Monzo vs Starling Bank

Monzo and Starling Bank are both legally licensed banks with full UK banking lisenses. Subject to high levels of compliance, both firms are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

As lisensed banks, they also offer deposit protection. In the unlikely case of their bankruptcy, up to £85,000 of your money will be protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). 

Starling Bank scored slightly higher on our credibility metrics mostly because their fee schedule was more directly accessible on their website than Monzo’s. Starling Bank is also profitable, while Monzo has still been reporting losses on its balance sheets. On the other hand, Monzo is a larger company with more than double the number of customers of Starling Bank. 

In the end, millions of clients trust their money with these two banks every, and you can too. When it comes to trust and security, Monito recommends both Monzo and Starling Bank as legit, legal, and duly-regulated banks.

Global Availability

Both Monzo and Starling Bank have a banking license from the UK’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), which gives UK citizens and residents full access to their quality bank accounts and services. 

In addition, Monzo announced in February of 2022 its full public launch of sign-ups in the United States. Now American citizens and residents can bank, send money cheaply, and save money with Monzo and its app. In partnership with FDIC-insured Sutton Bank, you can trust your money with Monzo across the pond. 

Starling Bank, on the other hand, focuses its services only on the UK, opting not to offer its accounts to EU, US, or other international residents. 

Monito

Both Monzo and Starling Bank are at the top of their game when it comes to providing easy and fee-free digital banking in the UK. As lisensed banks in the UK, both offer overdraft, interest of savings, joint account functionality, and debit cards. 

They do differ in a few areas though. Through our tests with both products, we found the Monzo mobile app to be more user friendly than that of Starling Bank; Monzo’s savings pots feature is especially impressive.

Monzo Card vs Starling Card

The debit cards offered by Monzo and Starling Bank are extremely similar. Both offer virtual and physical debit Mastercards, which will be accepted wherever Mastercard is accepted. (Starling's virtual card will only be active after the physical debit card is activated, though.) They have contactless functionality, plus you can connect them to Apple Pay and Google Pay. You can freeze and unfreeze your debit cards straight from their mobile apps if they go missing.

The Account Experience

Both run on superb platforms that make banking simple and organized. You can turn on notifications that track your budgets, save money with their savings features, and analyze your spending habits with their statistics.

With both, you can set up direct debits and joint accounts with your partner. Starling Bank even offers their ‘Kite Card’ for your children too. You can easily manage it in the app and help them build their financial literacy at a young age. Both apps can send you instant notifications whenever you spend your money, so you can always keep track of your customizable budgets.

Both offer savings pots features and a ‘Round Up’ feature, which rounds up each purchase you make to the nearest pound and deposits the difference into your savings. Monzo has the edge here because it partnered with other British banks to get you interest on your money. You can access a unique marketplace to choose the best interest rate, although withdrawal and deposit limits may apply. You can earn up to 1.16% AER on your savings pot balances of up to £2,000. Starling Bank’s app does not partner with other banks and applies a 3.25% AER on personal account balances up to £5,000 and a 4.48% AER on balances in the 1-Year Fixed Saver account up to £1,000,000.

Topping up Your Account

Monzo and Starling Bank are very similar in this regard. You can top up your account by direct deposit, bank transfer, or cash deposit at partnering locations across the UK; cheque deposits can be done digitally by taking a photo of your cheque with the mobile app.

Monzo will charge £1 per cash deposit unless you upgrade to their Plus or Premium plans. Starling Bank will deposit £1,000 for free per year. After that, Starling Bank will charge a 0.7% fee per cash deposit. 

Monito

Both Monzo and Starling Bank allow you to open an account online for free and never charge monthly maintenance fees. These perks alone make both options a good reason to transition from your high-street bank to a digital bank. This section was close, but Starling Bank won out thanks to its unlimited fee-free foreign ATM withdrawals. If you want cheaper international money transfers, then Monzo may be your best bet. 

International ATM Withdrawals

Starling Bank wins in this area because your debit card will give you access to free ATM withdrawals within the UK and abroad. They do set a monthly withdrawal limit of six per day for a max of £300, but this isn't too bad in our opinion. You might only pay fixed service fees charged by the ATM machine (which Starling Bank can't control). 

Compared to high-street banks, Monzo is still a great alternative. While abroad, Monzo gives you a free limit of £200 every 30 days but charges you 3.00% of the amount withdrawn afterwards. Domestic UK withdrawals incur that same 3.00% fee if you exceed a £250 limit in a 30-day period. 

Getting a Debit Card

Both Monzo and Starling Bank send you your first debit card for free. In both cases, delivery should take up to 5 business days. 

Starling Bank's virtual card is included with your sign-up and is accessible from the mobile app. To get Monzo's virtual card, you must upgrade to their £5 per month Monzo Plus plan.

Overdraft Fees

Starling Bank charges overdraft fees starting from 15% EAR. You are allowed to overdraft up to £5,000. 

Monzo is a bit more strict. You will be charged 50p per day when you take out an overdraft. You are also not allowed to overdraft more than £15.50 per month. 

International Money Transfers

Monzo has partnered with Wise to provide transparent and low-cost international money transfers, which you can access right from their app. This means the real mid-market exchange rate will be applied to your transfer — never pocketing sneaky exchange rate margins. Instead, the fixed fee you'll pay will be between 0.35% to 2.85% of the amount you're transferring, depending on the currency. The fee applied to the most popular currencies is typically toward the lower end of this range. 

Starling Bank's international money transfer system is superior to the UK's high-street transfer network but does not quite measure up to Monzo. They will make your transfer using the real mid-market exchange rate, which saves you substantially. They do charge a low 0.4%  fixed fee. However, they tack on an additional commission fee of 30p per transfer, or £5.50 if you make a SWIFT transfer (which is optional for most currencies).

As stated earlier, Starling Bank will open a euro account for free to any personal account holder. This multi-currency account comes with the added bonus of unlimited free inward and outward transfers to banks in the Eurozone. If you have family in the EU, as opposed to the US or the Commonwealth, then you can really leverage this powerful Starling Bank product. 

Foreign Exchange Rates: Using Your Debit Card Overseas

Neither Monzo nor Starling Bank charges foreign transaction fees when you use your card abroad. Mastercard's exchange rate, which is near the real mid-market exchange rate, will be applied directly. 

Monzo and Starling Bank are both excellently rated on Trustpilot and app stores by thousands of customers. This category comes at a draw because both are large, popular, and highly-rated digital banking services.

Monzo, with a Trustpilot score of 4.5, narrowly beat Starling Bank’s 4.3 score. Both have over 15,000 four and five-star ratings on the review site too. Both provide email and over the phone support in the U.K. Both apps have a live chat function too. These are a few of many reasons why they have earned top awards by the British Bank Awards.

In the end, we think it's safe to say that you will be satisfied with either choice.