Revolut & Monzo banks

[PilatesPeach]

Why would someone want to bank with these rather than a high street bank? They seem to offer less services. What is the appeal/attraction?

Monzo are fantastic.

@PilatesPeach

Why would someone want to bank with these rather than a high street bank? They seem to offer less services. What is the appeal/attraction?

You can do everything via the Mobile App which makes them perfect for people without the money to buy seperate devices. The FCA is now forcing banks to be more financially inclusive and a big way of doing this is by stopping them from segregating online vs mobile service especially when you consider that mobile banking is much safer from a hacking perspective

@PilatesPeach the person you are dealing with might have had banking problems as a result of a criminal record, or they dislike ‘real’ banks following restrictions on their original account

A criminal record does not prevent someone from having an account, but time in prison could affect how easy it is to provide all the ID requirements to open an account, they nag have restrictions on account functions such as overdrafts

Monzo was originally a prepaid debit card, but once established and licenced went into proper banking services with a current account

Revolut gives a prepaid debit cards and some other services. They have applied for a fuller banking licence

I have my normal banking with Lloyds, and I do all my banking on their app, but I also have Revolut

I started to use Revolut as an online virtual debit card with disposable card numbers. This allows for internet shopping where I may not have full trust in the source.

I was right - my first purchase was fine and I got what I paid for, but they sneaked in recurring payments which were rejected by Revolut as I had frozen the card and then killed off that card number.

You can get a physical debit card from Revolut at a cost. I didn’t take one, but eventually was offered one free of charge ‘on offer’ so I do have one now

I only use Revolut occasionally which means I transfer in money via the app, unfreeze the car number, make a payment and freeze it.
Ive also used it sometimes if I want to buy something to be delivered to a different address and the website security check doesn’t allow for delivery to anywhere other than the matching card address.

With Revolut I have a virtual debit card and a ‘real’ physical debit card on the same number, plus an additional debit card on a disposable number. I always keep the cards set as frozen until I want to use them

Banks like Monzo, Starling etc are still banks, they're just young banks, so they're regulated by the FCA and will use Ceefas markers too.

You won't necessarily get a Ceefas marker with a theft/fraud conviction and you won't necessarily be refused a bank account with a Ceefas marker.

CIFAs markers apply to fraud convictions and many employers use them to prevent criminals from applying for jobs within the industry for a set period of time. Particularly if you can’t get a criminal conviction (or it’s not worthwhile pursuing one for reputational purposes). My nursery uses them for anyone convicted of fraud / theft - even if it’s just petty cash.

Monzo is a great bank, as PP has said, the app is great and super easy to use, when spending abroad or taking cash out you get a much better rate than other banks.
I pay the £15 a month for the premium account which is definitely worth for me as it gives annual worldwide travel insurance for my whole family and mobile phone insurance as well as more features on the app.

Most banking apps don't let you screenshot the app but many let you share details of a payment you've made.

Even if he can't do this he can contact his bank with the payment details and check whether it has been sent correctly.

Has he definitely used the correct account details for you?

Also get lounge passes with revolut.
Oh and you do need a bank account to fund the account I love the disposable virtual card. That I still have to authorise new payments on the app including repeat charges. The app asks if I'm sure I really want to subscribe to whatever. These give me time to think as I'm an impulse buyer.

And yes freezing and unfreezing is really useful. Ds couldn't find his card when he was on in school, quick tap the card froze. Came home and found it where he left it and the card unfroze. Freeze my card, they can take up to 3 days according to Barclays who just automatically send out a new one.

Not the point of the thread anymore I know but Monzo has absolutely changed our lives - not saying we couldn’t do the things we do with Monzo some other way (multiple savings accounts or another bank with ‘pot’ style accounts tacked into main account) but I just cannot believe the difference it has made to our finances.

Still use main account for all bills but every month put food/spending/fuel money into Monzo and I have pots for every occasion!

That sort of thing very much depends person to person flower.

To me, how you pay and where the money is, where it's coming from is never a factor when deciding whether to buy anything, it's just not a consideration, all these cards and accounts are just payment tools and places to store the money.

