Digital Banking Apps

Monzo

This app has grown massively in popularity over the past number of years since it’s release. This is an app-based challenger bank, with an extremely intuitive interface packed with handy features. The iconic coral card is held in many purses and wallets throughout the UK.

Untitled

Something highly attractive about this interface is the option to create spending pots available to it’s users. I feel that this is especially beneficial to Gen Z money management, as this is a feature used by all my friends and myself to budget student loans and part-time job earnings.

Monzo Pot

Monzo Pot

You can also request money from others through sharing a link, which they can pay through a card transaction. I feel that this is a smart option as bank transfers to new payees can be rather convoluted at times. You can also split bills extremely easily through Monzo, something I feel is extremely applicable to the social life of a Gen Z’er.

Untitled

Budget management is also an important feature in Monzo. You can set your own budgeting goals, then the app generates visual aids and diagrams help you keep track of your spending. It also contains the feature to compartmentalise your spending to gain more insight into your spending habits.

Untitled

Monzo also offers insights into bill increases:

Untitled

And foresight to upcoming bills to avoid nasty surprises:

Untitled

It’s clear that Monzo is a banking app that has really considered the user and their spending habits in the 21st century. This app is packed with many more features that I think are truly excellent. I also feel there is a strong orientation to Gen Z in it’s features, especially when it comes to the pots and split the bill features.

Starling

Starling performs particularly well with customer service satisfaction rates. I wasn’t that familiar with it which makes me think it’s not as successful at targeting Gen Z demographics. However, it still contains great digital banking features.

Untitled

One of these features is the option to lodge checks through the app under £1000 GBP. I think this is a really handy feature that other banks seem to be implementing into their banking apps.

They also have family orientated features such as ‘Kite Link’ which is a pocket money feature essentially. I think this further pertains to the fact that this bank is not as suited to a Gen Z demographic.

In comparison to Monzo, Starling doesn’t offer anything that Monzo does not. Yet, Monzo offers many more features that are more targeted to a Gen Z demographic in my opinion. One edge that Starling has over Monzo is the fact that it’s UI is more streamlined, as the sheer amount of Monzo features can arguably be overwhelming when presented in a UI.

Revolut

Revolut is highly popular digital app-based bank similar to Monzo and Starling. It is also packed with features targeted at a Gen Z consumer.

Untitled

A feature of Revolut that I think is excellent is their rewards feature. This offers users to gain benefits and cash-backs on many spends using Revolut:

Screenshot 2023-02-03 at 00.11.47.png

Through my demographic research, I found that rewards features are something that is extremely important to Gen Z when choosing a bank.

Screenshot 2023-02-03 at 00.13.09.png

This app also offers a subscription management feature. I think this is extremely important to Gen Z being the leading generation of online content consumption. Revolut’s clear and intuitive interface based on subscription management is without doubt an attractive feature to all 16-25 year olds using this bank.

Screenshot 2023-02-03 at 00.16.27.png

Their encouragement of investment into crypto is also highly interesting and something undoubtedly of interest to Gen Z banking customers:

Screenshot 2023-02-03 at 00.17.38.png

Reflection ⭐️

When considering all of the online banking platforms available in the market currently, I think Monzo is the strongest in capturing the interest of Gen Z. The UI is extremely friendly and welcoming. The features seem to be tailored to a young person’s lifestyle and are very intuitive. Revolut also has a friendly interface. I think designing a welcoming UI will be something I consider very carefully in my project as I feel friendliness over professionalism is a priority for 18-25 year olds.