Starling is partnering with the Post Office to let customers make high street deposits.
For the longest time digital banks like Monzo and Starling laughed at the prospect of high street banks coming after their “digital native” customers.
“It feels a little bit like they are skating at the puck,” Monzo CEO Tom Blomfield told Forbes in October, when asked about traditional banks. “If only we add features like freeze and unfreeze your card, merchant locations, then we'll have everything Monzo has.”
“But that's where the puck is, I’m thinking about where the puck is going.”
In the last few weeks however, it seems the puck is heading to the high street.
Monzo is partnering with PayPoint's 28,000 locations to offer high street deposits.
Heading to the high street
Last week digital bank Starling announced a partnership with the network of 11,500 Post Offices in the U.K., offering deposit services on the high street for its customers.
“Our world is now more digital than ever, especially when it comes to banking, but we know that having the option to deposit cash into your bank account is important for a lot of our customers and businesses,” the company wrote.
Starling customers with personal or joint accounts can now make free deposits into their accounts, while business customers can deposit up to £1,000 for a £3 fee, or more than that with a 0.3% charge.
And Starling isn’t alone. Monzo yesterday revealed its own partnership with PayPoint—a U.K.-wide provider of payment services in corner shops—to allow deposits of up to £300 for a £1 fee.
All this might seem anathema to the “digital native” lives that we’re supposed to be living but, if you cast an eye across Europe, it’s actually Monzo and Starling who are playing catch-up.
In France there are 1.4 million convenience stores that offer deposits and withdrawals for the ... [+]
Nickel is a French digital bank that launched in 2014.
Its unique approach wasn’t an app or colorful debit card, but partnering with France’s 1.4 million tobacco-selling convenience stores to let people deposit and withdraw cash.
In just four years Nickel’s growth has exploded, reaching over a million account holders and being acquired by BNP Paribas last year.
And let’s not forget Metro Bank, the U.K.’s first challenger bank when it launched in 2010, which has become a £2 billion-listed ($2.57 billion) business based around its network of 59 high street branches.
Or Handelsbanken, the Swedish bank whose U.K. network of 200 branches are consistently rated the U.K.’s best bank for customer satisfaction in personal and business banking.
Digital challengers might extol the virtues of apps and digital, but the truth is that for millions of unbanked Brits the high street remains crucial, and savvy banks are seizing the opportunity.
