Monzo/Starling Banking/Revolut

Associate
Joined
5 Apr 2004
Posts
1,197
The issue I have with paying from pots is you need to coordinate timings for payments to come out of them.
I have an extremely convoluted sequence of.

I receive salary, DD into bills pot. DD into joint account from bills pot. DD into joint bills pot. Pay from joint bills pot.
Each DD needs a day to clear so I have to schedule bill payments a day after.

It would be great to just be able to automatically split incoming money into pots at the point of receiving and not have to wait a day after to make sure it doesn't try and move it before the money is there.
 

LiE

LiE

Caporegime
Joined
2 Aug 2005
Posts
25,640
Location
Milton Keynes
What’s the point of it? My financial affairs are very simple so makes no difference to me.

It's obviously not going to be a fit for everyone, for me it is a very important feature.

Before moving to Monzo I had a First Direct account where my salary was paid to and all my DD came from. I would transfer the remainder to a joint Nationwide account I share with my wife for daily spending.

I now get paid into the joint Monzo (as does my wife) and I put an amount into the bills pot, savings pot and our personal Monzo accounts. This means the money is ring fenced and whatever is in the joint Monzo is for our shared spending.

It would be impossible to have all the committed bills and daily spending in a single account, you would run the risk of spending money that is allocated to a bill.

Monzo essentially allows me to have fewer accounts. I closed Nationwide and First Direct and just bank with Monzo now. With my old legacy banks I even had to open additional accounts with them to do additional ring fencing or savings which isn't needed with Monzo.

The issue I have with paying from pots is you need to coordinate timings for payments to come out of them.
I have an extremely convoluted sequence of.

I receive salary, DD into bills pot. DD into joint account from bills pot. DD into joint bills pot. Pay from joint bills pot.
Each DD needs a day to clear so I have to schedule bill payments a day after.

It would be great to just be able to automatically split incoming money into pots at the point of receiving and not have to wait a day after to make sure it doesn't try and move it before the money is there.

Are you talking about Monzo bill pots or Starling? Monzo you just select a DD and point it at a point and it takes care of the rest.
 
Soldato
Joined
20 Feb 2004
Posts
21,339
Location
Hondon de las Nieves, Spain
Monzo essentially allows me to have fewer accounts. I closed Nationwide and First Direct and just bank with Monzo now. With my old legacy banks I even had to open additional accounts with them to do additional ring fencing or savings which isn't needed with Monzo.

Might look into this as like you i have multiple actual bank accounts

Joint for Income
Personal for me
Personal for wife
Joint for bills
Savings

It gets very convoluted seeing money being transferred all around!
 

LiE

LiE

Caporegime
Joined
2 Aug 2005
Posts
25,640
Location
Milton Keynes
Might look into this as like you i have multiple actual bank accounts

Joint for Income
Personal for me
Personal for wife
Joint for bills
Savings

It gets very convoluted seeing money being transferred all around!

It does make things easier having a single place to go for all your money. You also get access to other useful features to help manage your money, for example if your DD amount changes Monzo will tell you in advance - "Your Direct Debit for XXXX is £30.00 more than last time, make sure you have enough funds to cover."
 
Associate
Joined
30 Mar 2007
Posts
1,549
Location
Leeds
Anyone used Revolut or Starling in holland? Any problems with either at the usual places like shops, cafe/restaurants etc?

I only ask as I've read that Holland is/was very Maestro orientated and not Mastercard (same company as Maestro) and VISA.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
11 Jun 2015
Posts
11,195
Location
Bristol
I used my Starling and Monzo in Holland and had no issues that I can remember from the top of my head. This was a few years back now though so things may be a bit different now. As long as they accepted card it worked just fine
 
Soldato
Joined
6 Oct 2009
Posts
3,998
Location
London
Anyone used Revolut or Starling in holland? Any problems with either at the usual places like shops, cafe/restaurants etc?

I only ask as I've read that Holland is/was very Maestro orientated and not Mastercard (same company as Maestro) and VISA.

Yeah used Starling there about 6 months ago. I’d say 75% of the places accept it in Amsterdam. It means you should have cash with you.
 

Kol

Kol

Man of Honour
Joined
8 Jan 2003
Posts
14,219
Location
Ashby-de-la-Zouch
The only place I found I couldn’t use Starling or Curve (as they didn’t accept UK cards) is Albert Heijn (supermarket), however the store in the station *does* accept UK cards.

Everywhere aside from that I had no problems.
 

Kol

Kol

Man of Honour
Joined
8 Jan 2003
Posts
14,219
Location
Ashby-de-la-Zouch
I withdrew cash when there, just enough to cover tips and the odd cash only place. Everywhere took card.

No harm (if you’re anxious about it) in withdrawing a bit more if you like the security of having cash. You’ll always spend it at some point in Europe. I quite like raiding my drawer before going away and finding €20-30.
 
Associate
Joined
30 Mar 2007
Posts
1,549
Location
Leeds
I withdrew cash when there, just enough to cover tips and the odd cash only place. Everywhere took card.

No harm (if you’re anxious about it) in withdrawing a bit more if you like the security of having cash. You’ll always spend it at some point in Europe. I quite like raiding my drawer before going away and finding €20-30.

That's true. I found a 10 euro note earlier I didn't remember I had!
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Dec 2007
Posts
10,492
Location
Hants
Monzo in bother?

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technol...s-rise-114m-banking-app-warns-slowing-growth/

Paywall

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Losses at banking start-up Monzo rose to £113.8m from £47.1m in its latest annual report as it said coronavirus disruption had threatened its ability to operate.

The business said in its annual report that "the ability of the Group to continue as a going concern is subject to material uncertainties" following the pandemic.

Monzo's revenues rose to £67.2m from £19.7m in the 12-month period to February.

The amount spent by Monzo customers also rose to £10.9bn, up from £3.6bn the previous year.

However, the business warned that it expects growth to slow in 2020.

"We've seen organic customer growth slow as word-of-mouth drops, and we’ll see reductions in revenues and higher credit losses," co-founder Tom Blomfield wrote in the report.

The business added more than 2.3 million new customers in the past year to bring its total to 4.4 million customers but warned that growth is likely to slow in 2020. It expects to add at least 1 million more customers this year.

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Monzo said in the report that it has chosen to delay some product launches because of the coronavirus pandemic. "We didn't feel they were the right products for our customers at this time," the company wrote.

The start-up's latest annual report comes after the company’s valuation dropped from more than £2bn to around £1.25bn in a June funding round which saw the company raise £60m from investors including Swiss fund Reference Capital and Vanderbilt University.

The start-up made up to 80 of its employees in London redundant this year and also offered to furlough 295 employees. Monzo said in the report that "we're working hard to avoid further redundancies."

Industry experts have warned of a particularly difficult period for many financial technology businesses which have had to scale back ambitious growth plans during the pandemic.

McKinsey predicted that global payments revenues could drop by up to 10pc, a fall of $210bn (£167bn), compared to its pre-pandemic prediction of a growth of 6pc. It said this could have a similar impact to the 10-11pc revenue drop caused by the 2008 financial crisis.

Mr Blomfield, who started the business in 2015, announced in May that he would step down from the chief executive role at the company and move to the newly created role of president.

He has also waived his salary for a year as part of cost-cutting measures announced at the height of the pandemic.

TS Anil, a former Visa executive who was hired as the start-up’s US head last year, is now the company’s global chief executive.

The digital bank applied for a US banking licence in April and relaunched its Monzo Plus premium accounts in July, which offer extra features for £5 per month.
 
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