In Switzerland there's a non-profit-oriented bank called ABS (Alternative Bank Switzerland) where I've been a happy customer for a few years now. They belong to a group of financial institutions that strive for "ethical banking", together with others like GLS. There are some others listed here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Ethical_banking Another resource might be the Global Alliance for Banking on Values: http://www.gabv.org/the-community/members/banks

You might want to look a bit closer at Monzo, there was an entire episode of BBC's Watchdog [0] about them closing accounts and keeping people's money. Mine was frozen for well over a year with about three grand in it, no explanation, no apology. I only got it back in the end by involving the financial ombudsman via a website [1] specifically set up to help people who Monzo have scammed, because there are literally tens of thousands of them. Even then, no apology, no explanation - just an email one day telling me they were closing my account but at least giving me the option to transfer my own money out.

[0] https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2qS0HM6nBkcPMx0W8t...

[1] https://www.resolver.co.uk/freeadvice/companies/monzo-compla...

This x100. A few months ago Monzo froze my account without warning or any reason. Thankfully they de-froze it after an hour, but I've spent months since then in a kafkaesque nightmare trying to get an explanation for their actions. "It was a mistake" ... "the law says we cannot tell you why" ... "if it was a mistake why does a law protect you from having to explain?" ... "the law says we don't have to answer that" ... "which law?" ... "the law says we can't tell you which law".

Absolutely demented. Apart from that they refused to send me a machine-readable copy of their response to a DPA request for my records and the support team behind their app literally ghosted me when I kept politely pointing out the inconsistencies in their arguments.

Bonus: when I complained they used someone else's name when responding to it. When I complained again they sent me their response to _a totally different person's complaint about a totally different thing_.

Eventually I went back to First Direct (which is owned by HSBC). Avoid Monzo like the plague.

The law is probably related to anti-money-laundering, sanctions compliance, etc. If they detect something possibly criminal, it's illegal for them to "tip off" the owner of the account.

This is true of basically any financial institution.

Of course, it is a problem that Monzo had a bug that caused your account to get flagged for this.

Very much mirrors my experience, and that of several friends.

I (US citizen, freshman at a UK university) tried to set up a Monzo account a few months ago. They refused to give me an account, and refused (both in their app and over email) to tell me why. Left a bad taste in my mouth.

Ended up going with Nationwide, who are a bit behind tech-wise (they do this weird thing where they ask for 3 digits of a 6-digit PIN I'm supposed to memorize, which seems far less secure than a long random password in my password manager), but generally have been great. I tried to sign up for their student account, got told no and redirected to their no-credit-check account with no issues. (That's probably also an indication of what went wrong with Monzo.)

Nationwide aren't a bank, they are a Building Society, (similar to your "Savings & Loans").

I "bank" with them. Sensible. Reliable. Well run. That's preferable to the latest flashy technology when you are talking about people's hard-earned and long-saved money.

Monzo refused because of FATCA. That happens with banks outside the US to “US persons” all the time. They should have told you that, but you can blame FATCA for the cause (passed during the first two years of the Obama administration.)

I'd be surprised if that were the case. Their sign up path seemed to know about and handle US citizens (asked for my SSN), and I can't imagine they'd go to that trouble if they were just going to silently and mysteriously deny me.

i've used:

1. revolut - these guys are complete jokers. closed after being asked to provide the proof of funding 3 times in 3 months.

2. hsbc/first direct - somewhat decent. but i only use it to top up my other accounts. i try to avoid them, as they're just too big.

3. starling - simple, no-nonsense banking from a startup.

4. revolut business - had my account closed down by the "bank" because they didn't want my business. no reasons given. again, complete jokers.

5. freetrade - decent investing platform, but very very amateurish.

6. saxo bank - professional investing. they're a huge company, never had issues with them. and yes, they of course accept me buying gme and the like, plus they also support options. unfortunately it costs. a lot.

7. metro bank - what can i say. it feels like a 20th century bank with a nice app. had many issues with them, including a transfer that went missing for 2 weeks, and a EUR account that forced me to go to their branch every time i wanted to do a transfer.

