Map with locations of the merchant
Roadmap transparency
Icons missing for transfers
Customer support is fast, both in app and twitter, not quite at Monzo level…
Not a bad app, just a little meh at times…
Also the debit card doesnt do offline transactions at some petrol stations. seems Starling are using an old PrePaid BIN range that has been moved by mastercard, to the debit card range (5574 35), but merchants havent updated their databases, I wonder if Monzo will have the same issue.
I expect Monzo will migrate everyone on to their own debit PANs as they will be the issuer for the current accounts, instead of Wirecard prepaid. Will mean issuing everyone with new cards though - perhaps personalised this time i.e. carrying the cardholder name.
So I have just transferred the remaining balance from my Starling card to my legacy current account. Money was there when I checked thirty minutes later.
The proliferation of new banks, the ease of opening them and the ability to effectively be members of several banks at any one time, is definitely impacting loyalty like never before.
Maybe that’s a good thing. Freeing up customer choice.
It’ll certainly be a head scratcher for banks looking at their customer flow. Dumping a bank with such ease because it’s not quite what the customer thought it was can be partly put down to the similarity within the market place.
And dare I say, the waves of enthusiasm which come from forums such as ours here, where the default approach is a belief we can have it all.
I tried to sign up but they won’t accept my number, I assume because I’m in Taiwan so it’s an unusual dialling code. I say “assume” because their app spits out a generic “server error”, though they did later confirm this to me in an online chat, immediately before disconnecting without giving me the chance to reply.
Reached out to them on Twitter and got a quick reply asking for a DM, but I can’t DM them. I replied to tell them this, and that was a week ago with no reply since.
So it took about 10 minutes to discover that:
Their policies are inferior to Monzo (I signed up for Monzo with my Taiwan number with no issues over a year ago).
Their app is inferior to Monzo (rubbish generic error message instead of telling me they don’t like my number).
Their support is inferior to Monzo (difficult to find the right support channel from outside the app, online chat “hung up” on me, failed to follow up on Twitter).
That ATM limit is ridiculous too. Why do banks forget that the customer’s money is the customer’s money - the bank is simply taking care of it - and should be given ample options for spending/withdrawal as their needs dictate?
“Why dont u just use your card tho?” doesn’t cut it. There are many reasons people use cash and there are reasons people might need to take out cash unexpectedly. The first time you prevent them from doing that, you lose 90% of their goodwill and will not get it back any time soon.
This is a common misconception. When you deposit your money in the bank, you GIVE them the money - you become a creditor to the bank. Due to the magic (or horror, depending upon your point of view) of fractional reserve banking, the bank does not generally have all of its customer’s deposits available at any one time. This is why bank runs occur when people suspect the bank may be going under.
Meh, colloquial terms are colloquial. The point remains that banks that show contempt for their customer’s “right” (actual or implied or imagined) to withdraw their money with relative convenience don’t belong in the modern world.
I have been a Monzo user since January and have been very happy with everything - however I wanted to try out the competition so I didn’t have all my eggs in one basket.
Have used Starling for just over a week. Overall it is just fine. I really appreciate the design and branding - it feels a lot more cohesive than Monzo (maybe its me, but I don’t get why there is a bright Hot Coral card, when the colour hardly used anywhere else and nowhere in the app Also why is the M logo not featured on the card?). Anyway, its just aesthetics - but for brand consistency - for me Starling wins.
Near enough everything else Monzo wins - the payments list makes so much more sense than a hidden list and pie chart - along with the extra details like the map and icons. It is good though that Starling are giving the option of exporting a statement.
I will use it for a little while - but a Monzo current account looks to be the more rounded option.
Agree the maps in Monzo are a big plus particularly now we have upgraded to Google Maps. As for branding the Starling branding is as consistent and corporate as NatWest. The eclectic feel of the Monzo app and shockingly different stand up and be shouted about card still leaves Monzo head and shoulders above the others in differentiation. It never fails to turn heads and every day someone asks where they can get an account, something that happens far less with other competitor cards
There’s little that Starling do that beats Monzo in my view. There is no ability to categorise spend (Android) and transaction information is basic.
I do like that there are different ways to contact support. Live chat or message. Sometimes you don’t want to be stuck waiting for live chat and just need to send something for reply later.
It’s nice too to be able to copy your account number and sort code etc. from the account details screen to be able to paste these into say a payment instruction to another bank. This can eliminate typing errors.
The overdraft is also nice. I was offered a limit within minutes of opening an account with a slider to decide how much I want to use. Quick and easy and at 12% a good rate.
It’s also nice to be able to have your name on the card but not great that you can’t decide what name to show. (You must have your first name and surname on the card).
I’ve been using Starling since the end of last week and - accepting it’s still in beta - my current feeling is that just doesn’t feel that different to other banks.
My sign-up process was interrupted as they needed proof of address (I’ve not long moved) but the app got stuck on a screen telling me that they needed to check a few things. I kept getting notifications about a customer service message, but every time I opened the app I saw the same screen and couldn’t access the message. After a couple of days I contacted them through their website and everything was dealt with swiftly and the account was up and running within an hour.
The card arrived nicely presented. The card features my account number, something that I think I read Monzo current account debit cards won’t have.
But it’s all been a bit underwhelming since then. The current account switching option isn’t available on Android yet (not that I think I’d want to use it), I’ve had some issues setting up payees (got an error message and then tried again to be told payee already exists) and I have one transaction made through an iZettle terminal which seems to change between two retailers, neither of whom are the one where I made the purchase!
I know it’s a work in progress, but they don’t feel open or collaborative in the way that Monzo does. I much prefer the way Monzo goes about its business.
Glad this sort of thing bothers other people too! I have a number of cards and all of them present my name differently. I’ve only ever been asked once how I would like my name to appear on a card… and then they got it wrong!
I know a number of people who don’t use their first name or use a shortened version of it. Forcing people to use a name they don’t like or use really isn’t great customer service. I’m hoping therefore that, within reason Monzo will allow us to choose what name appears on our card when current accounts are launched.
It looks like they have tiered rates on the overdraft, as I was offered an overdraft at 15%, but then I have historic bad credit, which will take a few more years to come off
what happened?
