What does Martin Lewis say about Monzo?

MoneySavingExpert (MSE), the site Martin Lewis founded, files Monzo under one job. Its guide to app-based banks (opens in new tab), updated 20 October 2026, rates it "Top for hands-on budgeting", and names a different bank, Starling, its top all-rounder. Here is what MSE's guides, its customer-service poll and its forums actually say about Monzo, and where the coverage stops short.

MSE's position on Monzo

Monzo is one of the five current accounts in that guide, and MSE sums it up as "Possible cheap overdraft & best budgeting tools". The guide's FAQ says every account in it "can be used for everyday banking", whether you switch to it or open it alongside your existing bank.

What MSE highlights as Monzo's strengths

Budgeting tools are the headline, and "best budgeting tools" is MSE's own phrase. Instant spending alerts, spending insights, savings pots and round-ups, four of the tools MSE credits app-based banks with, are all on Monzo's free account. MSE's caveat: "Almost all UK banks now let you manage your account online or through an app", so check what yours already does.

Fee-free spending abroad. MSE's travel cards guide (opens in new tab) lists Monzo among the debit cards that charge no fee to spend overseas, as it does Starling and Chase; most cards, by MSE's count, add "up to 3%-ish" on top of the exchange rate. MSE doesn't count it as an app-bank advantage, though. Its FAQ on whether online banks are better for spending abroad answers "Not necessarily. Many high street banks offer accounts with fee-free travel spending."

Where MSE sees Monzo's limitations

MSE's downsides list is written for app-based banks as a group, not for Monzo: paying in cash or cheques can be harder, there are no branches, and savings rates are lower. Read its guides against Monzo's own pages and three gaps show up for Monzo. Only the first is in MSE's words; the other two are my inference.

Monzo's free account pays 2.75% AER (Annual Equivalent Rate: the yearly rate with compounding included) on instant-access pots, and MSE's line on app-bank savings applies: "Top easy-access savings usually pay far more."

There is no flat cashback rate on the free account, only offers at named brands that you activate in the app before you spend, most at around 2% to 10%. Chase pays 2% on groceries, transport, fuel and eating out, but only in a month where you cleared its payment-count and saver-balance criteria the month before, which is a larger asterisk than the headline rate suggests (my Monzo vs Chase comparison has the criteria in full, sourced and dated). MSE highlights Chase's cashback as the differentiator for people who value earning on spending over budgeting tools.

The paid plans need careful maths. MSE's standing advice on packaged accounts, the monthly-fee accounts that bundle extras, applies cleanly to Monzo Extra (£3/month), Perks (£9/month) and Max (£19/month): only pay if you'd use what's included. The Monzo plan picker does that sum on your own savings balance and perk use. For most people, the free account does enough.

How MSE compares Monzo to Starling and Chase

Each of the three gets a job in MSE's guide to app-based banks (opens in new tab), and Starling's is the biggest: "Top all-rounder", for a "Cheap overdraft & 24-hour live chat support". Chase is "Top for cashback & savings" and Monzo "Top for hands-on budgeting". They differ on every row of MSE's table:

EAR is the Equivalent Annual Rate, what a borrowed balance costs over a year. Autosaving, in MSE's table, means the app works out what you can afford to save from your income and spending, then moves it for you. Monzo's ATM limit outside the EEA (the European Economic Area) is £200 every 30 days, then a 3% fee; Starling's is £300 a day.

The only score MSE gives all three comes from its customer-service poll. In the July 2026 round, 2,700 people voted, and 84% of Starling customers rated its service "great", against 77% for Monzo and 72% for Chase. Each score rests on fewer than 120 responses (83, 87 and 116), and MSE re-runs the poll every six months.

One caveat MSE doesn't raise: Chase's terms and its marketing page disagree about who gets that 4.5%, with the terms limiting it to customers Chase contacts. Monzo vs Chase has the sourced wording of both.

Monzo vs Starling comes out the other way on a main account: Monzo, for the budgeting tools, with Starling as a second account for its overdraft and cash abroad.

If you do pick Monzo, Ad our referral link (opens in new tab) pays a random £5, £10 or £20. It's our link, not MSE's, and MSE has no connection to it.

The MSE forum consensus

The MoneySavingExpert forums have extensive Monzo discussion threads. The community consensus is broadly positive:

• Monzo's app and budgeting tools are consistently praised
• Multiple forum users recommend keeping Monzo alongside a traditional bank as a budgeting companion
• Common advice is to use Monzo for daily spending and a high-street bank for salary and direct debits, though many users have switched fully
• Concerns tend to focus on customer support wait times and the lack of branch access

Should you trust the MSE view?

MoneySavingExpert is the UK's largest consumer finance site and operates independently from the banks it reviews. Their Monzo coverage is factual and measured: they highlight genuine strengths without overselling, and the polling above is their own readers rather than a vendor's press release. The limit is that a guide written for the whole country can only rank products, not your month.

What MSE won't tell you is whether Monzo's referral bonus is worth claiming. That's straightforward: if you're going to open a Monzo account anyway, using our referral link adds a randomised £5, £10 or £20 with zero downside, £5.40 on average. Monzo paid £20, £50 or £100 until August 2026.

You might also like

• Is Monzo worth it? A review after 9 years as a customer
• Monzo vs Chase: 2% cashback vs better budgeting
• Monzo vs Starling: which digital bank is better?

Sources

Everything attributed to MSE on this page comes from the MSE pages below, except the forum section, which is my reading of its public discussion threads and carries no single citable page. Two of the three gaps are my inference from reading those guides against the brands' own pages, and the copy says which.

• MSE: top digital banks & autosaving apps (opens in new tab) (updated 20 October 2026, read 25 October 2026): the labels and one-line summaries for Monzo, Starling and Chase, every row of its table for those three and its definition of autosaving, the downsides list and its savings line, the line on checking your own bank's app, and the FAQ answers on main accounts and spending abroad
• MSE: best current accounts (opens in new tab) (updated 20 October 2026, read 25 October 2026): the July 2026 customer-service poll, its 2,700 voters and each bank's response count
• MSE: best travel credit & debit cards (opens in new tab) (updated 28 August 2026, read 25 October 2026): Monzo, Starling and Chase on its list of fee-free debit cards abroad, and what most cards add
• MSE: packaged bank accounts (opens in new tab) (updated 20 October 2026, read 25 October 2026): the test for whether a paid-for account is worth its fee
• About MoneySavingExpert (opens in new tab) (read 25 October 2026): its size and its editorial independence
• Monzo savings (opens in new tab): the free account's instant-access rate
• Monzo plans (opens in new tab): the monthly price of Extra, Perks and Max
• Monzo cashback (opens in new tab) and how it works (opens in new tab): offers you activate before you spend, most at around 2% to 10%, no fee on a personal account
• Travel without fees (opens in new tab): no foreign transaction fees on card payments, and the non-EEA cash allowance
• Starling: spending abroad (opens in new tab) and the Ad Starling current account (opens in new tab): the daily fee-free withdrawal limit abroad and the arranged overdraft rate
• Monzo overdrafts (opens in new tab): the arranged overdraft rate Starling's is compared against
• Chase cashback (opens in new tab) and the cashback terms (opens in new tab): the qualifying categories and the payment-count and saver-balance criteria
• Chase Saver with boosted rate (opens in new tab): the boosted rate and how long it runs