Starling’s AI Chatbot Falls Short, Chase UK Fine & Plum’s 4.95% ISA - June ’25 Recap

Welcome to the June recap of Banking Without Borders! This month, we break down Starling Bank’s new “Spending Intelligence” chatbot, is it really intelligent, or just marketing spin? We also cover Starling’s US ambitions and why a credit card might be essential for their success.

Then we look at Chase UK’s dark mode drama, a hilarious new “biscuit bank” offering cashback on your bills, and Klarna’s moves into banking, are they copying Revolut?

Finally, we wrap up with the latest UK & EU savings rates, including our Rate of the Month: Plum’s 4.95% Cash ISA. We cover easy-access, notice, and fixed-term accounts so you know where to stash your savings for the best returns, plus, we discuss how the ECB’s recent rate cut is impacting EU savers.

Join the new Banking Without Borders Discord community 

https://link.bankingwithoutborders.co.uk/discord

Check out our website DepositScout.com for the latest savings rates. 

Connect with us (via LinkedIn)

Jan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jan-watermann/

Jonny: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jonny-pease

Got a question or topic you want us to cover? Drop us a message at jonny@technicallymoney.com

Transcript

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:06:22
Unknown
Okay. Welcome back to another episode of Banking Without Borders. Today we're going to be doing our June monthly recap. And we've got lots to talk about today.

00:00:06:23 - 00:00:10:09
Unknown
I say that every time, but we we really do. And some really interesting topics.

00:00:10:10 - 00:00:12:16
Unknown
So we have two stories from Starling Bank.

00:00:12:17 - 00:00:14:21
Unknown
One is about artificial sorry

00:00:14:22 - 00:00:27:00
Unknown
artificial intelligence. If you're listening to this, I'm doing air quotes because Starling Bank have launched a chat bot, so to speak, called Spending Intelligence. But frankly, in my opinion, not very intelligent. So I'd like to talk to you about that.

00:00:27:01 - 00:00:32:10
Unknown
They also are looking to launch in the US, which is something that both Revolut and Monzo have attempted to do,

00:00:32:11 - 00:00:38:14
Unknown
I'm also still incredibly frustrated by the fact that they don't have a credit card in the UK, but they're looking to take on the US market, which

00:00:38:15 - 00:00:43:06
Unknown
needs you to have a credit card. So that's really, really frustrating. So we're going to talk about that

00:00:43:07 - 00:00:44:19
Unknown
Chase UK as well.

00:00:45:01 - 00:00:48:02
Unknown
Have a so this is a small story from Chase UK.

00:00:48:03 - 00:00:50:16
Unknown
they've essentially traumatized someone

00:00:50:17 - 00:00:51:10
Unknown
with their app

00:00:51:11 - 00:01:00:09
Unknown
we've also got a bank account that has merged with a biscuit. So I never thought I'd see the day, but we have biscuits and banking colliding

00:01:00:10 - 00:01:03:05
Unknown
it's a new bank account, and I want to talk to you about that.

00:01:03:06 - 00:01:07:05
Unknown
And we also have Klarna doing a copy and paste of Revolut.

00:01:07:06 - 00:01:13:12
Unknown
we'll round up the video or the episode with the latest and greatest interest rates from both the UK and the European Union,

00:01:13:13 - 00:01:21:08
Unknown
because Yannis here today and Yann is going to discuss the EU savings rates with you. So, buddy, shall we begin with Starling?

00:01:21:09 - 00:01:23:14
Unknown
for the great intro. Let's start with Starling.

00:01:23:14 - 00:01:33:06
Unknown
They have launched their own. I said, but it's powered by Google. Gemini. It's called spending intelligence. And, maybe we should start by discussing what it can do

00:01:33:06 - 00:01:37:00
Unknown
apparently you can compare spending across different categories.

00:01:37:02 - 00:01:49:06
Unknown
You can't check how much you've sent to specific pay. You can't view spending across more than a one year period, and you can't get budgeting or savings advice. So maybe, maybe you could tell us a little bit about what it

00:01:49:14 - 00:01:58:18
Unknown
Yeah, I've had the opportunity to test it, and, Yeah, like I said at the top of the show, I'm really unimpressed by this. So I've got it up here on my phone right now, and we can ask it some questions.

