Monzo vs Chase: Which is better in the battle of the banks?

Monzo and Chase are two digital-only challenger banks in the UK. Challenger banks are financial organisations that are going up against traditional, large high-street banks. They don’t have branches, offering digital-only banking instead which means you manage everything online or in the app. Monzo and Chase are just two examples of this type of financial business. Kroo, Revolut and Starling are all also digital challenger banks. 

Both Monzo and Chase can be fully managed via their apps and have intuitive features to help you understand how you spend your money. Smart Money People reviewers score Monzo and Chase very well, with Chase achieving 4.95/5* by their customers and Monzo 4.93/5*.

Monzo has a bright coral card that you can spot a mile away and Chase has a numberless holographic blue card, both of which are very popular with UK customers. Both offer analysis on your spending, free spending abroad and innovative apps.  

But which is better? 

We’ve compared Monzo and Chase on their sign-up experiences, savings rates, savings features, overdrafts, cashback, customer service and security to find out which one is the best digital bank. 

Monzo vs Chase

Both Monzo and Chase have full banking licences in the UK, which means that they can operate as and call themselves banks. 

Chase doesn’t have any premium tiers or accounts - so the standard account has all the functionality that Chase advertises.  

Monzo has its free account plus three additional paid-for tiers – Extra, Perks and Max.

Extra is £3 per month and offers:

• Connected banks and credit cards
• Virtual cards
• Advanced roundups
• Custom categories
• Auto-spreadsheet
• Credit insights

Perks is £7 per month and includes everything available in Extra plus:

• Variable interest paid monthly
• Fee-free withdrawals up to £600
• Three fee-free cash deposits
• Discounted investment fees
• Annual railcard
• Weekly Greggs treat
• Monthly Vue cinema ticket
• 20% off food at Pizza Express (Sun-Thu)
   

Max costs from £17 per month and includes everything available in Perks plus:

• Personal worldwide travel insurance
• Personal worldwide phone insurance
• Personal UK and Europe breakdown cover
• Add your family to your insurance for an extra £5 per month
  
  

Both Monzo and Chase are digital-only, which means they have no branches so you fully manage the account within the app. 

Sign-up and onboarding

You sign up for both Monzo and Chase using their respective mobile apps. It’s quick and easy with both accounts. 

Once you’ve downloaded the app, you’ll answer on-screen questions - these are pretty basic, including your address, what you do for work and how much you earn. 

With both Monzo and Chase, you have to take a photo of your ID. Chase will also ask you to take a selfie to verify your identity. Monzo will ask you to take a video of yourself saying "Hi, my name is [your name], and I want a Monzo Bank account." You should be verified and confirmed within a few minutes. 

After this, you can order a card and add it to your digital wallet, like Apple Pay or Google Pay, using it before the physical card arrives. 

Neither bank charges for your first card delivery but may charge you if you need to order a replacement card. 

Monzo vs Chase: Savings

With Chase you can set up a Chase Saver Account that pays 3.5% AER on balances up to £3m (at the time of writing). 

In addition, Chase has a round-up feature. This rounds up all the payments you make on your card to the nearest £1 and puts it into your Chase Saver Account automatically. Chase will give your round-up balance a 5% AER (4.89% gross) variable interest boost (at the time of writing).

With Monzo's current account, you can save with its separate savings spaces known as Pots. You can have up to 20 Monzo Pots for specific goals, such as an emergency car fund, a holiday or a house deposit. As with Chase, you can set up round ups which automatically put your spare change into savings. At the moment, Monzo doesn’t pay any interest on savings held in Pots.

You can also set up savings triggers to put money aside using IFTTT (If This, Then That). This makes saving a little fun — for example, you can save money when it rains or when you hit your step goal with your Fitbit. 

Overdrafts and borrowing

Monzo offers an overdraft of up to £3,000 and charges 19%, 29% or 39% EAR (variable) depending on your credit rating. When you’re overdrawn, it keeps you up to date on how much your overdraft costs you throughout the month. 

