We just won "Best Banking App" at the British Bank Awards 2019 🎉

Amazing achievement!

To add I’m not saying it’s not a great achievement I just hadn’t heard of them.

But Monzo won Best Banking App… :thinking:

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What’s that got to do with the age of Monzos customers?

That’s the whole point of awards, to enable consumers to know what the best services are. This awards ceremony has suggested Starling is the best, so naturally I’d want to be with the best. I’m not looking to switch, but it’s how I might feel as a consumer looking to switch.

I guess what I really want to know is their judging criteria. What’s their scorecard? What would Monzo need to do to become the best bank? Best app is all very well, but it’s a little bit like a wooden spoon award. I expected Monzo to be the best bank 2019.

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It’s a customer led vote (which, considering they won best banking app, is curious that they didn’t win best overall bank).

But for me, “best app” and “best bank” are almost one and the same thing (for my personal circumstances).

No need for overdrafts, business accounts, loans, marketplaces or anything else.

For my needs, the best bank for me IS the best banking app.

That being said, you should open a Starling account and compare - I have both, and I prefer the UI of Monzo.

I know lots of people who prefer the UI of Starling, and if that’s you, then you can decide if it’s good enough to switch.

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I don’t think that’s exactly true… everyone has different needs and wants from a bank. Like @nickh says above he doesn’t need an overdraft/ loan etc so for him Monzo may be the better fit.

Again not true for everyone - Monzo may do something better than Starling that you would prefer to have - just because something is voted the best (by customers) doesn’t mean it actually is.

Congratulations to Starling no doubt - it shows what a force to be reckoned with fintech/challengers are but I would take things like this with a pinch of salt.

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Well deserved! Congratulations! :slight_smile:

To be fair to @anon35201645, I do see where he’s coming from.

People see “Won best XXX” and don’t really look at the voting criteria or anything else - If they have a mild interest in the subject, they just see whoever is the “best”.

You couldn’t have timed this any better, but one of my friends who has a vague interest in the banks (used to have Starling, uses Monzo for most of his stuff, but again, not a huge amount outside of the “basic” banking needs), just sent me this… You couldn’t make it up if you tried!

45

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No I agree that there is a point in what @anon35201645 is saying - someone may see “best” and think they should move there.

But, to play devils advocate, your friend asked you, granted he was persuaded to ask you due to the awards but it isn’t a blind “oh they won lets move everything to Starling”.

This is possibly the spookiest thing I’ve seen on the forum to date :rofl::ghost::ghost:

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Obviously NatWest didn’t pay enough this time to fudge the votes. :thinking:

How on earth did they get the Best Banking App in 2018 and 2017?? :man_shrugging: :exploding_head:

Its one the worst banking apps out there, and I know as I have a NatWest Rewards account.
A lot of the functions just open the website from within the app, want to check rewards? nope you’ll need to click the link which opens a website. A totally pointless hamburger menu with setting up Google Pay and Paym registration that you’ll only ever do once if you need it. It still doesn’t show pending debits and credits in transactions, you still can’t generate a login code and need a physical card reader, you can’t pay more than £500 (and was £250 max not long ago) unless you’ve already paid by using the card reader. The Help Message Us function is awful and disconnects, fails to send randomly or just crashes the app entirely. :nauseated_face:

Quote: To be honest, I’m disappointed that Monzo didn’t win the best bank award. As much as I think they are, I’m now a curious consumer contemplating switching to Starling.

Just a genuine question…do you think you think more or less of Monzo before these awards? Personally I wouldn’t change company because of how many awards a competitor won.

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And yet it remains very very popular. What’s ‘worst’ for you is ‘good enough’ for many? Sure the bar is low and Monzo et al are raising it but we are still a few years from apps like Monzo being seen as benchmark by the masses.

If I recall rightly, this is the award where last year Starling contacted all their customers and said “Vote for us!” So they probably did the same this year?

Monzo didn’t actively campaign last year, but this year, again if I recall rightly, there was a forum post saying “Vote for us!” So somewhere between ‘no campaigning’ and ‘Starling-level’ campaigning.

And finally, if all my recollection to date so far is correct, the voting was also happening at the time that Monzo were having those long delays with customer service, which would’ve contributed to people not feeling they could vote for Monzo as ‘Best Bank’ at that point in time. So I can understand how the result panned out as it did.

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Well yeah if you’ve not tried anything to compare it to its going to feel like the best app, ranked one out of one.

Clearly both Starling and Monzo had better apps than NatWest in those years, but not people voting. You had better apps from other legacy banks was my issue. Like why didn’t Barclays or First Direct get that, seems such an odd award for NatWest to have won. Who were these people voting? I want names!

Not discrediting Monzos award and achievement but my left toe is a better banking app than NatWests. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Bit intrigued by Starling sweeping up 3 awards tonight :face_with_monocle:

Can’t say I’ve been that impressed with their all round package. Best Bank 2 years in a row?

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Again, likely because they have better marketing than Monzo? Did, perhaps, Starling alert all their customers and nudge them to vote? I didn’t see anything from Monzo (not sure the rules of the competition allow that mind you), but this isn’t just down to what is actually better, a ‘vote by the public’ rarely is!! coughsbrexitcoughs

Ahhh the old public vote. Sorry I didn’t realise that was the format.

Congrats to all involved. Well deserved! :partying_face:

So, 1.5m just a number, how many active customers Monzo have?!

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