Monzo ramps up the banking battle for Gen Alpha
Monzo has made a major play to secure the next generation of savers as banking giants look to secure a grip on the Gen Alpha market.
The London-based fintech has added a three percent interest rate to its savings account for Under 16s.
This catapults Monzo above its rivals’ rate offer for children’s accounts. TSB offers a 2.5 per cent rate whilst Natwest and Nationwide propose 2.05 per cent rate and two per cent.
Monzo now sits level with Santander’s ‘mini’ account.
The digital bank said its focus on the age group – those born from 2010 onwards – comes after data revealed they were a generation of “piggy bankers”.
Under 16s are missing out on £162m every month through not earning interest on savings, Monzo found. The firm said over 80 per cent of eight to 15-year-olds were setting aside savings at least once a month.
Banking disruptors target Gen Alpha
Starling and Revolut – Monzo’s fintech rivals – kicked off their plays for the youngest generations with the launch of junior accounts in 2020. Revolut’s kids and teens account has an interest rate of starting at 3.5 per cent whilst Starling’s ‘Kite’ does not offer interest.
The fight for the youngest generation poses a new battle for Britain’s banking disruptors who have captured current account switchers from the legacy lenders.
Monzo ranked second, behind Nationwide, for the highest net gains in account switchers for the first three months of 2025 with 8850.
Whilst Lloyds, Natwest, and Barclays all bled customers. Barclays scored the worst with a net loss of 22,334. The period also coincided with Barclays’ major outage that left some customers unable to access their online banking for up to 48 hours.
Nationwide – which handed customers £2.8bn in the last year through a mix of reward schemes – welcomed nearly 73,000 switchers compared to 17,000 outflows, according to Pay.uk data.
Whilst the battle to capture switchers rumbles on, the legacy lenders and the modern banks face a fresh fight to seal the youngest generation.