00:01:58:19 - 00:02:08:16
Unknown
this is spending intelligence. Let's just well, let's just start with what can you do?

00:02:08:18 - 00:02:14:10
Unknown
Okay. It's thinking, it's scheming. Oh, okay.

00:02:14:11 - 00:02:28:23
Unknown
How much did I spend last month? Should be quite an easy one. Okay. All right. Okay.

00:02:31:20 - 00:02:35:05
Unknown
Starling Group, we are excited to be launching Spending Intelligence

00:02:35:05 - 00:02:39:09
Unknown
They can ask questions such as how much did I spend eating out last month?

00:02:39:11 - 00:02:41:21
Unknown
Or how much did I spend on bills last year?

00:02:41:21 - 00:02:42:20
Unknown
where it lacks, like,

00:02:43:03 - 00:03:07:12
Unknown
complexity or intelligence is its ability to aggregate, like spending categories and, pays. And so you could be like, well, how much did I spend in total last month between like entertainment, groceries and possibly like include a pay maybe like you have a cleaner who's like a, a sole trader that you pay to a person account and you want to have a look at how much you're spending on them versus other categories.

00:03:07:12 - 00:03:08:10
Unknown
You can't do that

00:03:08:11 - 00:03:33:13
Unknown
don't know if that's a fault of Starling Bank. Well, it they released this product, but I think yeah, I think Starling will have difficulty making this product, much more advanced than it already is because they're at the behest of regulation, right? They can't, and GDPR, they can't grab your data to such detail, and they definitely don't want to be sharing it with Google, Gemini or or that and potentially having the chat bot trained on it.

00:03:33:15 - 00:03:38:01
Unknown
So they're kind of constrained by regulation, how much they can actually offer with this.

00:03:38:02 - 00:03:46:06
Unknown
I just wish that they possibly didn't call this artificial intelligence. Yeah. Or spending intelligence. Why not just call it like spending search?

00:03:46:07 - 00:03:49:08
Unknown
call it what it is. Yeah. And it's just like a glorified search bot

00:03:49:09 - 00:04:00:16
Unknown
can just gather a little bit of extra data for you, save you a bit of time, because ultimately you could just draw the data you could extract in a CSV, and if you wanted to, you could drop it to ChatGPT and ask you to do a lot more than this.

00:04:00:18 - 00:04:04:17
Unknown
Not suggesting you share your banking details with your banking data with GPT, but

00:04:04:18 - 00:04:10:19
Unknown
you could just do, you know, a little bit work on Excel and, and gather far more insight than this.

00:04:10:20 - 00:04:15:02
Unknown
I think the biggest problem I have with this is that it's just not intelligent enough. And

00:04:15:03 - 00:04:23:16
Unknown
maybe that's maybe that's because we've been kind of trained now to, expect our expectations of artificial intelligence is so much greater than what they can actually

00:04:23:17 - 00:04:25:20
Unknown
do, particularly in the context of banking.

00:04:25:20 - 00:04:29:00
Unknown
And and that's why this isn't really making much of a splash.

00:04:29:01 - 00:04:48:09
Unknown
Yeah. No, Johnny, I think it's. It's clearly underwhelming, as you said already. Not sure that we are. Were overwhelmed by all the other, artificial intelligence tools out there. And functionalities. I think starlings could be under-delivering here. And I'd be curious why. You mentioned it could be. Could be due to data minimization.

00:04:48:09 - 00:04:52:07
Unknown
I'm not sure to be honest, because they have they have Google Gemini integrated theirs.

00:04:52:07 - 00:04:53:00
Unknown
Right. So

00:04:53:00 - 00:05:04:18
Unknown
it already has access to your data. I don't know like we might want to might, might be worth actually trying to, explore that in detail by reading their data policy. Of Starling.

00:05:04:22 - 00:05:10:20
Unknown
They've said that Gemini can't be. Can't use, like, your your queries or your prompts to train the model.

00:05:10:21 - 00:05:11:18
Unknown
All right. Yeah,

00:05:11:18 - 00:05:12:17
Unknown
I get that.

