For the past few months i've been using both monzo and starling and i've been really impressed with both banks while they do share some similarities they also have a lot of differences which can make choosing one or the other quite challenging so if you're currently thinking about banking with either monzo or starling but you still haven't made.
Up your mind i hope through this video i can help you make your decision also for this video we'll only be comparing starling and monzo's free accounts and to help you make your decision i've come up with these 10 categories that i feel contain qualities and features that you would choose when considering your bank within each category i've done my best.
To research and accumulate as much information that i can share and compare with you of course some of these categories might not be important to you so do feel free to use the chapters below to navigate through the video this feels like an appropriate place to begin because for both companies their phone apps are at the core of their.
Business and as you would expect both apps function really well they're responsive easy to navigate and well designed they also offer light and dark modes face id to unlock and even customizable app icons styling bank uses a more traditional design one that could be described as simple and sophisticated while monzo has.
More color and character you could easily draw similarities with the design of their apps and the perception of their brands but we're going to talk more about that later starlings app does feel a little bare and minimalist to me however because of this i find it's easier to navigate also unlike monzo it does have its own marketplace where you.
Can link third-party apps to your styling app and this will give you greater benefits and includes insurance cashback on purchases investments an app that consolidates your pensions and even one for improving credit score while monzo doesn't have a marketplace through their free and paid accounts you can still get some of the benefits the.
Starting marketplace can provide that said as this category is more geared towards design and the user experience of their apps rather than products and features i'm gonna give this one to monzo i mean this is entirely subjective and it's just my personal opinion but i do find the app is more pleasant to look at and more modern.
a big thing that attracts customers to both starling and monzo are their great money-saving features monzo has a product called saving pots while styling have their saving spaces they're like having a separate balance not quite an account but instead a place where you can set aside money from your.
Main balance so you can save it and avoid the temptation of spending it both monzo and styling allow you to set a custom name for your saving balance as well as an image with both banks you can also set up direct debits and standing orders from your saving balances this can be a great way to ensure you always have enough funds set aside for.
Important payments they also come with a roundup feature that allows you to round up each payment you make to the nearest pound and deposit the difference for example if you jumped on the bus and your fare was say one pound 90 that payment would then be rounded up to two pounds and ten pence would be deposited into your saving balance with styling.
You can reach your target faster by applying a multiplier of times one times two times five and times ten monza also offers this through their advanced roundup feature however that's only available to monzo paid accounts also any money you hold in a styling saving space contributes towards the interest your account earns.
So you'll earn point zero five percent on balances up to eighty five thousand pounds between both your main account and any savings spaces with monzo you can earn interest on your saving pots through third-party banks such as paragon and oak north although free account holders cannot earn interest on their balances you can however right now.
Earn up to 1.16 with oak north on a long term saving pot you just have to deposit 500 pounds and not withdraw for 12 months and unlike styling they have a number of other saving products available with interest ranging from 0.11 all the way to 1.16 with that in mind i'm going to give this.
One to monzo i think if you're serious about utilizing their saving pots and not just looking to earn a little bit of interest on your main balance then they are the better choice they also allow you to have as many as 20 pots while i believe starling is capped at six savings spaces while both companies allow cash and.
Check deposits it's quite clear which one is the best for checks starling has a far better option through their app you can simply snap a photo and upload up to four checks per week as long as they're below 500 pounds and don't bounce the money should be available in your account the next working day with monzo you have to post your check to.
Them which could potentially incur a cost if you want to send it recorded although they do have a free post option monzo will notify you when they start processing the check and it'll take up to three to four weeks to see the money in your account that's not great for styling from march this year you can deposit up to 5 000 pounds in cash per.
Year your first 1 000 pounds is fee free and once you exceed that amount you'll be charged a 0.7 fee with monzo you can deposit money at any of the 28 000 paypoint locations across the uk for a fee of one pound you can deposit between five and three hundred pounds in one go and a maximum of a thousand pounds every six months.
Now there are around eleven thousand four hundred post office branches in the uk and that's sixteen thousand four hundred less locations than paypoint so it's very possible that a paypoint location may be closer to you so therefore monzo will be more convenient for cash deposits however with the six month limit of a thousand pounds.
Combined with the fact that monzo free account holders always have to pay to deposit cash starling is the clear winner here spending analytics can be great especially if you're someone that's serious about money management and both starling and monzo do this wonderfully both banks will notify you when.
Transactions are completed and this can include phone and watch notifications they also have spending categories which are automated but can also be edited and applied manually and they're a great way to see how much you're spending within the various areas of your life with styling you're able to segment your payments into categories and merchants.
Monzo doesn't offer this and besides that there isn't a huge difference between the two companies at least not when it comes to monzo's free accounts their plus and premium accounts do have some cool features for example you can integrate external bank accounts and credit cards with your monzo account so you get full visibility over your.
Finances and spending this is a great feature but it's not free and that's why we've got to give this category to starling although both banks are pretty good at this starling wins the category because they allow you to segment payments between either your various spending categories or merchants.
