I first chose Monzo in circa 2018, basically everyone in the office had a hot coral card and I wanted in. I also opened a starling account this time because I found the Monzo app at that time, ahem, cluttered.
I went all the way and closed everting bar my old school NatWest account until around 2020 and got cold feet, going to NatWest. Then Monzo, then HSBC and really happy with HSBC now.
I will be forever grateful for Monzo. Instant notifications and real time balance really helped me get on top of my spending and urges to buy things that I didn’t really need.
I might’ve still been with them now (and technically am, I have a dormant account) but honestly the new app design is way, way too cluttered and the packaged accounts I think are top dollar price, bottom dollar content (for me). I’m sure others find them very valuable.
I might’ve not come back to Monzo (at the time) if they’d stayed. I also forgot to mention, has Chase been around at the same time it’s highly likely I’d have never come back to Monzo.
Left First Direct because I got fedup with their security system at the time, I was stuck in a never ending ‘change your password’ loop as I recall, drove me insane - shame, cos otherwise they were great. For no particular reason, I have a dislike of all the olde worlde, traditional banks. I was taken by the ease of use, very ‘real-time’ nature of Monzo. I also like the fact they are fast moving, and update the service a lot in response to the user bases ideas, and seem quite ‘cutting edge’. I never imagined it would introduce me to a whole world of banking nerds on a forum, that was an unexpected “bonus”