This is not because I'm rich btw, it's just because I'm naturally frugal, don't really want anything expensive and aren't constantly thinking 'what can I spend money on'.

I currently have a chip autosave account because there's some sort of cashback deal and it pays 1.25% interest on a limited amount of savings. But I'm thinking of getting rid of it or at least removing the auto save functions because it's an irritating little bugger the way it's constantly shifting my money around and crowing about how it's done saving for me.

But if it hadn't done that, the money would just sit in my current account, it doesn't magic money out of thin air, l still have exactly the same amount of money that I always had, apart from possibly a couple of pence extra interest, just that it's taken it upon itself to shift it around, which to me serves no purpose whatsoever.

Absolutely @BarbaraofSeville! I do think you’re right so the fact that we started a system for our money rather than just not considering what might need to be paid for in a month or years time is what made the difference really and it just so happened to be Monzo we use for that system.

I certainly prefer being able to see at a glance how much money I have allocated to ‘school uniform’ or ‘car insurance’ even though I could obviously just have all of that money lumped together in one account and maybe keep a manual/excel note for how much is technically for each type of expense/purchase. It’s like anything though - whatever works for you! I think Monzo just helped to shake things up for us for the better.

We used to live month to month/week to week and spend pretty much every penny we had every month then have to put larger expenses on credit cards. It wasn’t that we didn’t have money we were just silly and disorganised with it. Things are much easier now!

I transfer over food shopping budget, takeaways and petrol. Its brilliant. Gives me updates on how much is left vs days in the month.

Love it but wouldn't use as main account

Personally I'm with First Direct. Most of my purchases are on a credit card which I pay off each month. I don't see the point in using Monzo etc since they don't offer a credit card. I prefer the protection I get from purchasing using a credit card. Revolut is good for international withdrawals etc when travelling - or the simplicity of pinging somebody some cash so long as you have their mobile number, and they have the revolut app.

I have Revolut and monzo

I use monzo for the joint monthly spends it's allowed to me pay myself and leave my main bank to grow for once in my life

I use revolut to invest. I have 4K saved in investments just on tech companies. And 1k of that is profit already in just 8 months

DD is off to Uni in September and has just converted her Santander young persons account into a student account but has also (last night) applied for a Monzo account.

Her plan is to pay her student loan money into her Santander account each term and then transfer a monthly allowance across to Monzo to so she can setup pots of money to help her manage on a budget.

Sounds sensible to me!

I bank with U Account, part of Modulr. It's a prepayment card. I'd love a High Street bank account but keep getting rejected by them. No debt, no CCJs, no insolvency or bankruptcy.

I have Starling which is basically the same and I love it.
During the first lockdown I moved in with DP and wanted to open a joint account. Despite both of us being life long Lloyds account holders, they told us we couldn’t open a joint account without going into a branch but we couldn’t go into a branch as we weren’t elderly or vulnerable.

So we closed our Lloyds accounts, both opened Starling current accounts and a joint account. It was beyond easy.

In the unlikely event I did ever want to pay in money, I can do it at any post office. Last week I actually needed to pay in a cheque for several thousands so I popped it into the post for free and within two days the money was in my account.

They’re also brilliant for taking abroad where you can just use your card as normal without any fees.

I've been with SMILE internet bank for years now. I also have a Monzo card too. It's so easy to use abroad. Great for when you're using different currencies in 1 trip.

Because Monzo allows me to bank certain savings under different programs. Their interest is higher. They allow pots with transference and I don't need to go to a bank which isn't open when I need them to be

Monzo is great!! Who really goes into a bank these days about a bank account? Everything is on the app and also they pay you a day early

I had a Monzo account, primarily for foreign transactions. When they started charging for these I swapped to Starling which is very similar, including all the pot/spaces things. Nice app and cheaper to use abroad.

I have also had an account with Barclays for years and years and that does the same thing, automatically ensuring that I never go overdrawn and bunging surplus into savings accounts. Their app isn’t as visually slick as Starling’s but functionality is excellent, as is the range of supporting services offered, from mortgages to airport lounge access.