00:05:12:17 - 00:05:19:15
Unknown
I'm not sure if that's the best way forward. I would personally probably prefer functionality over data

00:05:20:16 - 00:05:38:15
Unknown
Or you just don't don't integrate something like this. But, like what? What you shouldn't do under all circumstances is integrate a half finished product into your banking app and and call it intelligent. If it's clearly. Yeah, not not going to say dumb, but, you know what I mean, right. Lacking features.

00:05:38:18 - 00:05:54:02
Unknown
It's the race to be first. You know they are the first bank to do this. And maybe they race to do it because they want to be seen as more advanced possibly in a, in a, in an, in an environment when they're kind of lacking or falling behind. This was an opportunity for them to step ahead.

00:05:54:03 - 00:06:09:09
Unknown
Yeah. There's there's a lot of pressure on corporations to do something with artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is a huge password nowadays. And as soon as you you have something intelligent, called something artificially intelligent in your in your product line up,

00:06:09:09 - 00:06:16:20
Unknown
you have a different standing with investors, with the public in general. Because you are you considered a very advanced company.

00:06:16:22 - 00:06:19:00
Unknown
And I guess that's, that's happening here as well.

00:06:19:00 - 00:06:35:23
Unknown
you think that people would be interested in greater features and better logic within the language model? If you consented to it? So it asks you, you know, do you want to share your details, your pay details? The people who paid your banking spending data

00:06:36:00 - 00:06:37:18
Unknown
so we can give you more insight.

00:06:37:19 - 00:06:47:10
Unknown
Let's be realistic, though, Johnny. How many people would actually decline that and say, hey, I don't want to share my, my, my detailed payment data with Google.

00:06:47:10 - 00:06:50:09
Unknown
many are going to do that? I think it's the minority.

00:06:50:09 - 00:07:13:00
Unknown
What about if they could just at least keep it in-house? Like, I'm obviously I'm not an engineer. I'm a dummy, but, couldn't they build this themselves and keep, like, at least at this basic level, like what I've used, Gemini is so powerful that this is not powerful. And why? Why can't they just build this in, in, like, to this capability themselves?

00:07:13:00 - 00:07:29:06
Unknown
And then they could at least have all of the data walled in privately, which they already have access to anyway, rather than having to get Google in to then have the constraints of, well, we can't do much with this because we don't want to share your data with Google.

00:07:29:07 - 00:07:31:10
Unknown
well, if they can answer that question, they can answer the next

00:07:31:11 - 00:07:40:23
Unknown
When are we getting the credit card? Because if you're going to launch in the US, you're going to need a credit card. Okay. And we've talked about this before. But in the United States of America, credit cards are king

00:07:41:00 - 00:07:46:13
Unknown
question. For sure. I guess a credit card would be incredibly useful in the US. And they probably understand that,

00:07:46:13 - 00:07:55:09
Unknown
they probably. Yeah, that would probably be the first thing they'd be launching after acquiring an existing bank with a banking license or getting one themselves.

00:07:55:09 - 00:08:03:23
Unknown
I do however, like the idea of, using engine to transform an existing, maybe less digitized U.S bank or.

00:08:03:23 - 00:08:05:04
Unknown
creating a bank themselves.

00:08:05:04 - 00:08:06:12
Unknown
the US still feels quite

00:08:06:13 - 00:08:09:14
Unknown
archaic in its banking means even in 2025, right?

00:08:09:15 - 00:08:18:22
Unknown
you think there's still an opportunity for a breakout digital bank in the US? I mean, I know we've got Chime and Revolut trying, but it's hard because of regulation to even get a banking license in the US.

00:08:18:22 - 00:08:25:03
Unknown
But that is changing because of the Trump administration. That's why Starling Bank are making this move now because of deregulation.

00:08:25:04 - 00:08:25:16
Unknown
Or for sure.

00:08:53:02 - 00:08:56:19
Unknown
So where they get.

00:08:56:20 - 00:09:01:18
Unknown
research, and, Yeah, it happened to be the case. I could have. I could not imagine

00:09:01:18 - 00:09:04:17
Unknown
to the. Do they take a horse?