8. ing bank nv - depending on the territory you're opening the account, they might be either really bad or somewhat bad.

9. rabobank - bank was constantly getting hacked and all account ops were blocked while the hacking was happening. also, the hackers managed to empty my account and the bank representative had to use a special card to withdraw some funds so that i could continue living.

later edit:

10. transferwise - very slick, minimal fees, used them from before they were a bank. no issues so far.

11. monzo - i'm not in their target market unfortunately. their features are not useful to me.

I can second the problems with Revolut. Weird and dodgy, and they spend every second of your use of their app trying to sell you shitty addon services like mobile phone insurance.

Starling, however, has been magic. I swapped my primary banking over to them and the only issue I've had is their dislike of rooted phones. That's only a minor inconvenience every few months when I forget to upgrade Magisk before the Starling app, though.

Transferwise I've used many times to transfer money for larger purchases in Europe. No complaints, but haven't tried the banking side of it.

My daughters have Starling accounts as their "day-to-day" accounts. They are very happy with them, as is a friend in my local Go Club.

If you need a EUR account with a good app, TransferWise, who power Revoluts multicurrency action on the backend, are pretty decent. Horrid luminous green card though.

I'm an investor in Revolut due to their aggressive growth strategy, but I wouldn't use them personally.

As for Monzo, I like their app but missing features like being able to view your full CVV number in app, or link the app to all your other bank accounts on the free tier, basically prevent me from using them as my primary bank

TransferWise aren't a bank so the financial protects are slightly different

I use them for some of my overseas customers, my only challenge with them is the limited number of currencies they support e.g. had to open a Revolut account to get payment from a Canadian customer

TW have all the functional features of a bank lots of people care about. A debit card, direct debits, standing orders etc. I of course recognize they aren't a fully licensed bank, but for EUR balances they are worth a look

The reason a Bank is strictly defined is that TW does not guarantee any cash that you have stored with them.

With a bank you have up to £85,000 insured and guaranteed e.g. if the bank fails

IIRC TransferWise holds all your money in escrow (as opposed to investing it or w/e), so they don't need to guarantee it. I'm not sure off hand if that's just what they claim, or if they actually make a legal promise to that effect.

To expand on my last paragraph: Revolut actually do spending analytics across all your linked accounts. on the free tier.

Aw I kinda like the brutally green card :D

YMMV of course - my experience with revolut has been nothing but positive. While I’ve had silly issues with my normal bank (like inability to close an account due to “technical reasons”), interacting with revolut has been stellar.

Customer support, features roll out, chargebacks etc - all way better experience than the local banks.

They singlehandedly forced all the banks in my country to implement apple pay / google wallet. For years nobody bothered, the moment Revolut entered the market, with apple pay support, the banks scrambled to add it themselves.

One time I even had my card stolen while traveling abroad - got a new card within two days, global delivery. I was very pleasantly surprised.

But I also understand the risks and don’t really use them for long term asset management for now. Just as a front for all of my expenses - their analytics are just awesome.

I set up a revolut account for currency exchange in 2018 and finally moved to use them as my primary bank in 2020. Never had any significant issues. Recently I was setting up a Revolut Business account and I didn't get a notification email requesting additional evidence. Me not getting an email is something they could improve, but the need for a thorough identity verification is understandable given their global ambitions.

Edit: I'd like to add that revolut was very helpful after most of my valuables were stolen in 2019. While my other bank took three weeks to deliver a new debit card, a virtual card issued by revolut worked immediately via NFC.

I have been also using Revolut as my primary bank since 2017 and no issues at all. On the contrary, great customer service (I was a Metal customer and now Premium customer). Now I even do my trading through them.

all banks/co's are great until you face an issue. to me that's the defining moment.

and again, for me revolut was a disaster and i will not recommend them.

Are these all platforms for investment in stocks? Or you talking about banking services generally?

all are banking, some offer trading/investments. i was replying to a monzo question, a banking startup.

for trading/investments it really depends on your situation and location.

(for example: some countries offer 0% taxes on capital gains for trading if done using special products, but not all available platforms will have them...)

