Amazing achievement!
To add Iâm not saying itâs not a great achievement I just hadnât heard of them.
But Monzo won Best Banking AppâŚ
Whatâs that got to do with the age of Monzos customers?
Thatâs 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 Iâd want to be with the best. Iâm not looking to switch, but itâs how I might feel as a consumer looking to switch.
I guess what I really want to know is their judging criteria. Whatâs their scorecard? What would Monzo need to do to become the best bank? Best app is all very well, but itâs a little bit like a wooden spoon award. I expected Monzo to be the best bank 2019.
Itâs a customer led vote (which, considering they won best banking app, is curious that they didnât win best overall bank).
But for me, âbest appâ and âbest bankâ 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 thatâs you, then you can decide if itâs good enough to switch.
I donât think thatâs exactly true⌠everyone has different needs and wants from a bank. Like @nickh says above he doesnât 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) doesnât 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.
Well deserved! Congratulations!
To be fair to @anon35201645, I do see where heâs coming from.
People see âWon best XXXâ and donât really look at the voting criteria or anything else - If they have a mild interest in the subject, they just see whoever is the âbestâ.
You couldnât 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 âbasicâ banking needs), just sent me this⌠You couldnât make it up if you tried!
No I agree that there is a point in what @anon35201645 is saying - someone may see âbestâ 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 isnât a blind âoh they won lets move everything to Starlingâ.
This is possibly the spookiest thing Iâve seen on the forum to date
Obviously NatWest didnât pay enough this time to fudge the votes.
How on earth did they get the Best Banking App in 2018 and 2017??
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 youâll need to click the link which opens a website. A totally pointless hamburger menu with setting up Google Pay and Paym registration that youâll only ever do once if you need it. It still doesnât show pending debits and credits in transactions, you still canât generate a login code and need a physical card reader, you canât pay more than ÂŁ500 (and was ÂŁ250 max not long ago) unless youâve 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.
Quote: To be honest, Iâm disappointed that Monzo didnât win the best bank award. As much as I think they are, Iâm now a curious consumer contemplating switching to Starling.
Just a genuine questionâŚdo you think you think more or less of Monzo before these awards? Personally I wouldnât change company because of how many awards a competitor won.
And yet it remains very very popular. Whatâs âworstâ for you is âgood enoughâ 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 âVote for us!â So they probably did the same this year?
Monzo didnât actively campaign last year, but this year, again if I recall rightly, there was a forum post saying âVote for us!â So somewhere between âno campaigningâ and âStarling-levelâ 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 wouldâve contributed to people not feeling they could vote for Monzo as âBest Bankâ at that point in time. So I can understand how the result panned out as it did.
Well yeah if youâve 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 didnât 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.
Bit intrigued by Starling sweeping up 3 awards tonight
Canât say Iâve been that impressed with their all round package. Best Bank 2 years in a row?
Again, likely because they have better marketing than Monzo? Did, perhaps, Starling alert all their customers and nudge them to vote? I didnât see anything from Monzo (not sure the rules of the competition allow that mind you), but this isnât just down to what is actually better, a âvote by the publicâ rarely is!! coughsbrexitcoughs
Ahhh the old public vote. Sorry I didnât realise that was the format.
Congrats to all involved. Well deserved!
So, 1.5m just a number, how many active customers Monzo have?!