Monzo/Starling Banking/Revolut

[D3K]

Even in 40% bracket it needs to be declared as income and could see you lose your personal allowance. It's a grey area I'm chancing by not declaring interest but reckon they'll give me a call soon enough.

Just read up on it. So you pay the same rate on your savings interest as your bracket.

Tax on savings interest

You do not pay tax on your savings interest if you're on a low income.

www.gov.uk

Knew this was too good to be true. 4% rates pretty much cut down to 2.4%… had been expecting it to be the same 20% as investments.

It also says there that you don’t have to do self assessment unless it’s over 10k. No idea how you declare otherwise. Guess I’ll let the bank sort it out

 

[Martynt74]

Hmmm maybe i misread as it's still there!

Seems they were just delayed. Can confirm Money Dashboard is now gone.

 

[ChrisD.]

The new Monzo look is terrible, much prefer the old way where it shows your current account.

 

[Lopéz]

Yeah, even if you don't use it much, it's worth just having open for that purpose for me.

I've just opened one with N26, don't think it's available for the UK yet, but it's gaining popularity here in Spain due to the extortionate costs of the main banks. It's a fairly horrifying system compared to the UK, and in many instances seems to just effectively be bribery!
"Oh we're going to charge you X now for your services, but if you invest €10k with us or take out some insurance, we'll waive the fees for 12 months, then come back and extort you again in a years time. Then we'll invite you into branch every 3 months to try another hard sell on something else!

N26 seems very similar to Starling with the various pots etc. I think my plan is to use a combination of N26 and Wise which is getting more and more "banky". It would've been my main choice except it's not FSCS protected.

I have an N26 account in Austria (though you get a German IBAN)

Absolutely no issues, the app is really good and unlike Austrian banks, it's free and I could open it online (again, impossible here)

My card got cloned in a dodgy ATM in Slovakia, and the next day my card details were used to make a cash withdrawal in Jamaica - I submitted a dispute through the app and it was refunded and a new card sent immediately with no questions asked, literally they just responded to say "we're sorting it, thanks bye"

 

[Martynt74]

I have an N26 account in Austria (though you get a German IBAN)

Absolutely no issues, the app is really good and unlike Austrian banks, it's free and I could open it online (again, impossible here)

My card got cloned in a dodgy ATM in Slovakia, and the next day my card details were used to make a cash withdrawal in Jamaica - I submitted a dispute through the app and it was refunded and a new card sent immediately with no questions asked, literally they just responded to say "we're sorting it, thanks bye"

That's great to hear. I've been having some issues getting an actual card delivered, although there could be some issues in that i'm getting it delivered to my mums PO BOX.

 

[dlockers]

N26 was in the UK a while back wasn't it? But exited due to Brexit or something?

Edit: doesn't mention why but am pretty sure it coincided.

N26 The Mobile Bank

With the UK having left the EU at the end of January, we will in due course no longer be able to operate in the UK with our European banking licence.

n26.com

 

[Lopéz]

My work contract says they will specifically only pay salary to a bank account physically located in Austria with an "AT" IBAN - which of course is a completely nonsense requirement.
That sort of thing is rife here though, lots of governmental departments for example will tell you with a completely straight face that they cannot possibly pay in to, or accept payments from, anything other than an Austrian IBAN - but then process it anyway

So I ignored that bit of my contract and just gave them my N26 details and they never questioned it.

 

[robfosters]

The new Monzo look is terrible, much prefer the old way where it shows your current account.

They try to make it look snazzier all the time, but all they ever do is over complicate things

 

[englishpremier]

N26 was in the UK a while back wasn't it? But exited due to Brexit or something?

Edit: doesn't mention why but am pretty sure it coincided.

N26 The Mobile Bank

With the UK having left the EU at the end of January, we will in due course no longer be able to operate in the UK with our European banking licence.

n26.com

Yeah they were in the UK. Don't think the real reason was Brexit though. More that banking in the UK is competitive, and N26 didn't bring anything to the table that we don't already have. Especially as it was more expensive than Starling and Monzo being as it charges for ATM withdrawals once you make a certain amount an charges for things like SEPA instant payments that you get free with Revolut.

N26 also pulled out the US market not long after. Seems to be just focused on consolidating their EU holdings.

 

[Semple]

I used to use money dashboard for years, but at the start of this year ended up just switching my main account to Monzo and getting most of what money dashboard was giving me out of just the native app. I'm assuming the value they provided is now just provided natively by most bank apps.

Yeah since the open banking standard, more accounts can be accessed from a single app. I don't recall them offering much extra really, and people weren't exactly going to pay for something they can pretty much get for free from their own banking apps.

 

[robfosters]

I’ve just noticed that Monzo haven’t raised their rates for current flex card holders at all. New customers are being charged 29% APR now. That’s 10% higher than the original customers.

It raised an eyebrow as every other credit card I hold, have raised interest rates with the base rate. I wonder why Monzo do not do this.

 

[Fubsy]

I know this thread is mainly about the newer fintech bank current accounts, however I have to vent...

Curve have just thrown out an email stating they are increasing the number of retailers you can select (12, up from 6) where you can get 1% cashback for higher tier memberships - I'm currently a fully paid up Metal subscriber until May 2024. Great you think, however:

In this same email they have dropped a MASSIVE bombshell that they are ceasing to provide AXA travel/phone/ticket/hire car insurance from 31 December. So with the price increases and the removal of the primary perk, why bother staying subscribed?

I'm trying to get hold of their awful customer service via the app, as quite frankly I want a refund for the 4 months I'm supposed to have left. They've baited, and switch the product. Without insurance, it has fundamentally changed.

/rant over

Edit: and now deleting all tweets and posts on their Reddit about it. Scumbags.

 

[ChrisD.]

I saw that Monzo are finally going to support paying in cheques via the app. It's the only reason I have a Starling account.

 

[robfosters]

I’ve just noticed that Monzo haven’t raised their rates for current flex card holders at all. New customers are being charged 29% APR now. That’s 10% higher than the original customers.

It raised an eyebrow as every other credit card I hold, have raised interest rates with the base rate. I wonder why Monzo do not do this.

I jinxed it, gone up to 24%

 

[dlockers]

I’ve just noticed that Monzo haven’t raised their rates for current flex card holders at all. New customers are being charged 29% APR now. That’s 10% higher than the original customers.

It raised an eyebrow as every other credit card I hold, have raised interest rates with the base rate. I wonder why Monzo do not do this.

Why are you paying interest?

 

[robfosters]

Why are you paying interest?

I’m not. I pay over 3 months max. I’m just pointing out that Monzo were the only bank that hasn’t raised its CC rates

 

[englishpremier]

Chase is going to allow cash to be paid in via Paypoints according to their latest email. Doubt many here care as who bothers with cash these days, but might be useful to know.

 

[Stu999]

Anyone having an issue with the Starling ‘spending’ tab not updating? It seems to be taking 24 hours-ish for transactions to show up there (but you can see them in the transactions list on the home screen).

 

[engee]

I can confirm that a purchase I made today is not yet on the spending tab, but is on the home screen transactions.
However, I never check this spending tab so don't know if this is new or a common issue.

 

[Stu999]

Customer Services says this a feature not a bug. Apparently only settled transactions show in the Spending tab. I’m sure that wasn’t the case before so seems an odd decision.