Experts advise using Pockit only if you’re looking for an average current account and prepaid card (6.7/10). The app itself is interesting but the account itself is functionally limited (5.4/10) and you pay too much for foreign currency spend (6/10) so it’s a poor choice for anyone looking for extensive banking options or those that travel internationally often. While Pockit is a trusted e-money platform (7.6/10), its users largely love it (7.9/10).
Is Pockit Safe
Pockit is safe to use for all everyday transactional purposes. FCA-regulated electronic money issuer, the platform is licensed. Still, although the company itself is completely trustworthy and legit, customers do take a small risk by holding their balance with Pockit. Unlike other big UK challenger banks such as Revolut, Monzo and Monese it has no deposit protection scheme. According to Pockit:
Pockit is an electronic money product, which is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority but is not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. There is no other compensation scheme that covers losses claimed concerning Pockit.
For this reason, it is better the use Pockit to spend money. However not to save money or to transact appreciable quantities of money (aside from the abandonment of deposit insurance, but moreover in light of the functional limitations.
Pockit is a large and trusted company; it has some 500,000 customers in 2021, in terms of company size.
Is Pockit’s card and online account any good
Pockit is one of the many digital money solutions to have risen to prominence in the UK in recent years, providing savvy fintech to nearly half a million customers across the country, with its flexible prepaid debit cards. Money can be deposited into a prepaid account using a bank transfer or a debit or credit card, while at any one of around 28 thousand PayPoint stores across the UK. Although it’s not a fully fledged bank, the Pockit prepaid account works in the same way as a normal current account so you can have your pay cheque paid into it as you would at Barclays or Lloyds’ account. To serve this purpose, Pockit gives customers their own unique sort code and bank account number.
In particular, we like Pockit because it simplifies how you manage your spending and take in what your financial habits are. The account is extremely functional to use for everyday life thanks to its capabilities such as direct debit and international transfer, both in partnership with Wise. Pockit also has a feature called Pockit LOQBOX. Where you can choose to ‘lock’ up to £200 a month (or as little as £20 a month) into a quasi-savings account and Pockit will repay it all to your prepaid account after a year. LOQBOX is a handy feature for improving credit scores but, as it accrues no interest, it isn’t the most saving feature in the world.
Pockit account
Unlike many other mobile-only banks, Pockit doesn’t offer different tiered plans. They just give you a regular prepaid debit card with everyone paying the same fees. But Pockit has a ‘Simple account’, ‘full account’, and ‘enhanced limit account’, all three of which essentially do the same thing and differ only in that they have different bank transfer top-up limits. Raising PayPoint cash deposits is dependent on one’s account type.
It’s pretty fast and easy to sign up for an account on pockit.com or through the mobile app pockit claims you can do so in three minutes. But if you run into any problems, you’ll need to spend a little more time. Moreover, whilst you won’t require a credit check to open a new account with Pockit you will need to have a UK residence. Verification (which is only required if you’d like to upgrade from a “Simple Account”) will involve providing a photo of a valid photo ID and then taking a selfie.
Pockit debit card
Once you’ve signed up, Pockit will email a new debit card to you which, they say, should arrive between two and seven days. Pockit offers Mastercard debit prepaid cards, or essentially debit payoff cards that are linked to your current account as opposed to a savings account. The pockit cards are different in yellow colour and they can be used for contactless and online payments. Pockit sadly hasn’t yet released support for card payments via Google and Android Pay as of December 2021.
Credit: Pockit
You can also link your Pockit account to up to three other people who will then get their debit card. They can be linked to the total balance on the principal account or to the balances of individual accounts.
Pockit mobile app
A central part of Pockit’s platform is mobile apps for iOS (Apple) and Android devices. To use the mobile app, you’ll need to do the following: Applications can be submitted through the Pockit app download or the Pockit website.
This involves filling in your details such as your name, physical address etc and contact information.
To open the account, pay a fee of £0.99. (Pockit does not carry out credit checks but you must be 18 years or older). Once you verify your account with an ID and selfie you will then get upgraded to full account status.
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