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Byron Mühlberg
Guide
By offering low fees, easy application, and convenient web and mobile apps, online banks have risen rapidly in prominence across the UK in recent years, going even so far as to challenge traditional banks for a new tech-savvy generation of customers.
In 2022 — as both the popularity and the market share of the UK's online banks continue to rise — you might find yourself wondering which of the many options available offers the best comprehensive service to suit your needs. In this guide, we whittle down the top online banks in the UK fintech scene to the prominent contenders and explore which one might make sense for you.
We think Revolut is the best personal finance app in the UK overall to use next to (not in place of) a main bank account, and Starling Bank is the best if you're looking for an all-online primary bank account. Both offer extremely low fees, savvy mobile-first service, and outstanding track records.
✨ Get three months of free Revolut Premium as a Monito reader with our exclusive link when upgrading within 72 hours from account opening (valid until 31 December 2023, T&Cs apply.)
To determine which online banks scored better than others within the UK market, we used a consumer-first framework to analyse several vital factors. To begin, we weighed several concrete metrics relating to factors such as fees and rates, ease of use, credibility, service and coverage, transparency, and customer satisfaction to piece together a reliable all-around picture of which top digital banks offer the savviest solutions to UK residents.
Next, we explored these results and presented our findings in the form of a series of key takeaways that we believe you should know about the three digital banks ranked highest.
In our definition of "online bank," we only consider online-first banks and not traditional legacy banks that have pivoted to digital banking in recent years while still maintaining a brick-and-mortar infrastructure.
While we ranked these online banks on an overall list, remember that this list does not mean that our choice for the UK's best digital bank is necessarily the best choice for you. As you'll see, each online bank has its unique set of pros and cons that may impact its overall relevance to you.
Without further ado, let's go through our rankings for the best online banks in the UK in 2022 —
| 👥 No. of customers | Approx. 20 million |
|---|---|
| 🔎 No. reviewed on Monito | 8 (compared below) |
| 💸 Average monthly fee | £0.00 |
| 🏆 Best overall | |
| 📶 Largest app (customers) |
|
| 📶 Largest app (revenue) |
|
Starling Bank is a fully-authorised bank in the UK that's well known for its fee-free current account. In fact, because this account is entirely free and gives you access to an impressively complete range of financial services (including overdraft facilities, loans, joint accounts, youth cards, pensions, Euro and US dollar accounts, interest, etc.), we think Starling offers the best online bank in the UK — one we recommend as a complete replacement for an account at a high-street bank.
UK-based digital-only Starling Bank was founded by Anne Boden in 2014 and has gone from strength to strength in its bid to shake up the banking sector. Determined to embrace the sector’s technological changes, the neobank received its UK banking licence in 2016 and launched the UK’s first mobile-only current account in 2017.
When it comes to the accounts on offer, Starling Bank is a bit of an all-rounder. As well as offering personal and joint accounts for adults, customers can also choose from a debit card for younger children and an account for teens. Businesses are also catered for, with the neobank offering a business account for limited companies and other registered businesses, as well as sole traders.
Monzo is a regulated UK bank and probably the country's most famous online-only account. An excellent choice if you're looking to escape the high fees of traditional banks, Monzo charges no fees for day-to-day card use (e.g. cashpoint withdrawals and card payments) in the UK and abroad. Moreover, because it offers one of the most advanced and comprehensive savings systems we've seen from any challenger bank (allowing lots of flexibility over your time horizon and savings goals), we think Monzo is especially well-suited for managing and growing wealth, regardless of your individual goals.
Having some of the most competitive rates out there, opening a Monzo account and using it within the UK is completely free to do. However, it's only when you go abroad that you'll find yourself subject to a 3% fee on cashpoint withdrawals over £300. per month. In addition, you'll also be met with a £0.50 per day fee if your account falls into overdraft.
As of 30 October 2020, Monzo introduced a 3% fee on UK cash machine withdrawals that exceed £250 per month. While travelling abroad, you’ll be allowed to withdraw up to £200 in cash for free every month, after which a 3% fee on each withdrawal will apply. In addition, Monzo will also be introducing a £5 fee to replace a lost Monzo card after 30 October 2020.
In terms of exchange rates, Monzo will offer you a good deal all-round. The online bank itself charges no additional exchange rate margins on the margins already levied by Mastercard. This means that the exchange rate margins you do end up paying will be relatively low, typically around 0.80% of the total transfer.
What's more, Monzo goes above and beyond to provide this information to you unambiguously and transparently on its website — to a much greater degree, in fact, than many banks, challenger banks, and currency exchange services do.
Monzo offers three different types of accounts:
Probably the UK's most famous fintech, there's a good chance you've heard of Revolut. Using its innovative online platform, you'll not only have access to a broad range of financial services, but you'll also be able to take advantage of these services at a comparatively low price (though fair use limits and weekend FX surcharges may apply). However, because it's not a bank in the UK, we think Revolut is best used as a powerful spending tool next to a main bank account instead of in place of it.
Revolut is not a bank in the UK. Interestingly enough, however, it is a fully-fledged bank (licensed by the Bank of Lithuania and offering deposit insurance and products such as loans and credit cards) in the EEA, including France, Italy, Portugal, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Romania, and others. The platform offers a range of typical financial services, excellent fees, and an impressive scope of service.
Opening up a 'Standard' account with Revolut comes with no monthly maintenance fee, but delivering the first debit card will set you back a few pounds and fair use limits and weekend surcharges may apply. While cash machine withdrawals are also free, a 2% fee (at a minimum of £1) will be charged on all withdrawals after the first £200 or five withdrawals every month (and third-party ATM fees may apply). Moreover, transferring money to other Revolut users is very fast, making the service a reliable choice if those you most frequently send money are also Revolut users themselves.
