Trust is the absolute core must have.
Banking/payments etc. are about Tech + Regs.
Tech => nothing is ever up 100% or bug free so I always have a fallback thus donāt need to trust
Regs => the same for everyone
Regs makes me feel safe but tech fails sometimes so I donāt rely 100% on any 1 supplier. Legacy banking tech being much worse and Revolut having let me down only a couple of times on small things (peanuts compared with value they offer), their transactional offer is top of the list for me at the moment.
I have had starling for over a year. Itās excellent. No forex charges when you withdraw money abroad (and unlike the other challengers - there is no limit for that),
I really like their app and all the features to understand your spending habit.
Oh and their 24hr /7days a week customer chat with real people working in the UK is amazing. I prefer it to calling or going into a Bank. Just for that I think itās worth it compared to any of the other banks!
Oh and I forgot they give you interest! I think I get 0.5% for the first Ā£2k and 0.25% after. I know itās not much but itās better than 0 with HSBC!!
Foriegn ATM are still subject to the overall daily withdrawal limit of Ā£300. Obviously much higher then competitors but to say no limit is incorrect.
I have Monzo (daily spending, joint account and a savings pot), Revolut (currency exchange and my travel debit card) and Starling as a backup for my Revolut.
I personally like Monzo and Revolut for what they are, I would never transfer my salary into them, yet.
-
Iām an investor in Monzo however it shows signs of lack of direction and to make money at the expense of client satisfaction. Theyāre trying all sort of random stuff atm with Monzo Plus, get your salary paid a day early into your account, etc.
-
Iāve used Revolut religiously for travelling due to one of the best currency exchanges on the market also to transfer money with international people, seamless.
Also, worth noting, out of all british digital bank only Revolut broke even.
Revolut only broke even during the crypto bubble. Theyāre not profitable now.
Thatās not a Plus feature? Itās available to everyone.
Can you expand?
Based on what? All Iāve heard about is a few sensitive developers crying about work stress. Freetrade continues to trick new comers with their instant buy/sell as default probably despite being one of the most popular change requests for a long time now; but presumably you use FT. Then most major banks will have had some issue at some point
Of course, you could quite easily find something morally dubious with every company. Itās just about identifying whatās important to you and what you think the intentions are behind the decision-making at the company.
In the case of FreeTrade, I do have faith in the people behind the business. The default nature of instant buy/sell button is a pain, but I donāt know enough about it to make a judgement call on why itās that way.
On Revolut, itās not just a matter of āsensitive developers crying about work stressā. First of all, work stress is a serious issue. And itās something that has been brought up several times about Revolut in many departments of the building. I know people first-hand, too, that have applied for jobs there and not continued with the process because of how they were treated during the process and what the work culture was like.
Then thereās the many other negative press articles about Revolut and how theyāve responded to them. This is just one example of many: Revolt at Revolut: how the company tried to silence whistleblowers (and me) | Iona Bain (Young Money)
Iāve met Iona and sheās a decent journalist with the right intentions. Itās not just petty muckraking. I do believe there is a toxic culture at Revolut.
I understand these arenāt issues everyone is concerned about. But, for me, when there are plenty of other decent alternatives, I see no reason to go near them.
So presumably you refuse to use Linux & will never buy a Tesla also. Apple caused many divorces while Jobs was in charge too
I have to say, your argument really only strikes me as whataboutism.
But in answer to it: of course, thereās going to be grey areas when it comes to these kinds of issues, and itās up to the individual to decide what theyāre comfortable doing. Every large company is going to have instances of employees being stressed. Itās sad, but itās true. What matters is whether itās a result of the company culture. In the case of Revolut it seems to me that it is an inherent part of the company culture ā trickling down from the very top.
I have no real interest in cars or operating systems so couldnāt really say whether Iād use Linux or Tesla or not. But in the case of Apple, I am confident that it is not a core part of their company culture.
Steve Jobs was the cause of the divorces by demanding crazy deadline expectations with the first iPhone and no doubt future releases (The Struggle of Building the Original iPhone - The Untold Story - YouTube). If the Revolut CEO takes blame then same with Apple & Tesla. CEOs drive company culture. Also the child labour sweat factories but then if you discard Apple just for this then you basically canāt buy any clothing at all so itās less of an issue
Going back on topic, I hope @BeckyV got her Starling card and enjoys using it on her travels
That is simply not true. I would argue it is the other way around. Unsophisticated people tend to use Revolut as they do not understand you are not offered multiple accounts but one account with multiple ācurrency walletsā. The transactions are also not done at the interbank rate for some currencies and on the weekends (even though TransferWise still offers this).
I think you missed the point. All I did was invert the language of the original list by someone else.
TL;DR @BeckyV
The state of digital banking = Mac vs PC :
āYou can run MacOS ā¦ or Windows on a Macā
āā¦I can do fun stuff like ā¦ pie chartsā
TransferWise doesnāt offer the interbank ever. Every single transaction they take a fixed fee and a % fee. With Revolut for most common currencies you can schedule conversions on weekdays & avoid fees
This is the problem there seems to be a complete lack of understanding around how the interbank rate works. It is an offer rate that exists between two financial instructions. On top of that rate are applied āfeesā. TransferWise applies those fees fairly and transparently whilst always offering the interbank rate (and fast transactions). Revolut, meanwhile, often offers a worse rate to customers (up to a 2% markdown on weekends for some currencies) whilst appearing to be fee free which is borderline mis-selling. With normal transfers with Revolut either you wait long enough for them to profit off of the interest or you pay a monthly fee for instant transfers. Either way the fees are there but just not transparent.