In addition, it offers a Buy Now, Pay Later credit card called Monzo Flex. This lets you spread the cost of purchases over £100 across three instalments interest-free. For everything else, it’s 29% APR for up to 24 monthly payments. Monzo also offers loans. 

Chase doesn’t have an overdraft facility or any borrowing available at all.

Customer service

Both Monzo and Chase offer customer support through their apps. If you’re not in a rush, then you can send over an email to get help from both banks. 

In addition, they both have help sections within their apps to get general information and answers to common questions.

To find out what Chase and Monzo customers think, our Smart Money People reviewers have been sharing their experiences, so you can read reviews for Chase current accounts and Monzo current accounts.

Protection and security

Both Monzo and Chase are FSCS protected. This means that if either of them went bust, up to £85,000 of the money held in your account is protected and can be claimed back as compensation. 

A great thing about Chase is that you get a numberless card — the details are held within your app if you need to make an online payment. You can open multiple accounts and they’ll all use the same card. You can choose which account to pay from within the app.  

Monzo offers virtual cards which can help you protect your details, but this is only available for Extra, Perks and Max users. 

With both banks, you can freeze your card or order a brand-new one from within the app. You may be charged for replacement cards with both banks.

Cashback and rewards

Chase pays you 1% cashback on all your spending when you open the account, up to a maximum of £15 per month. This is automatically given to you, so you don’t need to opt in, either. 

Monzo pays cashback at specific, popular retailers - these can be quite good, with Trainline, Sainsbury’s and Vinted available before. You have to activate them before making the transaction. 

Is Monzo or Chase better abroad?

Both Monzo and Chase let you spend and withdraw money fee-free when you're abroad. 

With Monzo, your card should work anywhere that Mastercard Is accepted. It will pass Mastercard’s exchange rate directly onto you, too. So as long as you pay in the local currency, you’ll get a good exchange rate. 

You get unlimited free ATM withdrawals if you use Monzo as your main bank account or have a paid plan and travel in the European Economic Area (EEA). All users are capped at £200 free withdrawals every 30 days in non-EEA countries. 

If you don’t use Monzo as your main bank account, then you can only withdraw up to £400 for free each month in EEA countries. If you go over these limits a 3% fee applies.  

When you get back, Monzo will give you a detailed summary of how you spent your money while away. 

With Chase, there’s no spending limit and you can withdraw up to £1,500 each month fee-free. You can also continue to earn 1% cashback on your eligible purchases. Chase has a calculator that will tell you what currency conversion rate you’ll get if you use your Chase card — this is found in ‘Manage card’ in the app. 

In both cases, you’ll need to be careful not to use ATMs that charge for withdrawals, and if you’re asked whether you want to pay in your currency or the local currency, always go for the local one. 

In a nutshell

Monzo and Chase are pretty similar. Monzo is a fully digital fintech, while Chase does have branches in the US, but is fully digital in the UK. Both have great budgeting tools and offer a good analysis of your finances. 

The main differences between Monzo and Chase are:

• Monzo offers an overdraft, the ability to take out a personal loan and buy now, pay later with Monzo Flex. Chase doesn’t offer any kind of borrowing facility. 
• If you’re spending abroad, Chase has better allowances, although Monzo is still a great option if you use it as your main bank account. 
• Chase offers 1% cashback on all your spending, which could get you £15 each month in cashback. Monzo only pays cashback for specific retailers, but they are some of the most popular.
• Chase lets you open several different accounts to split up your budgets, and you can use your card with all the accounts. Monzo only offers this type of feature with its paid option. 
• Chase pays interest on round up balances, but Monzo doesn’t pay any interest at all.

*Ratings on the Smart Money People website in December 2024, when this blog was published.

Please note: This information was accurate as of November 2024, when the article was written. Make sure you do your own research when you take out any financial product.