In addition, Revolut offers low fees on international money transfers, leaving the service an attractive choice for those who send money across borders frequently. They typically charge no exchange rate margins on weekdays, with users only subject to a flat fee of around 0.5% fee on all transfers sent abroad. However, be aware that Revolut charges twice the fee for international money transfers made on weekends — bumping the fee to around 1% on Saturdays and Sundays.
Here's a full overview of Revolut's different account offerings:
In the end, Revolut is among the best UK products currently available on the market and provides a capable spending option next to a main bank account. It is particularly well-suited for travelling abroad, especially if you plan to spend less than £1,000 (or equivalent) and do most of your spending on weekdays. For all these reasons, we rate Revolut as the best secondary digital account in the UK.
Sign up with our exclusive link to get 3 months of Revolut Premium (Revolut's best paid tier) for free when you sign up within 72 hours of opening an account! Offer valid for first-time users until 31 December 2023. T&Cs apply. Click here for the deal.
Wise isn't a bank in the UK but a money transfer operator that's well-known for offering some of the cheapest international transfers globally. However, money transfers aren't Wise's only speciality — they also offer the Wise Account, a low-cost foreign currency spending account and card product that's best in class for foreign currency spending of all kinds, whether it's holidays overseas, online shopping, or international money transfers.
Applying for a Wise Account is fast and easy and can be done not only with a UK proof of residence, but any proof of residence in the EU/EEA and many other countries worldwide. Once you're signed up and your card has arrived (which takes two to six working days), you'll be able to take advantage of the following unique features with the account:
To get a sense of just how useful Wise can be for frequent travellers and expats, let's say that you're travelling from the UK to Spain and you'd like to spend in Euros while on holiday there. With the Wise Multi-Currency Account, you'll be able to:
You'll also have a dedicated set of British bank details to share with an employer in the UK. These bank details, held by Barclays, are fully legitimate and are functionally the same as those of any local bank account. Note that this account does not offer an overdraft, and you won’t earn interest on any in-credit balances.
It's for the above reasons that we think Wise is the best online multi-currency account available to UK nationals and a product we firmly recommend for holidaymakers, online spenders, and expats alike.
* Conversion made on 05/11/2021
Monese is a mobile-only challenger bank that offers fully-fledged checking accounts to more than two million customers across the UK and much of Europe. Because Monese doesn't require you to prove your residence to meet creditworthiness standards to open an account in the UK, we think Monese is especially well-suited for new arrivals to the UK from the European Economic Area (EEA).
While an interesting product all round, we find Monese's weakest point to be its pricing for foreign currency spending and cash machine withdrawals. While its day-to-day fees are admittedly still relatively low in general — at least compared to traditional banks — Monese's 'Starter' plan, for example, charges £1.50 per cash withdrawal, 2% on all non-GBP, EUR, SEK, and RON foreign currency transactions, and an additional 1% on weekends.
Over and above the 'Starter' plan discussed until now, here are four types of current accounts Monese offers:
All Monese plans can be paid annually with a discounted monthly rate of anywhere between 20% and 40%.
If you were to open up another type of account, you'd save on fees for international money transfers, among other services, but you'd pay a monthly fee on the bank account. For example, for a 'Classic' account, your monthly fee will be £5.95, while for a 'Premium' account, your monthly cost would be £14.95.
One of the many digital money solutions to have risen to prominence in the UK in recent years, Pockit is a savvy fintech service that offers flexible prepaid debit cards to nearly half a million customers nationwide. It allows money to be deposited into a prepaid account at any one of around 28 thousand PayPoint stores across the UK, as well as using a bank transfer or a debit or credit card.
Although it's not a fully-fledged bank, Pockit's prepaid account functions much like a regular current account does, meaning that you can have your paycheck deposited there just as you would with a Lloyds or a Barclays account. For this purpose, Pockit provides customers with their dedicated sort code and bank account number.
Once you've signed up, Pockit will send you a new debit card, which should take between two and seven business days to arrive. Pockit issues Mastercard debit prepaid cards, meaning the card will debit payments directly from your current account.
To wrap things up, let's compare the product, service, and pricing of the best online banks we explored above. Here, you can get a better idea of which one might best suit your needs and preferences:
 |  |  |  |  | |
Account | Personal Account | Monzo | Standard⁵ | Multi-Currency Account | Starter |
Currency | GBP | GBP | GBP | GBP and 9 others | GBP and 2 others |
Maintanance | £0 | £0 | £0 | £0 | £0 |
Cashpoint | £0 | £0 | £0 | £0 | £1.5 |
Intl Payment | 0 | 0 | 0.4%-0.5% | 0 | 0.015 |
Intl Transfer | 0.004 | 0.3%-2.9% | 0.3%-0.5% | 0.3%-2.9% | 0.025 |
Contactless | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Google Pay | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Apple Pay | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Top-up |
|
|
|
|
|
Overdraft | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ |
Platforms | Mobile, internet banking | Mobile | Mobile, internet | Mobile | Mobile, internet banking |
Insured | £85,000 | £85,000 | £0 | £0 | £85,000 |
Customers | 2 million | 5.5 million | 16 million | 10 million | 16 million |
| Try Starling | Try Monzo | Try Revolut | Try Wise | Try Monese |
Last updated: 3/1/2023
Our recommendations are built on rock-solid experience.
You’re probably all too familiar with the often outrageous cost of sending money abroad. After facing this frustration themselves back in 2013, co-founders François, Laurent, and Pascal launched a real-time comparison engine to compare the best money transfer services across the globe. Today, Monito’s award-winning comparisons, reviews, and guides are trusted by around 8 million people each year and our recommendations are backed by millions of pricing data points and dozens of expert tests — all allowing you to make the savviest decisions with confidence.
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