00:09:04:18 - 00:09:10:11
Unknown
they, they use the Covid. That's on a regional level, I assume, with these, these big banks, you don't have that problem.

00:09:10:11 - 00:09:38:09
Unknown
But, in general, there's a lot of potential. The US is a huge market, right? 350 million or so population. So it's incredibly big. And it's the biggest economy in the world as well. And that that combined with the fact that there is some. Yeah, yeah. The digital, digitization is lacking a little bit, in terms of banking, I think that's a good combination here and a lot of potential coming out of it.

00:09:38:11 - 00:09:42:18
Unknown
And that's also one of the reasons why you see these mobile wallets being so popular in the U.S.

00:09:43:17 - 00:09:44:10
Unknown
Yeah.

00:09:44:11 - 00:09:57:09
Unknown
Venmo. And there's several more. That's not not the case in Europe, at least not in Germany. So much I can't think of one aside from PayPal. That's really. Yeah, like like like a pure mobile wallet without

00:09:59:13 - 00:10:03:08
Unknown
to receive funds and send, and send them out again.

00:10:03:08 - 00:10:13:05
Unknown
like you said you've got like Venmo for example on one end of the spectrum. Then you've got like your legacy regional bank. And then is this what Starling, a starling trying to meet in the middle of the two

00:10:13:06 - 00:10:15:10
Unknown
assume that that's what they're trying,

00:10:15:10 - 00:10:18:15
Unknown
and that's what Revolut, is trying as well. My opinion.

00:10:18:15 - 00:10:22:04
Unknown
Klarna as well, which is which is an upcoming topic. We'll talk about that in a few

00:10:22:04 - 00:10:23:05
Unknown
Yeah.

00:10:23:06 - 00:10:23:20
Unknown
Yeah we will,

00:10:23:21 - 00:10:28:18
Unknown
but first I want to talk about this story from Chase UK. Ian I want to tell you all about this.

00:10:28:19 - 00:10:30:11
Unknown
basically Chase UK.

00:10:30:12 - 00:10:35:10
Unknown
had a complaint made against them by neurodivergent lady recording her Mrs. C.

00:10:35:11 - 00:10:39:01
Unknown
Mrs. C was upset because the app doesn't provide dark mode and

00:10:39:02 - 00:10:44:14
Unknown
She felt like she didn't matter as a result of that. So she complained to the Financial Ombudsman,

00:10:44:15 - 00:10:49:15
Unknown
who actually ruled in her favor yarn, and awarded her a lump sum of money

00:10:49:16 - 00:10:51:00
Unknown
Do you use dark mode?

00:10:51:01 - 00:10:57:13
Unknown
Well, I personally don't, Johnny, but it's just my my preference. I do know people that use doc mode on a daily basis.

00:10:58:03 - 00:11:05:04
Unknown
I like it

00:11:05:05 - 00:11:13:18
Unknown
My life is in dark mode.

00:11:13:20 - 00:11:16:08
Unknown
Sure.

00:11:16:09 - 00:11:22:10
Unknown
it helps them access, these these these products. Right. It's needed.

00:11:22:10 - 00:11:23:18
Unknown
this lady, it's obviously needed

00:11:23:19 - 00:11:25:12
Unknown
something to do with being neurodivergent.

00:11:25:13 - 00:11:38:14
Unknown
So Chase said no. Chase said no. They said JPMorgan Chase, the world's largest bank on the on the road to being the first trillion dollar bank, said, no, we can't do this. We can't have dark mode because it would be expensive. And

00:11:38:15 - 00:11:40:04
Unknown
colossal.

00:11:40:06 - 00:12:07:23
Unknown
It's their words. And,

00:12:08:00 - 00:12:09:15
Unknown
paying out these compensations?

00:12:09:15 - 00:12:16:16
Unknown
That's a good point. Well, according to Chase UK, it's probably cheaper to pay out the compensation because that's. They're saying that it's a colossal and expensive,

00:12:16:17 - 00:12:23:14
Unknown
But let's lighten up. Yeah. And because I have a really serious question that I need to ask you, I've been meaning to ask you this.

00:12:23:15 - 00:12:24:14
Unknown
Go ahead.

