Hello, I’ve been doing a deep dive into my favourite challenger banks and crypto cards over the last few months and I’d like to share my thoughts and results so far. Firstly, I’ll disclose that I hold bags in CRO, PLU and TKN which are all the crypto-related tokens on the list, but I will try to remain as neutral as possible – please don’t hesitate to correct me in the comments if there’s anything missing/incorrect however I believe all the data is up to date.Challenger Bank/ Crypto Card ComparisonOrder of FavouritesMonzoPlutusCrypto.comStarling BankMonolithRevolutFirst PicksMonzo = 4.5/5Despite not having any crypto integration is probably the most intuitive finance app out there and it is still my favourite app and card. They have massively progressed mobile banking as we know it by making huge improvements to features like spend breakdown/saving pots/etc. Unfortunately, there is no crypto integration and their backend technology is pretty basic but as far as finance apps go, they are definitely one of the best. Business model wise also, I am unsure how sustainable it is as there seems to be a lot on mainstream media discussing mounting losses and at the same time cutting things like their customer service team.It would have been 5/5 for me if they had crypto integration.Plutus = 4.5/5On the flip side, Plutus is my favourite card on the crypto side and that is largely due to the non-custodial feature and their high cryptoback rewards. You can add your own wallet to the card and they use a DEX which is very rare and surprisingly user-friendly to action the conversions. They also offer some traditional fiat services (which is unusual for crypto companies) however these aren’t as strong as the traditional challenger banks on this list – although they have mentioned aims to rival the others. They also have one of the best rewards programmes (3% cryptoback). The downside is that they have announced to update their fees to 9.99 for premium account to unlock the rewards but you can easily make more than that back (anything you spend over ~£300 a month is profit).It would have been 5/5 for me if Plutus had banking features such as direct debits to replace my high street bank and main card in my wallet. And if their rewards keep improving then £/€ 9.99 per month is worth it in comparison to others where the hidden charges and spreads on conversion make up for the low onboarding fee.Second PicksCrypto.com = 4/5Crypto.com also has a good rewards programme and offer up to 5% cryptoback. However, they are locked behind crazy high staking requirements which makes them not as attractive as you would first think. There are also a few hidden fees (e.g. spreads) so from my personal experience it’s not quite as cheap as on first glance but it’s still not bad overall. They do, however, have an unbelievably strong referral programme which makes up for this and they do a tonne of promotional marketing offers which you can take advance. Again, I am not sure how sustainable that is. They have a good range of crypto-assets also and the conversion for card top-up is done pretty fast.It’s nothing spectacular but decent, it used to be my go-to card for crypto but has moved down my list due to the lack of transparency and high staking. I think they’re good to have purely for the money you can make from promotional offers rather than the feature set.Starling Bank = 4/5Starling Bank is an all-round fairly solid product. They are a worthy finance app and from my experience is fairly responsive in terms of depositing/transactions/customer service/etc. I have a personal preference towards Monzo as they seem to have more innovative features and a more enjoyable user-experience / brand identity. However, in terms of back-end banking features, Starling Bank is superior. If you’re looking for something just to fulfil your standard banking features exceedingly well, this is the one.Similar to Monzo, they could move up the list if they improved their app’s UI and crypto integration.Third PicksMonolith = 3.5/5The only other non-custodial crypto card besides Plutus (this is clearly a very important factor to me), however, they use a different implementation which isn’t quite as user-friendly. They provide the wallet and give you the private keys, but it requires quite heavy gas fees for them to execute transactions and I’m still not 100% sure if there’s a backdoor in or not. Still an impressive accomplishment and therefore a worthy honourable mention. The branding is also really cool, however, they have sacrificed usability for decentralisation.Personally, Monolith is one of the main contenders for the top spot, they have cool branding and features that appeal to the current and the next generation of users, with improved UX and bank features they could do well.Revolut = 3/5I included this as it still remains a highly popular choice for many people but out of the fiat challenger banks it is definitely the weakest in my opinion, and that is largely because it’s not actually a bank. Somehow, the one area it does exceed in is interbank exchange rates, however, they are still a market leader in this area. Their attempt at integrating crypto is also fairly poor, it is completely centralised but at least with the other centralised cards like crypto.com, you can withdraw your funds.I’ve also never been keen on their branding but that’s more of a subjective thing. Overall, I would say Revolut are one of the closest to integrating both crypto and traditional finance features but they have done so in a way that is the worst of both worlds.SummaryAs you can see none of the above made the top spot of 5/5 and a complete bank for the next generation of finance is still waiting to be captured. What I think is missing is an app with a complete set of legacy bank features with an intuitive UIX and complete crypto integration in a non-custodial way.Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my rant, if you did, I would be happy to do a follow up once I’ve tried more crypto card / challenger bank options and add to my table/list. If you have any recommendations as to what I should try next, then let me know below. So long as none of them are crazy expensive I’ll give it a go.I will leave the links to all the companies below so you can DYOR.Monzo = https://ift.tt/326Hk7O = https://ift.tt/3iVZoIC = https://ift.tt/3iXE4Cr Bank = https://ift.tt/3aGj3cE = https://ift.tt/328Ookn = https://ift.tt/1acC6ut
Submitted August 20, 2020 at 07:01PM
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