Why do you have to wait 12 months to reapply?
Itās a Starling business decision.
They donāt want people opening/shutting account quickly whilst they are still relatively young - There is a cost involved each time a customer does this.
Monzo absorbs the cost which is why it doesnāt have the rule.
Thereās no real reason to shut a Starling account, but they could make it a little clearer when you do, that itāll be 12 months before you can re-apply (unless they now show this info).
Personally - Iām OK with the policy. I donāt see why youād need to close an account (a free account), and then want to reopen it within 12 months.
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A post was merged into an existing topic: N26 Feedback
From the N26 Feedback thread:
Interesting. I found this mentioning the tie up with Ditto:
Iām beginning to think that Starling might have actually been very clever.
Build a retail bank because thatās the best way of testing your technology. Pivot to a b2b platform play. Sell the Starling retail customers (and maybe brand?) to RBS (or anyone else with coin). Just need to avoid the ātoo good to say noā offer from a big bankā¦
It also is complementary to Monzoās strategy. Must write those thoughts about Monzo owning the customer and Starling the infrastructureā¦
If this was the plan all along, itās a clever one.
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Iāve kind of given up trying to work out whose doing what and where they are going.
Starling seem to have the tech and partnerships locked down (all the back end stuff that the consumer sees), but the front end customer facing stuff isnāt quite as polished.
One day, it may all come together - Or like you said, it could be farmed out to various partners.
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The penny dropped for me a while ago.
I just canāt work out why Starling bothered with new debit cards. That bit doesnāt fit with the theory.
For me Anne Boden was never not going to have this sort of thing in the back of her mindā¦ itās a different ballgame to a normal worker suddenly getting an idea and making millions from itā¦
Anne has got banking pedigree gained from across Europeā¦ sheās quite clearly a shrewd and clever individualā¦
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I wouldnāt write off the current account. Itās part of the sell, ultimately. The story is more that thereās no great urgency to keep up with user expectations - theyāve already wowed the people they needed to wow. Put yourself in the shoes of HSBC top management. They just launched an updated app, probably cost a dime or two to do, then they take a look at Starlingā¦ Must be plenty of āletās get some of thatā. Hardly going to approach Monzo, right? So whoās competing with Starling in that space?! Revolut? 
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They actually allowed US citizens to open accounts before this date. Canāt remember when exactly but my wife opened an account a while ago.
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Generally I am not sure that doing something against the published terms and conditions can count as āallowedā 
No one is obliged to enforce a contract. They would also have trouble is theyād implied they would accept a US citizen
Like this
https://www.starlingbank.com/blog/platformification-of-banking-industry/
Could have done with a decent proofreaderā¦
TL;DR Can someone summarize this please?
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Monzo > Starling (mostly)
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Wow. It absolutely needs one. That was a painful assault on the English language. And why did she explain some acronyms and not others?
And there we were talking about engagement and panache in language, but I suspect both Fry and Humphreys would be appalled by that article.
It seems they need you @hashbridge
Donāt they say when all youve got in response to debate is to attack spelling/grammer, youve got nothingā¦ 
This thread is so petty, but itās amazing to read.
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Clearly an article designed, as much as anything, to rally the troops. Other than the language used though, is there anything to discuss within the content?
Is it me, or are Monzo and Starling increasingly becoming very different propositions?
Itās not been long since I moved on, but in that time Starling seem to have become even more detached from personal banking in favour of the ābigger pictureā (whatever that might be).
(Forgive any split infinitives - Iāve never understood them anywayā¦)
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I think youāre right. Starling are increasingly chasing the back end and Monzo the customer.
Though the way the article is written makes me doubt that it was the plan all along. Iām meant to understand this sort of stuff but it left me a bit confused. 
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It was not so much spelling and grammar as the fact that this is clearly āinsider speakā. That says a lot about where Starling is going. How much of this is going to get a current account holder interested?