Monzo, Starling, Transferwise or Revolut?

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I'm considering downloading a banking app to use in Europe this year as a back-up to cash and credit cards, not as a replacement for my current account.

These four are in the semi-finals:
Monzo, Starling, Transferwise, Revolut.

Have you used any of them? Good, bad, indifferent? All comments welcome!
 
Monzo is very good, don't know the others. Good transfer rates, no charges, no charges for up to £200 a month cash withdrawals abroad, 3% charge after that, push notifications and very easy to use. The whole family has one, so shoving money around quickly is really simple.
 
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The other advantage of all these cards is that if you want to pay for something and you're not keen on using your main bankcard, what I do is use my banking app to load my Monzo app and use/register the Monzo card, takes seconds. Anything unauthorized then gets bounced or if I need to cancel the card/block it, it's very simple and doesn't overly affect me. I use it for most online payments and app payments.
 

Broadside

Guru
Location
Fleet, Hants
Revolut here, great exchange rates and very easy to use. Transferring cash to other Revolut users is simple, e.g splitting a bill in a bar or restaurant, one person pays and sends the money request to the others.

I got it primarily for the better exchange rates and ability to use the card in local currency without the risk of getting stung by an unknown bank exchange rate.
 

tom73

Guru
Location
Yorkshire
Monzo all the way used it for a trip a few years ago the app is great show every spend instantly. Great for keeping track of spending and setting limits and plenty more.
In fact found it so good it's now mine and Mrs 73 main bank.
 

mcshroom

Bionic Subsonic
I have Revolut & Starling. Revolut is a pre-pay card which works very well but is limited to £200/month free ATM withdrawals. After that they charge 2%. It's very easy to send and receive money in different currencies and you can load in different currencies up front if you choose to. Another limitation is that because it's a pre-pay card, it doesn't work for road tolls or pay-at-pump

Starling is far more a normal current account. I use it as a normal debit card and it works fine. Apparently it doesn't charge for non-sterling transactions, but I haven't actually tried that yet.
 
Wow! Thanks everyone for your informative comments.
 

marinyork

Resting in suspended Animation
Location
Logopolis
Never heard of any of the others so interesting comments, used transferwise for a few years. Only problem with transferwise now is it's £2 charge and the transfers are regimented times and slower than they used to be.
 

mcshroom

Bionic Subsonic
The other handy option with Monzo is via the app you can turn on/off the magnetic strip for when you find chip and pin machine are not an option so best of both able to have it and able to make it secure when you don't.

Same with Revolut. Starling doesn't offer the mag-stripe lock out.

Both of them allow you to turn off contactless, ATM withdrawals and internet transactions. They also have a location based option linked to your phone. Oh and freezing/unfreezing the card altogether in the app.

All the new providers are streets ahead of the big banks with their security features.

One more. Starling works with Garmin Pay which I find useful.
 

tom73

Guru
Location
Yorkshire
Same with Revolut. Starling doesn't offer the mag-stripe lock out.

Both of them allow you to turn off contactless, ATM withdrawals and internet transactions. They also have a location based option linked to your phone. Oh and freezing/unfreezing the card altogether in the app.

All the new providers are streets ahead of the big banks with their security features.

One more. Starling works with Garmin Pay which I find useful.

Agree they are streets ahead not just security but all round customer focused approach new features are coming out all the time. Customer service is 2rd to none reply instantly to problems.
 

marinyork

Resting in suspended Animation
Location
Logopolis
Some research, interesting some of the companies started after I started using transferwise.

Are any of them any good for charity accounts or have features that are useful? Looking for a charity account to move to as current bank is nothing but trouble and won't even allow online banking.
 

tom73

Guru
Location
Yorkshire
Monzo maybe of help contact them and see. They are very good at letting users know about stuff they have planned and a business accounts are coming soon. In fact it's hard to keep up as new stuff is coming out all the time. They also now do joint accounts that can be between anyone which maybe handy. As for features well every mouth the app takes off planned out goings eg direct debits ect so tell you how much you have left each month and based on you spending how long it will last. Every spend how's instantly inc location. Transferring money is simple too With out listing every thing thinking of when Ive had charity accounts Monzo would have made things a whole lot simpler for sure. As it just tacks everything in one simple to see and understand way you can also set spending limits and block a given type of spending. locking to account down with one tap has to be a good feature for sure.
 
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