00:12:24:14 - 00:12:27:02
Unknown
Are you familiar with Jammie Dodgers?

00:12:29:00 - 00:12:31:11
Unknown
do you like biscuits?

00:12:31:12 - 00:12:49:21
Unknown
good. Well, we have a new bank account you can't account in the UK. It's, based on the Jammie Dodger, and it's called biscuit. Oh, it's round the wrong way. Sorry, sorry, sorry, everyone.

00:12:49:22 - 00:12:52:03
Unknown
Is that a biscuit brand or.

00:12:52:03 - 00:13:03:16
Unknown
So it's not a brand, per se. It's a type of biscuit. It's got a really crusty crusty. It's got a really crunchy exterior. And inside you've got some jam in the middle. It works.

00:13:03:17 - 00:13:13:00
Unknown
Yeah, that's the biscuit. That's the Dodger. It works extremely well. Both, like on its own as a lonely biscuit. Or if you pair it with a cup of tea

00:13:13:01 - 00:13:26:03
Unknown
Now that's quintessentially British. It's one of our main kind of hobbies here in the UK is dunking biscuits in tea. It's what we're really good at. We've been doing it for many years. And now we have the biscuit bank.

00:13:26:04 - 00:13:28:11
Unknown
you get a current account with 2% interest,

00:13:28:12 - 00:13:32:07
Unknown
a little bit like Cru bank, right? Another bank in the UK, yarn that launched with

00:13:32:08 - 00:13:35:06
Unknown
somewhere between 3 and 4% interest on a current account.

00:13:35:07 - 00:13:42:05
Unknown
you know, a bit of a higher interest rate on your current account, which is okay. Arguably, you shouldn't be depositing too much money in your current account anyway, only enough to cover your bills and your spending.

00:13:42:06 - 00:13:47:15
Unknown
And then we've got the big headline is 2% cashback yarn on direct debits,

00:13:47:16 - 00:13:51:22
Unknown
Now there's no other bank in the UK that's providing that right now. Santander edge

00:13:51:23 - 00:13:53:07
Unknown
it's 3 pounds a month.

00:13:53:08 - 00:14:01:03
Unknown
1% on household bills and NatWest the reward account, and 4 pounds for paying two or more direct debits.

00:14:01:04 - 00:14:02:16
Unknown
you could have a 2% cashback.

00:14:02:16 - 00:14:03:03
Unknown
And then

00:14:03:04 - 00:14:08:00
Unknown
I thought, wow, 2% cashback, my mortgage may 1,700 pounds a month.

00:14:08:01 - 00:14:09:15
Unknown
2% on that. That's awesome.

00:14:09:16 - 00:14:10:18
Unknown
Unfortunately, though,

00:14:10:19 - 00:14:13:10
Unknown
it's capped up to 1,500 pounds a year.

00:14:13:11 - 00:14:16:11
Unknown
The maximum amount of money you can make on this is 30 pounds.

00:14:16:12 - 00:14:20:12
Unknown
So again, like that's what I'm saying. It takes the biscuit mate, because it kind of fizzles out a little bit.

00:14:20:12 - 00:14:20:23
Unknown
You know,

00:14:21:00 - 00:14:43:09
Unknown
has a bit of a crunch, but it doesn't taste that good. You do get 7%. I just jump. Yeah, you do get, you know, you're okay. You do get 7% on a regular saver. 7.10%. You can deposit up to 300 pounds a month. So there's a little bit of a boost in savings right there.

00:14:43:11 - 00:14:44:10
Unknown
There's no overseas

00:14:44:11 - 00:14:51:07
Unknown
fixed fee transactions or, exchange rate markup because you get Visa's exchange rates. So it's a good international spending card.

00:14:51:08 - 00:14:54:02
Unknown
they don't offer the current account switching service here either. Yan.

00:14:54:03 - 00:14:58:10
Unknown
I mean, they clearly, I think trying to target savers with 7.1% and bill payers, but

00:14:58:11 - 00:15:08:13
Unknown
it's pittance. It's really pittance, up to 30 pounds a year in cashback. I mean, if you want me to change my bank account, change my direct debits for that,

00:15:08:14 - 00:15:12:07
Unknown
one of my favorite biscuits is a hobnob.

