Plum, Monzo etc are they trustworthy?

[Sunnydaysaredisppearing]

I need to use something like this but am reluctant to give a 3rd party access to my banking details. How trustworthy are they? I plan to use them and each month move the savings back to my main bank, can you do that?

Ive been using Monzo for a good few years now and have never had any issues at all. They’re as reliable as any other bank, in my experience.

I use it in the exact way as you describe - salary paid into my “main” account and transfer over to Monzo for day to day spending and non-essential direct debits.

That's good to hear. The other option I've just seen is Starling bank.

I use Monzo and it's excellent

I've used starling for years, i love how easy it all is. They are what banking should be in 2024.

Have you fully switched and closed your traditional high street account?

Yep - never any problems they do direct debit switch so it's really easy. You can set up savings pots, an automatic pot to handle all your bills and direct debits and you can round up your change. It also tracks your spending so you can very easily find out what you've spent your money on.

Why would you? You should have more than one bank account, so that if there's a problem with one, you're not left without any access to your money in an instant. As there are many banks offering free accounts with a free card, there seems to me no reason absolutely to 'fully switch'.

I use Chase, and it's excellent. No complaints at all. Like others I get paid into my old high street bank account and all my bills go from there, I transfer my spending money to my Chase account and use that during the month.

I don't know. That's why I'm asking. So if I set up a starling account (or any other current account) would I let them do all the moving of my bills across then on payday deposit enough money to cover them in that account and use my existing account for spending/saving?

This makes sense. I might do this.

So if I set up a starling account (or any other current account) would I let them do all the moving of my bills across then on payday deposit enough money to cover them in that account and use my existing account for spending/saving?

Setting up a new account with any bank doesn't require the moving of any direct debits or any bills. It's just setting up a new account. Where the bills transfer comes in is when you go for some bank account transfer offer, which has some minimum no. of direct debits, and an incentive for you to do so offered by the new bank. Then your bills are transferred and your previous account automatically closed. That's different to just setting up a new account.

Monzo is just a bank like any other and I have always had excellent service from them. They are my main bank and I use them to pay salary into, pay all DDs out of etc. I do have another account but its an old one I haven't really used and should probably close
The only downside I have found with Monzo is that for some reason nobody has ever been able to explain TUI won't accept it on flights, despite other airlines doing so. That would have been fun on a 9 hour flight if DH hadn't got an emergency CC we could use to buy drinks

I haven't closed my high street bank account yet, and I probably wouldn't for a few years but Chase's customer service on the one occasion I needed it was far better than the very traditional high street bank I've used for fifteen years.

I would do it the other way round. Leave your traditional account for salary in, bills out and use Starling or whatever for spending.

Makes it a lot simpler to know how much money you've got that's spendable especially if your DDs are a bit spread throughout the month like mine are.

I moved my banking to Starling a few years ago and it has been excellent. I have a spare current account that I use to move around various high street banks to collect the joining bonuses. I don't use this one otherwise, but like to have a back up. The final straw for me moving fully to Starlling was being unable to open children's accounts for DC with any of our three high street banks. Everything was straightforward with Starling and DH moved to them subsequently as well. DH dabbled in Monzo for a while, but didn't fancy the account fees which were looming for him.

I’ve used Starling for 6/7 years. Love it! So easy, the app is modern, saving spaces are useful, the customer service is great.

I also use Plum for investing and saving in a cash ISA. The app is a bit “busy” but otherwise thing they’re good

I'm another who has a traditional account which has my salary paid into it; out of that I pay essential direct debits and savings, then money is transferred into my Starling account for day to day spends plus budgeting pots (I have savings pots for annual expenses, so car bills, holiday fund, Christmas and birthdays etc). I love my Starling account and have a Euro account with it so that I can transfer money straight into that to spend on holiday using the same card. If there's any left at the end of the money then I sweep it into a separate savings pot.

Love Monzo had it for years. My salary goes into my traditional account and I have an automatic transfer to Monzo and allocate things to pots.

I have accounts with the challenger banks for savings, what do you mean by giving 3rd parties access? None of them have asked for that

You can have as many bank accounts as you want and use them to suit you, it's very old fashioned to only have one imo

I’ve got a Monzo account & a Plum account as well as my main HSBC account.

I have my salary paid into HSBC, all my main direct debits come out of that account, then spends transferred to Monzo and Plum set up to skim bits off as extra savings, Ieave the Plum one mostly alone and use it for holiday spending.

Never had any issues with either Monzo or Plum. I origin got the Monzo to use abroad but now I use it for all my day to day spending.

Monzo is fine but starling is brilliant. Very easy to use and secure.

Out of interest what makes starling secure that the other banks don't have?

I’ve had a Monzo account for a few years, not found anything I dislike, my son also has Monzo, he’s autistic and Monzo is very visual, payments are instantaneous. The switchover from TSB was very quick with no issues.

I have Barclays for bills, and direct debt. Monzo for fun cash and spending abroad.

Starling for me for savings. Very straightforward.