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Monzo tops latest official banking league table
Monzo has topped the latest official banking service league table, narrowly beating Starling Bank, while Tesco Bank took the wooden spoon.
Since August 2018, the Competition and Markets Authority has required banks to publish information on how likely their customers would be to recommend them to friends, relatives or other businesses. Banks have to update this information every six months.
This is the first time that digital banks Monzo and Starling, as well as Virgin Money, have featured in the results, as they now have enough customers to provide a large enough sample of responses to the survey. Monzo was first on overall service and mobile and online banking, while Starling was the winner when it came to overdrafts.
They both beat the last winner First Direct, which has previously tussled for the top spot with Metro Bank. In the most recent survey, 86% of Monzo customers said they'd recommend the bank to friends and family, compared with 84% of Starling and 83% of First Direct customers.
Tesco Bank slumped into last place, with 44% of its customers saying they'd recommend it to friends and family.
If you're not happy with your bank's service, you could get a free £100 to switch. See our Best Bank Accounts guide for more info.
How did my bank fare?
The independent poll on customer service for banks in Great Britain was conducted between July 2019 and June 2020 by market research company Ipsos Mori.
More than 19,000 current account customers were asked how likely they would be to recommend their provider, its online and app service, overdraft services and service in branch to friends and family. The results show the proportion of customers of each of the largest 19 providers who said they were "extremely likely" or "very likely" to recommend each service.
How likely customers are to recommend their bank
| Provider | Overall service | Online and app service | Overdraft service | Branch service |
| Monzo | 86% | 89% | 69% | N/A (1) |
| Starling Bank | 84% | 88% | 74% | N/A (1) |
| First Direct | 83% | 83% | 73% | N/A (1) |
| Metro Bank | 81% | 85% | 71% | 84% |
| Nationwide | 71% | 81% | 59% | 77% |
| Barclays | 62% | 81% | 58% | 65% |
| Halifax | 62% | 81% | 62% | 69% |
| Santander | 61% | 76% | 55% | 67% |
| Lloyds | 60% | 78% | 55% | 69% |
| Virgin Money | 60% | 75% | 58% | 74% |
| HSBC | 59% | 72% | 58% | 65% |
| NatWest | 58% | 75% | 53% | 64% |
| Bank of Scotland | 58% | 77% | 57% | 67% |
| The Co-operative Bank | 57% | 67% | 56% | 57% |
| Yorkshire Bank | 56% | 71% | 52% | 65% |
| TSB | 51% | 65% | 57% | 65% |
| Clydesdale Bank | 51% | 66% | 50% | 63% |
| RBS | 46% | 71% | 51% | 50% |
| Tesco Bank | 44% | 59% | N/A (2) | N/A (1) |
About 1,000 customers a year are surveyed across Great Britain for each provider. Results are only published where at least 100 customers have provided an eligible score for that service in the survey period. (1) First Direct, Monzo, Starling Bank and Tesco Bank don't have branch networks. (2) Fewer than 100 customers gave an eligible score.
Results are released every February and August. You can read more about the methods of the survey from Ipsos Mori.
There are separate results for Northern Ireland, where Nationwide topped the overall rankings and AIB came bottom.
For more on how to switch your current account provider, see Best Bank Accounts.
What does Tesco Bank say?
A Tesco Bank spokesperson said: "We take the findings of this survey seriously. We value customer feedback and work hard to provide the best experience possible for all the products and services we offer."
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