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Topic: Is anyone using Monzo or Starling?  (Read 1687 times)

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Is anyone using Monzo or Starling?
« on: January 11, 2020, 05:02:57 PM »
My job took me to RBS for an account when I first landed. It's painfully difficult. Need a card reader for most larger transactions, and no Touch ID for my phone. Seems geared towards older people!

I signed up for Starling when I first arrived, thinking it would be quite handy for budgeting better and saving...but found quickly that it didn't have a budgeting feature!

I used YNAB in the states to budget, but it directly accessed your bank data, which is illegal? less easy? muddy? over here. Not sure why exactly, but know it doesn't work for full integration, so was left twiddling my thumbs...

So I then tried Monzo...and I have been very pleased!

It has quality budgeting features, "round up" feature (lets you save by putting extra pence into a savings pot), and of course is easy peasy online!

Has anyone tried anything else? Or used these banks? What's your experience been like?


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Re: Is anyone using Monzo or Starling?
« Reply #1 on: January 11, 2020, 07:37:28 PM »
I have a few friends who have been using Revolut for their banking, although I haven't myself. My accounts are with RBS, but honestly I didn't think any of the "legacy" big UK banks were very tech-forward!


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Re: Is anyone using Monzo or Starling?
« Reply #2 on: January 13, 2020, 07:53:58 AM »
I bank with Lloyds and they have all the services you've mentioned, though I don't use all of them so I don't know how good they are.

- Lloyds app has touch ID for the phone.  I do use this, and I like it.

- Assuming it's the same thing as "round up", they offer "Save the Change" service, in which Lloyd's will "work out the amount to the next whole pound and transfer it from your current account to your nominated Lloyds savings account."  I'm not enrolled, because I already have standing orders to move amounts into my savings accounts each month, and I don't actually make very many purchases so it'd be a really slow way for me to save.  But it's a service that is available.

- For budgeting, they offer "Money Manager" for free.  According to their website, Money Manager is a free budgeting tool that lets you "view how you spend your money with easy-to-understand graphs, see most of your spending automatically categorised, and get a better picture of your spending and saving."  I don't use it, either, because I keep a spreadsheet for my budgeting.  Plus, it seems mostly geared toward tracking and categorizing spending, and I primarily spend money on food (and booze, but that's part of my grocery spending)... categorizing is complete!  :)

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Re: Is anyone using Monzo or Starling?
« Reply #3 on: April 02, 2020, 12:42:57 AM »
Big fan of Monzo - from the app, to features, to their company culture :) Revolut have a recent history of pretty shady employment practices.

Another option is a meta money manager - which ties into your accounts (banking & credit cards) via open api's and does budgeting. Popular ones are https://emma-app.com/ or https://www.moneydashboard.com/


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