The Great British Bank Off: What’s in my wallet?
When I began this blog nearly three months ago, it was with the aim of becoming better at managing my money. I mentioned that I wanted to control my spending, start saving, explore investing and generally use whatever apps were available to make my relationship with money healthier.
I’ve definitely had a good go at the first two, and dipped my toe in the world of investment, but I am by no stretch of the imagination at the end of this challenge.
Along the way I have managed to accumulate a scary amount of plastic (and in some cases, metal); the desk on my bedroom is now adorned with close to fifteen different bank cards. Likewise my phone is screaming at me to delete some of the 25 apps I have downloaded and tried out, many of which I have not bothered to write about because frankly, they were shite.
However, by far the biggest question I have been asked over the last month is “so, come on then, which is your favourite”. And it’s taken quite a bit of time, but I think I have an answer.
And that answer is Monzo.
Why Monzo?
I know, I know, I can already tell what many of you are thinking. “Wow. Monzo. Super original. Nice one. Definitely worth writing a seven part blog for that.” And I completely get it. Most of my friends already have a Monzo, and probably have had it for longer than I have. So what is it about Monzo that swayed me over the other cards?
From the offset, I noticed that many of the accounts I was reviewing week by week shared a scarily common set of features. Take away the UI and Monzo, Revolut and Starling are almost indistinguishable: easy peer-to-peer transfers, instant notifications, roundup mechanisms, detailed analytics, separate savings areas, the list goes on. Even the smaller banks like N26 and Monese are not far behind with bringing themselves up to this ‘benchmark’ level of functionality, and when I went to some of the meet-ups for the smaller banks like dozens, they were being asked questions about how important to was to build feature parity with the other challengers.
This made it genuinely really difficult to find the enough of a difference between them to choose which was my favourite.
My choice of Monzo might be disappointing to some, who wanted the outcome of this blog to be me discovering some incredible, not yet mainstream FinTech gem with unreal features and probably some mechanism to print money from your iPhone. After all, everyone has a Monzo. But this was undeniably part of the reason why it’s the best.
Sending money easily is a feature of all the main challenger banks, but no matter how easy they make it, transfer between banks will always take longer than transfers within banks. And since everyone has Monzo (over two million people in the UK now), it becomes so ridiculously easy to send money to my friends.
At the end my choice came down to Monzo or Starling, and I do think that if more people had a Starling my choice here may be different, but alas, tis’ not the case.
The evolution of Monzo
Monzo also has some amazing upcoming features and a strong consumer focus. Whilst Starling seem to be taking more of a swing towards business accounts, recently receiving a £100million grant from the Capability and Innovation Fund to ‘transform banking for small businesses’, Monzo is (so far) 100% committed to it’s B2C model. They have rolled out ‘Interest Savings Pots’, giving users interest on their Monzo pots, and with substantial input from their members, are rolling out a ‘Monzo +’ subscription service, with added benefits and features exclusive to subscribers. With flexible overdrafts, credit cards and additional features to make banking easier being rumoured to be coming soon, the future with Monzo is pretty bloody exciting.
The rest of my toolkit – what’s in my wallet and on my phone?
Alongside my Monzo, I have another range of apps and cards that I use on a daily basis. Also inhabiting my wallet is my Tandem Journey card, my day-to-day / month-to-month credit card. I’m using this whilst I wait for the FinTech credit card scene to mature a little, and whilst I wait for my JAJA card to arrive, as I’ve been on the waitlist for nearly FOUR MONTHS. Sort it out JAJA.
The other card I use every day is my Citymapper card for travel in London. If you live in London and aren’t using Citymapper, you’re 100% doing something wrong. If you’re in zones 1 and 2 and aren’t using the Citymapper card, you’re mad. Full review next week, but it’s sick.
When I go abroad, and this may come as a surprise, I’m currently using Revolut. As a UK current account there are definitely better, but after many conversations with friends I’ve been convinced to give it another go, and it works really well as a currency conversion card. I also bagged myself a 12 month free Metal subscription, so I have a Metal card now. And yes it is awesome.
On my phone is a plethora of new apps. To provide realtime insights on my spending I use Cleo and Emma, and for savings and investment I use Moneybox and Freetrade, all of which I absolutely love. Obviously, I have the apps for Revolut, Tandem and Monzo, but I also use Klarna where possible, and manage the repayments on my phone.
One’s I am keeping my eye on
I have really loved some of the accounts and apps I have tried over the last few months, even if they have not made their way into my wallet. One of the standout accounts for me has been dozens. I am definitely keeping my eye closely on their development over the next year, and once they get a banking licence and bring their app up to feature parity with the other challenger banks, I will be very keen to give them another try. I really loved not only their app, but their vision and the team they have built around it, but in their current state I just don’t quite trust it... Regardless, I would love to revisit them in a few months.
The Future of the Blog
So, that’s it. Armed with an army of new apps and a significantly chunkier wallet, I have conquered my horrible spending habits and achieved complete financial freedom, saving hundreds a month.
Well, not quite. I’m writing this after just selecting my delicious Tesco meal deal for lunch because, despite it being the 23rd May, I have barely £70 left for the month. Obviously my battle with my spending is far from over.
So fear not loyal reader, the end of this mini series does not spell the end of the blog. No, this is only the beginning.
In my backlog of things to review are Curve, Finangel, Nutmeg, Wealthify, Cleo, Plum, Chip, Apple card and many many more. The rate at which I find new things to review seems to consistently outpace the rate at which I actually review things. But c’est la vie.
I also want to step away from the app/bank centric posts and post some more general blogs on my relationship with money and my thoughts on budgeting in general, so stay tuned for those.
Lastly I want to say a big thanks to everyone who has interacted with the blog over the last couple of months, or given me feedback, be it digital or in person. It’s really encouraging to find out how many of you have downloaded apps or changed the way you spend your money based on my crazed half-baked thoughts.
As always, thanks for reading.
