “I’ll never bank with them again” as some sort of threat, isn’t going to make a difference to the policy.
Whether you like it or not, it is what it is.
The only thing they should perhaps make clearer is when people use CASS to move away - it’s unclear if these people are informed of the policy (just like people who open a business account aren’t told they can’t then open a personal account currently).
But we know Starling need to work on their communication in this space, and I see it improving (in general).
I think the logic is that as it is something that costs them money, why do it?
It goes back to the question of “why are people closing their accounts with a very new bank, only to want to re open it later?”
It’s great Monzo have taken that approach, but if you all of a sudden had 100,000 people do it, would you still have that policy (even though it would remain, “the right thing to do”)?
Look at the change of policy on foreign ATM withdrawals, that happened because Monzo never dreamed of reaching the number of customers they reached so quickly.
I’m not saying I fully understand why Starling have gone down the route they have, and sure, transparency helps in situations like this - But at the same time, I fully appreciate their policy, and if it means people have to wait 12 months, so be it.
If that customer never returns, that’s on Starling - But given how many customers are out there, I don’t see it bothering them too much.
One feature I do think is useful is Starling’s live chat feature. Is that something that Monzo has ever considered, or is the focus for Monzo on strengthening the customer service received in app?
As I understand something like that, would take heck of a lot of manpower.
I’m referring to the live chat feature Starling have on their website, where you can speak ‘live’ to somebody for general non-account queries. I was wondering if this is something Monzo has ever considered doing, or if the focus for Monzo is to keep on delivering a top service in app chat.
I’m not sure how Starling have done it, but the most annoying thing I find is these live chats popping up asking if I’d like “help” when browsing. Invariably it’s a disguised sales pitch
Oh, those live chats on shopping websites? I must say the only live chat I genuinely do enjoy (and are well-staffed) is with Three. Their customer service is really excellent and you don’t get disconnected even if you accidentally close or navigate away from the page (something so common on Aliexpress and I loathe it ). Edit: I forgot about Amazon too, but they tend to prefer calling instead
Either that or the live chats always prompt you first if you need help, but if you genuinely do they tell you it’s closed (!!) or that there are no available agents esp MyProtein
GPS (their card processor) has exploded again, so this is probably why. I’d freeze your card in the app just to be safe (it wouldn’t work for legitimate transactions anyway during the outage, but I wouldn’t want such an error to drain the account possibly by replaying previous transactions over and over again).
How do I apply?
Starling is the first bank to allow two people to apply for and create a fully mobile-only joint account
Will this wording make customers see them as some sort of pioneers, and that whenever Monzo launch their joint account, they are just following suit?
I’m not saying that’s the case at all, but how will it look to customers who aren’t a customer of either bank, and are on the lookout for a new account?
The Monzo one went into Beta testing first, Starling launched full first. Neither company could design and release it that quickly to get the jump on the other. Both are banks, both have customers who want joint accounts so the close timing is just coincidental.
I get that fully, and the amount of testing that goes into every new account and feature must be astronomical!. It just seems the wording is a bit off, as it comes of screaming ‘we’re the first’.
). Edit: I forgot about Amazon too, but they tend to prefer calling instead
esp MyProtein
