Monzo/Starling Banking/Revolut

Snookums said:
Is it worth getting one of these cards purely for travel purposes? Say 2 or 3 times a year?
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That's pretty much what I use my Revolut card for. That and the odd quick bank transfer as it's my much easier to do this with their app rather than NatWests which wants you to use a card reader.
 
randomshenans said:
Main thing is something easy for customers (it's wife's cake business, she's scaling up and also offering day courses decorating cakes) so potential CC acceptance would be good, and a good backend for breaking invoices/ spends/ etc down would be good.
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This isn't really what a business account does. Sounds like you need a proper invoice/billing app like Quickbooks.

My wife accepts payments using iZettle.

Edit:

Looking at iZettle features you may be able to use that for everything

  • Take card payments and record sales
  • Create a product library and track inventory
  • Get sales reports and analytics
  • Deposits within 1-2 working days
  • Send invoices and pay 2.5% per paid one
 
Snookums said:
Thanks for the reply? Which is most suitable or are they all much the same? I was thinking of the Revolut
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Revolut don’t have NFC support in Apple Pay/Android pay at the moment so I don’t like it, it means carrying an extra card in my wallet and technically they are not a bank, at least not yet, they just got their licence and in the middle of switching their structure over.

Monzo or Starling for me, I’ve not tried Curve.
 
I've got (had) Revolut, Starling and Curve.

Curve was the first one I signed up with, it isn't a bank, it's simply a layer above your cards which you add to the app. You then pay with Curve and while abroad no FX fees and the mastercard rate. You can 'go back in time' too so if you accidentally use Curve and you've got your debit card selected, you can go into the transaction and switch it, to your credit card. Of course, you lose all CC protection when paying with Curve as it's effectively a debit card. My initial use case was that Curve used to allow you to use amex. As a result of the Curve card being a mastercard debit, you could then naturally pay where amex wasn't accepted. This was removed a few months after they (presumably) used up all of the investors cash by paying the additional merchant fees. They are currently testing amex integration again, but it's slightly different in that a. it's only for a small pool of beta testers and b. it's actually in the guise of a top up, where you top up your curve card ~£200/month max or something like that and can spend that money.

Starling is now my bank, I switched from santander to them. As above, no FX fees, mastercard rate, their app is great and really clean/easy to use. There's no benefit in having both Monzo or Starling (it's no different to having say an HSBC account and santander account), it's whichever you prefer. I prefer Starling because until recently Monzo was a pre-pay (i.e. you topped it up), unlike Starling which is simply a bank, though naturally that has changed now I believe Monzo has a banking licence, too.

Revolut I don't use, but it's handy to keep as it's also now a full on bank backed the FSCS, which also allows you to store money in a variety of currencies. It's useful, I suppose, as if someone wants to send me EUR I can give them the details of my revolut EUR account and there are no fees/conversions etc.


My use case nowadays is:

- amex where accepted (for cashback)
- when amex not accepted > starling
- when abroad > curve followed by starling as whilst both provide the same, I can use curve to put all my purchases on my non-amex cc
 
I think going forward I am going to use Starling mainly. Last night I set up a business account with Starling so I now have a current and business account with them. This is more to do with tracking income from business as opposed to spending as I will continue to use my Amex for that.
 
If it's for foreign transactions, Starling has to be the pick, surely? No limits on foreign use, unlike Monzo.

I've got both, largely because I use Monzo as my main bank but wanted the option of withdrawing extra cash if I needed to when abroad. Should probably just move to Starling completely TBH.
 
I've been using Starling joint account with my wife as our day to day spending card and it works really well. I do wish they would allow you to change the date range for the overview. Our month runs 24th - 25th so it's not possible to get a true snapshot of our spending in a "month".

I like the new card design, which I have for my personal account with Starling. I love how they keep adding nice little improvements, they really are pushing forward. I still have a joint Nationwide account we use for our fix outgoings.

Also recently started using spaces to act as budgets. So I'll create a pot for groceries, petrol, etc and move money into those on pay day. I can then see easily how much is left in each pot and I'll just draw down from those pots as I spend against them. Really useful, means I can look at my balance and get a truer figure. Previously it would look like I had more than I thought due to petrol and groceries being mixed in.
 
^ yes, the spaces idea is great. I currently use one of those for a rainy day fund and have it set to round up twice the difference when spending.
 
String said:
What happens with a fraudulent transaction with Starling, do they react the same as a "normal" bank?
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They are a normal bank (licensed and regulated), they are just app based. A bit like when First Direct launched being only online. Their banking licence is from the FCA.

So in relation to fraudulent payments, you're covered.
 
Cannot wait for a starling credit card, would make my business expense claims far easier.

I love my starling debit account. To the poster who wanted starling credit cards so he could classify different transactions as most were on his credit card.....use yolt (see appstore)

Shows you spending patterns just like starling across lots of accounts including bricks and mortar such as hsbc stc
 
When starling do OFX downloads i would consider a move to Starling its very smooth, its the only thing keeping me from a full switch tbh.
 
da_mic_1530 said:
Cannot wait for a starling credit card, would make my business expense claims far easier.

I love my starling debit account. To the poster who wanted starling credit cards so he could classify different transactions as most were on his credit card.....use yolt (see appstore)

Shows you spending patterns just like starling across lots of accounts including bricks and mortar such as hsbc stc
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Amazing - thanks mate.
 
How does the joint account work? I've got the wife to download the app and she's had to setup her own account. When we do the joint account through the app, will it merge our accounts or create a third joint account?
 
String said:
How does the joint account work? I've got the wife to download the app and she's had to setup her own account. When we do the joint account through the app, will it merge our accounts or create a third joint account?
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3rd account you both see in in the app. You will then be able to click on your profile pic (top left) and it will display the various accounts you have.
 
da_mic_1530 said:
Cannot wait for a starling credit card, would make my business expense claims far easier.

I love my starling debit account. To the poster who wanted starling credit cards so he could classify different transactions as most were on his credit card.....use yolt (see appstore)

Shows you spending patterns just like starling across lots of accounts including bricks and mortar such as hsbc stc
Click to expand...

Is this another one of these services where a 3rd party can access all your financial data? I am really unsure about these.
 
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