Our best money experiences

Who do we love?

During August, we’re running a Your Money, Your Voice campaign with our sister site Smart Money People, to encourage you all to talk more about the good and bad interactions you’ve had with banks, insurers and other financial businesses.

The more you all share, whether with friends, strangers or the brands themselves, the more likely it is others can learn more about who they do business with.

Here the Be Clever With Your Cash team talk about the experiences and businesses where we’ve got something good to say!

We’d love to hear about your own experiences, so please do comment at the end.

Some articles on the site contain affiliate links, which provide a small commission to help fund our work. However, they won’t affect the price you pay or our editorial independence. Read more here.

Andy loves… American Express

Andy, Editor-in-chief

It’s easy to shout when customer service or products aren’t up to scratch, so it’s good to be able to share more positive stories.

To be honest, it’s not been hugely easy for the team to find experiences that are universally positive – there always seems to be something that could be better. But I’ll take room for improvement over being consistently poor.

And there’s been one top performer for me over the years – American Express. I love the ongoing cashback and huge welcome offers for their credit cards, as well as the extra offers that can added to your card.

Even though we’ve seen changes to point values, promotions like Shop Small and wider terms and conditions in recent years, they’re still at or close to the top when compared to others.

The Amex customer service is also usually great. They’re friendly, fast and sort out the issue. Most of the time. It’s only been in the last year where I’ve had to fight to sort out a few issues, but previous experiences mean I’m still giving them the benefit of the doubt – for now at least.

Flynn loves… Starling

Flynn, Social media

Around a year ago, I chose to open up both a personal and joint account with Starling. I haven’t stopped raving about them since!

One of my favourite features is their pie chart breakdown, which is right there on the home page when I first open up my app. Monthly and daily spends are categorised with labels like bills, groceries and entertainment, giving a clear visual representation of where my money is going and if I should be cutting back somewhere.

I have a few of the handy “Saving Spaces” open in my personal and joint account, too. Being able to designate little pots for separate savings goals, all whilst having them on-hand if needed, is something that I’ve been finding really useful day-to-day.

Security is something that’s on the top of everyone’s priority list right now, and Starling definitely doesn’t disappoint. Their biometric sign-ins for the app, paired with an automatic sign-out, make me feel assured that someone would have a hard time breaking into my accounts if my phone were to be stolen.

I also want to give a shout-out to the in-branch staff at my hometown’s Halifax. They’ve been fantastic with my 86-year-old grandad recently, taking the time to explain the ins and outs of each of their different savings accounts and walking him through the steps needed to set-up online banking. He’s now feeling a lot more confident with his choices, and has online access to his money for the first time in his life!

Zoe loves… Monzo

Zoe, Senior writer

I’m a huge fan of Monzo and use it as my main bank account. I joined as a Beta user while at university and have found the budgeting features helpful over the years. As most of my friends use Monzo too, it’s a good bank for shared expenses and splitting bills. In addition, I find its savings pots and virtual cards to be a great feature to divide up my spending.  

I have Monzo Premium account and make good use of the travel insurance that’s included. I chose to get the upgrade when going on a cruise, as the six month minimum term was going to cost less than the insurance for that one holiday. I’ve also benefited from the mobile phone insurance, having claimed on it twice with quick and excellent service. 

My partner and I have a joint account, which we use for all of our shared bills, petrol and to save for holidays. 

Another small win for me was with HSBC – when I had a graduate account I made a complaint when an issue wasn’t resolved. HSBC solved the problem and sent me the best bouquet of flowers I’ve ever been given to apologise. 

Katy loves… PensionBee

Katy, writer

I recently set up an account with PensionBee and was incredibly impressed with how easy the whole process was.

The app is really user friendly and as someone who finds pension-speak confusing, the simple and jargon-free content they share is great.

I’ve collected a few different pensions over the years after working some short-term contracts and decided to consolidate them over to PensionBee. This was the best experience of all. No lengthy questionnaires, just my name and policy numbers for them to get started. The app shares real-time updates on the progress of the transfers, the balance of your consolidated fund and easy-to-understand analytics.

I’ve not been a customer for long, but the ease of joining them, the reliability of the app and the level of information they provide has really impressed, rather than confused me!