Agreed. Sadly it really seems that people (including myself!) nowadays can’t [do thing] anymore, unless they have an app/gadget that tells them how to [do thing].
true it seems like unless an app does x y or z for me I cant do it myself, both Starling and Monzo are starting to address this to what ever extent that you want to use it for i.e. Market place, targets, goals, pots.
For me both of these challenger banks are starting to give me the ability to have control of one of the most important aspects to my life - peace of mind over my finances , more control and understanding of what I spend , where I spend and how often I spend it - previously Ive been on holiday with Lloyds - spent and waited for the monthly account statement to see how much my holiday cost - same with my Halifax Clarity card, before Monzo (for me personally) and Starling, banks had little incentive to let people have an insight into their spending habits.
Now I know my income for the year, I know my expenditure for the year with the touch of a couple of buttons, I know how much I spend at the pub, on fuel, on eating out and can adjust any / most if I need to because Im going over my budget - good result for my financial control in my life
There is enough space for both these banks to succeed and prosper whilst helping their customers like no other bank previously
Yep definitely. It’s a shame some people want the exact same features from both products where as in reality both products should coexist and serve a slightly different market; it’s also good to have alternatives in case someone had a bad experience with either of them (and so trust has been broken) and needs another good fintech alternative.
Have just been doing some work on my accounts, and this has highlighted to me a key reason I’m not as keen on Starling. It’s easy to quote the ‘features’ that Starling has that Monzo doesn’t, but for my day-to-day spending and banking they’re not relevant (not that something like European payments couldn’t be useful at some point, but this is something I’ve only done once in my whole life). But I find the Starling app not well thought through in terms of the workflow, and it is a huge hassle for certain actions. In particular, today:
For every statement I want to download, I have to enter my password. Then, I get another screen I have to tap, then I have to tap a confirmation, and only then do I get the share sheet to export the statement. That’s three screens, one requiring a password. Very tedious.
Compounding this, I can only download statements one month at a time.
There’s no way to export a CSV file of all my transactions or even a date range. Again, one month at a time, requiring a password and three taps to get to the export box each time.
There’s no search function! Can this really be true?? Maybe I’m missing something?
When I compare this with the experience with Monzo, it’s crazy. Two taps and I had a CSV export of all my transactions. I can search my transaction feed. And while it’s irritating that statements have to be exported one month at a time on Monzo, at least that is a one tap action with no password. Far, far smoother. This is the problem I have with Starling. I don’t feel their app is very well thought through, and for managing finances it’s not very functional.
Agreed, Monzo’s statement naming is nonsensical! To bring it back to Starling, also agree with your comment in the other thread that Starling almost gets this right, but should use a date format that sorts properly (e.g. StarlingStatement_2018-03).
For physical purchases whilst away on business, I prefer Monzo. Makes tracking expenses and storing receipts easier (I have a lot of it automated using the API).
I think Monzo have had this from the beginning of Monzo.me, so not it’s an issue. If anything, I’m surprised Starling didn’t launch “Settle Up” with Apple Pay support, I assumed they had.
care to divulge!?