If you would draw more than 250 pounds in 30 days within the uk monzo will charge a three percent fee there's also a daily atm withdrawal limit of 400 pounds and a monthly limit of 5 500 pounds although monzo says depending on how you use your account you may be able to get greater allowances this includes if you pay in at least 500.
Pounds every 35 days and have at least one active direct debit styling allows you to withdraw money up to six times per day and has a daily limit of 300 pounds and never charges a fee and unless you need that extra hundred pound limit per day the fact starling never charges a fee for withdrawals means they win this category.
Traditional banks not only charge fees for you to spend your money abroad but they also hide fees by giving you a poor exchange rate so they can further profit from your spending fortunately neither monzo nor starling do this and they're both pretty great when it comes to spending money abroad with both banks you'll never be charged a fee for.
International transactions and you'll always receive mastercard's exchange rates which are more or less on par with the real mid market exchange rate when it comes to withdrawing money abroad monzo can charge a fee and depending on where you are in the world this will vary along with the maximum amount you can withdraw styling on the other hand.
Never charges your fee and you can withdraw up to 300 pounds per day if you want to send money internationally both starling and monzo offer this monzo has teamed up with wise who have a fantastic reputation when it comes to money transfer and only ever offer the real mid market exchange rate and charge just a small fee per transaction with styling.
You will also only ever receive the real market exchange rate which should be practically the same as monzo and wise i compared them and i found that if i was to send a thousand euros with monzo and styling the prices were pretty similar although depending on the delivery option styling could potentially be cheaper but because there are so many.
Factors that can influence the cost of sending money abroad i highly recommend you visit monito.com and use our comparison engine all you need to do is enter your transfer details and we'll quickly tell you who the cheapest fastest and best provider is it's free and it will only take a minute and it's likely to save you some money.
I can't give a clear winner for sending money internationally neither can i say who's the best for spending internationally however for atm withdrawals stalin are the clear winner as they never charge you for withdrawing your money abroad remember how i mentioned earlier that.
Depending on how you use your monzo account you may get greater fee-free atm withdrawal limits well the same thing applies to card replacement fees monzo says depending on how you use your account you may get replacement cards for free for me though i don't have this option and it will cost me five pounds to replace my card with styling you can.
Always get one free replacement card per year and after that it's five pounds per card for that reason i have to award this category to starling with monzo if you're eligible you can borrow up to 1 000 pounds and depending on your credit score interest rates vary between 19 29 and 39 ear this amount of interest is what you'll.
Be charged across a year if your accounts overdrawn styling offers interest rates of 15 25 and 35 ear and has a maximum overdraft limit of 5 000 pounds both banks have handy overdraft calculators that allow you to get a pretty good indication of how much you might have to pay depending on the interest rate and.
The amount you borrow although their interest rates are relatively similar starlings can be as low as 15 and with them you can borrow up to 5 000 pounds so with that in mind starling is the winner of this category for this category i've just accumulated their ratings on trustpilot as well as the apple and google play app stores.
As you can see trustpilot is weighted slightly in favor of monzo with a ranking of 4.5 while on the apple app store both companies have a 4.9 out of 5 and on the google play store styling has a 4.8 and monzo are 4.7 so their ratings are practically identical both companies have accumulated some impressively.
Positive reviews although monzo does have a slightly higher rating on trustpilot so i'm going to give this category to them the financial performances of these companies and how that affects you is important but because they're both fscs protected as long as you deposit less.
Than 85 000 pounds your money will always be safe now there has been some skepticism recently surrounding monzo in their last annual report they declared losses of over 130 million pounds and people are speculating whether they will be able to continue under such heavy losses although their ceo has made it clear that this year they're on course.
For becoming profitable styling on the other hand are profitable although they've been in business for a year longer so perhaps you could forgive monzo for not yet getting there and if monzo can find profitability they could potentially perform better they have over 5 million customer accounts while styling has just over 2 million monzo is.
Also heavily investing in the success of their paid accounts which now have over 200 000 customers and if they continue to grow they'll certainly contribute to helping them becoming profitable financial reporting aside monzo in my opinion has a cooler and more unique brand identity for me styling has more of a traditional.
And minimalist feel to it and that's probably testament to their success styling has the feel of comfort you get with a traditional bank while providing all the benefits of a pioneering and innovative digital bank that said unlike monzo they aren't as quick to adopt in-app changes and features monzo has garnered a great reputation for.
Listening to their community and consistently bringing out new and useful features and that's why for this category i'm going to give it to monzo i don't intend to deposit more than 85 000 pounds so i'm not concerned by their financial results and i do love their willingness to change and listen to the feedback of.
Their customers in the end starling won today's comparison six to four and when it comes to free accounts in my opinion styling does have the better offering the outcome of today's video may have also been very different if we were to compare starling with monzo plus or premium these paid accounts do come with.
Some really cool features that styling does not offer and if you want to find out more about those just click here and check out the full review i made on monzo let me know in the comment section as well if you already bank with either monzo styling and what you think of them as i'd really love to hear your feedback.
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