Have you tried Schwab? Somewhat limited in what they offer as a bank, but I've only ever had positive experiences. Their web/app aren't wonderful but they get the job done.

In France, a lot of banks are cooperative banks. While not everything is perfect, their attitude is way different than banks under different status. My bank was never involved in some money laundering scandal, investment scandal or other, and their customer service was always very good. They also tend to have a more "local" focus. For example, one of their saving account is used to finance local entrepreneur.

If you can find a cooperative bank, I would definitely advised that you try them.

This is true of “credit unions” in the US which are (probably?) similar as a legal structure. They exist as a service for a group or community - e.g. a union of policemen for example, or any citizen of a city.

Often their loan rates are generous, their fees low, and perhaps most importantly, they do not join into the blacklists that commercial banks use which prevent people from ever using a bank at all.

If you can qualify for a credit union I would definitely recommend that you try them.

I've got Revolut and Barclays, I confess I don't mind the Barclays App too much. Lets me do anything I want to do and I don't like Revolut trying to push insurance and crypto.

I worked in HSBC for 6 months a few months and their IT systems are scary. It's a patchwork of various international banking systems where each one has different views and funding.

They are completely incapable of coordinating such a political landscape. I made some cash and ran away from that trainwreck as fast as I could.

There are lots of consultancies embedded making good money out of the confusion.

You didn’t look at Nationwide or the other handful of building societies that offer current accounts? Or Triodos if you want to go the full way.

I read once that in Islam taking interest on loans is forbidden, therefore Islamic banking operates based on some kinds of cooperatives. Is switching to an Islamic bank maybe an option?

For those in Germany I recommend GLS bank. They have an ethical charter on whom they invest in and their loans are fully backed.

Can't find the source now, but I read that while Islam (and Judaism, at least in the past) forbids usury and this sort of extends to low interest too, the concept of interest is useful enough (or at least in demand) that people developed all kinds of practices that work almost exactly as interest.

The whole reason that the Jewery got a bad rap in mediaeval days is that they were the only people who could charge interest, and people find it very easy to be turned against The Other who is also making money from them.

A Jew is allowed to charge interest to anyone outside the Jewish, Christian or Muslim faiths.

This reads like an ad, and Monzo is super popular in the UK, like it would be the obvious recommendation for anyone looking to bank in the UK with a smartphone...

Eh, I doubt it's an ad - I left hsbc many of the same reasons. Final straw was trying to get my data from them, which they are obligated to provide in some sensible format and simply wouldn't. Indeed after a couple if escalations they were insisting that all data internally was only kept on pdf beyond a six month horizon, which was blatantly wrong for a whole cavalcade of reasons. Unethical in the large and useless at a retail level, never want anything to do with them.

Did you report them to a regulator?

While Monzo is popular it's not profitable, and their latest annual accounts stated that they may not be able to continue as a going concern.

Starling is the only challenger bank that's profitable ATM (and it's only just profitable)

Try Starling - I am an HSBC customer currently, but am migrating.

Nationwide?

> A few years ago I looked in to moving to a more honest bank, but I couldn't find one that also met basic criteria like having access to cash points in the UK and having a half decent mobile banking app. Literally every major bank that operates in the UK has stories of doing frankly awful things.

I sense a common theme coming.

When I had some bad times and gone for unplanned overdraft three times in one month (all below £50 and paid off few days later) they closed my account and I also had to deal with changing the bank during those times. Absolutely awful. In my opinion one must be a drug lord to get a good treatment from HSBC.

Santander is 100% less shit than HSBC. That’s my only input. I’m sure someone is better but their front end services are mostly fit for purpose.

Really diversifying your funds across multiple banks is a wise move. I’ve got Halifax, NatWest, Santander and HSBC accounts still.

Santander were fined £32m for failing to deal with 40,000 accounts when people died. (https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/santander-uk-plc-...). They were also fined £58m for failures around consumer credit (https://www.ftadviser.com/investments/2019/02/27/santander-h...). In the US Santander paid out $550m because of dodgy car loans (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-autos-lending/santand...). That's from one Google search for "Santander fined".

This is the problem though. I'm still with HSBC because, while HSBC is pretty terrible, the rest of the banks are also terrible.