00:15:12:09 - 00:15:18:16
Unknown
And this is not a hobnob. To me this is more like a rich tea.

00:15:18:17 - 00:15:21:03
Unknown
Yeah. Interesting point. Maybe something to it, though. Johnny.

00:15:21:09 - 00:15:25:08
Unknown
Sure.

00:15:25:10 - 00:15:30:10
Unknown
Okay.

00:15:30:11 - 00:15:46:05
Unknown
they're doing this obviously to attract, some customers at first, which makes sense from a strategic point of view. But we've seen banks, launch these kind of very attractive offers at first and then and then cut down once they reach a certain amount of customers.

00:15:46:05 - 00:15:47:07
Unknown
And I expect this to happen.

00:15:47:07 - 00:15:53:11
Unknown
I think it's really difficult for banks these days to stand out without having to spend millions

00:15:53:12 - 00:16:02:08
Unknown
because we're just so used to having like the high bar set of Chase UK, and just generally like the way that banks just give out free money when you sign up, like

00:16:02:09 - 00:16:05:06
Unknown
ongoing cashback offers like this just aren't that enticing.

00:16:05:08 - 00:16:07:09
Unknown
Even if you go for 2% instead of 1%.

00:16:07:10 - 00:16:14:13
Unknown
if we just move on to Klarna here for a moment. Yeah, and I think this is somewhat quite small, but if you're familiar with Klarna, I think it's quite interesting.

00:16:14:14 - 00:16:17:13
Unknown
the big story here is that now launching a bank account,

00:16:17:14 - 00:16:24:13
Unknown
they piloted a debit card in the US, in partnership with visa. And why I think this is interesting is because they also

00:16:24:14 - 00:16:29:16
Unknown
recently launched mobile plans, which is something that our friends over at Revolut Yan recently did.

00:16:29:17 - 00:16:30:19
Unknown
Just before Trump

00:16:30:20 - 00:16:33:11
Unknown
announced his new tariffs, Khan were on the verge of

00:16:33:12 - 00:16:34:07
Unknown
doing an IPO.

00:16:34:08 - 00:16:34:19
Unknown
And

00:16:34:20 - 00:16:36:19
Unknown
the tariffs upended the market

00:16:36:20 - 00:16:38:00
Unknown
caused a lot of chaos.

00:16:38:01 - 00:16:48:05
Unknown
And as a result, they paused the IPO and then all of a sudden they've gone. Now they've gone away and they've started this new banking product. We've got mobile plans, and they're seemingly releasing more and more products and features

00:16:48:06 - 00:16:52:06
Unknown
do you, do you want to open a Klarna bank account?

00:16:52:07 - 00:16:59:22
Unknown
wouldn't be opposed to do so, to be honest, Johnny, if the features are attractive enough. And I know for a fact that in in Europe, they have a few.

00:16:59:22 - 00:17:05:11
Unknown
savings accounts. They actually offer different tiers, with different, different interest. And,

00:17:05:11 - 00:17:09:19
Unknown
deposit in short. So I don't, I don't see why why, why one shouldn't, shouldn't open one of them.

00:17:09:19 - 00:17:16:14
Unknown
I believe one of the main reasons why they're trying to transform themselves into a new bank right now, before this IPO

00:17:16:14 - 00:17:28:01
Unknown
is, that they're struggling with the buy now, pay later business model, which has, experience a large amount of credit losses in the past. Right. So it's not not really favorable, conditions for an IPO.

00:17:28:03 - 00:17:29:16
Unknown
If you have a business that's kind of.

00:17:29:16 - 00:17:41:23
Unknown
Not very profitable. Maybe in a field where, where the general outlook is kind of negative. You don't want to go go ahead with your initial public offering.

00:17:41:23 - 00:17:54:17
Unknown
You said yourself about the general outlook being quite negative. And I mean it has been we have had like heightened levels of inflation. We have had like market turmoil. We've had wars in Ukraine and

00:17:54:18 - 00:18:00:16
Unknown
but we've certainly not lived through like an 0708, like property, like market meltdown.

00:18:00:17 - 00:18:06:16
Unknown
And I think maybe some people are frightened of Connor. Investors are frightened of Clyne because we haven't properly seen how it's how it would operate

00:18:06:17 - 00:18:09:18
Unknown
in a world of like real economic failure.

00:18:09:19 - 00:18:25:12
Unknown
Whereas like, I guess if you can go into banking, if you can accumulate like deposits from savings accounts or greater deposits from savings accounts, that will secure your balance sheet more than having just like loads of leverage, having like lent loads of money out, and then all of a sudden there's a credit crunch.

00:18:25:13 - 00:18:30:00
Unknown
danger here. Especially if they're already struggling, with this kind of business model.

00:18:30:00 - 00:18:31:21
Unknown
who knows? Like, maybe maybe they would fail,

00:18:31:21 - 00:18:35:21
Unknown
totally failed, become bankrupt at some point, especially if it's not profitable right now.

00:18:35:21 - 00:18:39:13
Unknown
And that's why it has a lot of a lot of pressure to make this transformation.

00:18:48:19 - 00:18:53:15
Unknown
Yeah, yeah. Me too.

00:18:53:16 - 00:19:01:01
Unknown
You're always the optimist. I like it. You're right. They are very innovative. They are a financial tech organization. And it should be quite interesting to see how they approach this.

00:19:01:02 - 00:19:08:14
Unknown
it's funny really how the landscape or the way that people are attracted to banks and where they deposit their money has changed significantly over the last decade

00:19:08:15 - 00:19:15:00
Unknown
15, 20 years, probably because like 20 years ago, people would only deposit money with places that were incredibly secure or

00:19:15:01 - 00:19:17:12
Unknown
and built up years and years of reputational credibility.

00:19:17:12 - 00:19:22:03
Unknown
But now it's like, well, we know Connor, we're going to be FDIC insured in the US.

00:19:22:04 - 00:19:29:22
Unknown
So your money is safe. So let's just try it because they're going to be they're going to do something unique and something interesting. And that's a really good place to be right now.

00:19:29:22 - 00:19:35:09
Unknown
If you're a fintech looking to get into banking because consumers are open to to trying new things.

00:19:35:10 - 00:19:49:19
Unknown
And like Yann said, you know, it'll be interesting to see what they offer and that could be quite compelling. You did mention interest rates from Klarna. So should we use this opportunity now to segue into the interest rates that we have currently for the European Union?

00:19:49:20 - 00:19:55:13
Unknown
Let's do exactly that. And this is, this is the first time here, so any feedback from the audience is always welcome.

00:19:55:13 - 00:20:17:13
Unknown
On the June 5th meeting, the ECB cut the rates by 25 basis points, which obviously, led to a, a decrease in interest rates that are being offered by banks. Right now, that's the, different easy access accounts across the European Union that are available in several market markets, with with quite attractive rates, in my opinion.

00:20:17:13 - 00:20:45:10
Unknown
We have bank with 2.6% with N26 with 2.25% in certain markets like like Spain, Italy, and some other markets, they offer less 2% in Germany, for example. And German customers, they, they get the ECB linked interest rate but only the middle ones. Trade with public offers, the ECB interest rates without any cut. And you don't have to pay for it, which is really nice in my opinion.

00:20:45:12 - 00:20:53:10
Unknown
And then you have Klarna up to 2.25% depending on the market, in Germany and a few other markets, a little bit less.

00:20:53:10 - 00:20:59:03
Unknown
there are also a few other players that seem more attractive at first, but really aren't when you have a closer look.

00:20:59:05 - 00:21:14:21
Unknown
As an example. Com direct offers 3% for the first six months, which are obviously very attractive. But only 0.75% afterwards. Contrast bank similar situation 2.8% for three months at first, 1% afterwards.

00:21:14:21 - 00:21:15:20
Unknown
general question

00:21:15:20 - 00:21:20:10
Unknown
which other market should we cover in our interest rate overview? Please just

00:21:20:10 - 00:21:27:17
Unknown
It. It's looking pretty bleak in the European Union, isn't it? I suppose that base rate doesn't really help,

00:21:27:18 - 00:21:38:20
Unknown
you know, but fortunately, it's a result of inflation coming down. Whereas in the UK. Well, the current base rate is 4.25%. The Bank of England is scheduled to meet again on the 7th of August. I think this is important to mention.