On the flip side one of the heirs to the Santander empire tried to smuggle a Picasso out of Spain on his yacht, which is kind of cool... https://news.yahoo.com/santander-heir-gets-44m-fine-20351628...

They were also caught discriminating against... well, you can probably finish this sentence.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-santanderbank-mortgages-i...

> It also refused loans to 30 percent of low-income applicants, compared to the aggregate rate of 18 percent

Why refusing to loan money to low-income borrowers is supposed to be discrimination?

If someone has minimal income they are far less likely to repay loan, why this is supposed to be indicator of some discrimination?

If someone earn 30k per year and someone earns 3000k per year then it is not surprising that loan of 200k would be far more likely given to person with higher income.

Banks are typically extremely awful, but why that specific part is supposed be indicator of something wrong? And it seems likely that other statistics mentioned are result of that.

They were doing it significsntly more than their competitors.

Yeah, lying is probably on the lower end of bad things HSBC has done... https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hsbc-usa-idUSKBN1E50YA

Handelsbanken has a good reputation or you could use a building society like nationwide.

The cost of that reputation though is fees on pretty much every single action you might want to take with your money.

Handelsbanken is a mixed bag in the UK and depends very much on both your local branch and your expectations.

I have the same issues with HSBC in France.

Calling their app "decent" is charitable to say the least.

The only good part is the call center, where operators are actively trying to be helpful.

"HSBC" + "decent mobile banking app" made me laugh (though my experience with it is 2016/2017)

What about this bank?

https://www.triodos.co.uk/

Supposedly good (I know someone who works for them). However, bizarre fact:

> The bank was founded as an anthroposophical initiative and continues to honor the work of Rudolf Steiner as the inspiration for its approach to banking.

As far as I know they don't routinely bury cow horns to magically improve returns.

Triodos is fine, has an unusual sustainability ethos. They also have business accounts, though will only accept business with similar values.

For our personal and business banking in UK and NL, we chose:

* UK personal banking - Nationwide for primary current account, Tridos UK as secondary. Left HSBC because service was terrible and they kept on declining our card txns.

* UK business banking - Tried Tide but moved to Starling on discovering Tide didn't support joint account holders. With Starling also have a EUR account. It works seamlessly with the only disadvantage that transfers from the Starling EUR account to NL banks are overnight.

* NL personal banking - Triodos NL, after years with ABN Amro. Triodos is friendly, sustainability focus.

* NL business banking - Knab, which has been good so far. Wanted to use Triodos NL but there is a two month backlog approving new business customers.

I guess they don't have credit unions in the UK?

Starling or Monzo?

Starling

Starlink is the space internet from Musk

Auto correct what can I do.

Of course I meant Starling, they were the first challenger bank to offer business accounts as well and I’m very happy so far.

Starling is neat except you need to request a special exemption from them for EVERY payment you send over £25,000.

Only takes them an hour or so to approve it for you, but it gets pretty old having to do it 3-5x per week.

It's actually quite unusual to be making 3-5 payments over £25k in a typical week. Not saying it isn't a real problem for you, but I suspect only a very small fraction of potential users will be bothered by that particular point of friction.

Not ranting, but as you asked "what can I do" here are few ideas:

Couldn't you turn off autocomplete or check what you/it wrote before you hit "reply" button?

credit unions?

Monzo appear to be more interested in showing of their hipster tech stack than anything else.

What a strange comment. Their "hipster stack" works really, really well. It's the best banking UX available by far, and I've moved all my primary banking to it.

I've been using Monzo for 2 years and I have no complaints. The app is fantastic and they have integrations for international transfers, and business banking that just work.

I’ve been using Monzo for around the same time and have had nothing but good things to say right up until they decided to start pushing their Premium/Plus accounts onto customers via in app ads. With all the rumours of them struggling to become profitable it’s made me consider a move to Starling, who seem to be in a better position in that regard.

I use Starling for my business (Monzo didn't have business accounts at the time). The app is much worse than Monzo. However they do have better export facilities, and you can do transfers via website, so for business I think it is more practical.

So you dislike Stripe too?