00:21:38:20 - 00:21:44:03
Unknown
We don't know what they're going to do. I think we can predict that they'll stay. The same will come down. They're not going to put the interest rates up.

00:21:44:04 - 00:21:52:20
Unknown
that's important to mention because the 7th of August is still a while away. So between now and then, it's very likely that the rates I discuss now will probably remain relatively similar.

00:21:52:21 - 00:22:01:12
Unknown
Possibly set a reminder in your calendar for the 7th of August that you're prepared for that meeting, just in case things change, particularly if you're using a variable easy access account where the rate could change any moment.

00:22:01:13 - 00:22:07:17
Unknown
And one of the best rates at the moment is the easy access account from atom Bank at 4.75%.

00:22:07:18 - 00:22:11:03
Unknown
This gives you unlimited access so you can withdraw the money as you please.

00:22:11:04 - 00:22:19:08
Unknown
Then there's the Family Building Society 4.52%. Really straightforward account. There's unlimited withdrawals and you can deposit up to 250,000 pounds into that account.

00:22:19:09 - 00:22:20:16
Unknown
Notice accounts. Now

00:22:20:17 - 00:22:23:21
Unknown
All Sky bank have a notice period of 95 days

00:22:23:22 - 00:22:27:22
Unknown
and it's 4.6%. So you know you've got that interest rate for 95 days.

00:22:27:23 - 00:22:38:07
Unknown
That's way beyond August. So that means that if interest rates do come down, all the banks are going to jump on that. They're going to reduce their interest rates. Will this RCI bank rate will remain the same for 95 days.

00:22:38:08 - 00:22:43:15
Unknown
You'll also get an advance warning ahead of time if they're going to reduce the rate, which is quite nice. How kind of them

00:22:43:16 - 00:22:46:20
Unknown
fixed term accounts. I'm not going to go into too much detail over these because

00:22:46:21 - 00:22:54:17
Unknown
this isn't financial advice, but fixes right now just aren't that compelling. I can put a table up right now so you can have a look, but they're really not that good.

00:22:54:17 - 00:22:58:03
Unknown
I mean, Hawkesbury Bank, 4.48%, six for six months.

00:22:58:04 - 00:23:01:20
Unknown
But the Banking Without Borders UK rate of the month

00:23:01:21 - 00:23:03:18
Unknown
the Plum Cash Isa.

00:23:03:19 - 00:23:04:19
Unknown
And this includes

00:23:04:20 - 00:23:11:19
Unknown
a variable rate. So rate that could change if the Bank of England reduce interest rates of 3.29%.

00:23:11:20 - 00:23:13:00
Unknown
And that is paid monthly.

00:23:13:01 - 00:23:16:07
Unknown
And there's a fixed rate of 1.69% for the first year.

00:23:16:08 - 00:23:27:07
Unknown
I think it's a really good rate and it's a really good account. If you're able to just deposit 20,000 or deposit a sum of money and forget about it and leave it, because if you make a withdrawal, there won't be a penalty.

00:23:27:09 - 00:23:32:21
Unknown
But if you make three withdrawals per year, sorry, if you make full withdrawals, then your rate will drop.

00:23:32:22 - 00:23:35:00
Unknown
So if you're able to just leave the money alone,

00:23:35:01 - 00:23:36:03
Unknown
then this is a good account.

00:23:36:04 - 00:23:52:22
Unknown
Okay. So that's everything that we have for today. I hope you enjoyed the video. Hope you enjoyed listening. If we're currently in your ears, as always, if you'd like to support Jan and I, please do consider subscribing to us on YouTube. If you're watching, like the video and subscribing to our podcast and we'll, we'll catch up with you next week.

00:23:52:22 - 00:23:53:13
Unknown
Right?

00:23:53:14 - 00:24:01:12
Unknown
will. Thanks, Johnny. For for, moderating this this outro. And thanks everyone else for, for listening. In case you have any feedback, please