I just received confirmation that I have made it to the top of the list for a Mondo card. That alone is great…however and I appreciate that funds are need to open a bank account, this was the case with regards to my high street bank.
I do though fail to see why I need to ‘top up’ £100 pound to open my account. I am self employed and don’t really use my account other than to pay bills and only debit the amount what I need to pay out. This would have been a great option for me but to have a bank account that you need to open with £100, I fail to see the reason for this amount and now realise this is not the option I was kind of looking forward to.
It is credited to your account immediately. If you want, you can go directly to an ATM and withdraw it in its entirety.
It’s intended as a small barrier to entry to ensure that the (very) limited supply of cards only goes to people who are actually genuinely going to use Mondo - not just looking to have a mess about with it.
Hi Tony, whilst I can appreciate £100 is a lot to “open” an account, this is really to encourage people to use the card in their day to day lives, you can of course as @billinghamj mentions go straight to the cashpoint and withdraw the £100 on receiving your card and put it back in your current bank account, stick the card in your wallet and never use it again , but that then kind of really defeats the object of you wanting to get a card in the first place to try out a new kind of bank.
The more you use the card, the more you will realise how it actually lets you see how you are spending your hard earned money, and perhaps will lead you to changing some expensive habits that you didn’t realise were quite as expensive when using cash that you’ve withdrawn from the cashpoint and disappears to god knows where, or you wait for your monthly debit card statement from your bank to see how you’ve spent your 100 quid, or logging on to your internet banking and wait for a couple of days for your spend to be registered .
Again agreeing £100 is a lot , if it was £10 maybe you would use it once to buy a round of drinks and then not bother using it again, Mondo would have had all the trouble of setting your account up, sending you a card and then you use it once and then discard it without knowing what the card does to give an insight to your spending habits - which would help no one .
It always surprises me that a few people are shocked that they have to top up the Mondo card before they receive what is at the moment a pre paid debit card - and presumably this is not initially made clear on the sign up - and should perhaps be addressed by Mondo
not being funny, but what did you want to do with the card, just keep it in your wallet ? this answer would also be useful to Mondo management for understanding why people apply for a pre paid card and are then “shocked” that they have to put an amount of money on it to use it
being self employed and only using the card to pay bills - I would suggest this would be ideal for you ( whilst not being an actual business account ) You initially top up with 100 quid , withdraw 90 quid and then as and when you need to pay bills top up within 1 minute with as much as you need and the touch of a couple of buttons pay your bill - all your bill spends can then be exported to a spreadsheet to see all your bill expenses every month - accounts done- what could be simpler ?
Sending you a card would cost :mondo: money, and they would rather spend that on people who are going to use it (as @billinghamj said ) and spread the word about :mondo:. That way they are helping :mondo: become more popular. If everyone had a :mondo: card and most of them did not fully use it, that would greatly devalue :mondo:.
I must admit I was thrown by that and I too am self employed. However, I did make the topup and my card arrived today. :mondo: is so fresh, it’s great to use a modern account in a modern time. Just so many things outweigh that initial shock.
I was the same and thought no chance but I really wanted to try :mondo: so I ponied up and not looked back since and now :mondo: is my main card in the UK. I just need to remember to take cash out on it instead of my bank.
It costs money to produce and mail a bank card so they need to know people are serious, so if you only want to put £5 in your account you are probably not the sort of customer they would want. Putting £100 in means you are going to use the account and do transactions and that is currently the type of customer they are seeking as this tests the card and app and also gets the card seen.
I was a bit surprised about the £100 initial top-up too. I guess it’s like a bit of an investment in the app but wondering if that value was a deal breaker for some who were expecting less than that value.
I guess I’m comparing Mondo to opening a bank account - that initial amount required. Maybe the £100 is locking out teenagers who don’t have that cash available in their accounts? Actually why is it £100? Why not £50? Is it a requirement from Mastercard?
I believe Mondo can make it whatever they want but to ensure that all card holders are genuine and really want a card they must first make a short term £100 hit which is a reasonable amount for the standard working man. This short term hit will lower the amount of cards given out and only to those that really want it as its just not financially liable to send out 1000s of cards a day.
) You initially top up with 100 quid , withdraw 90 quid and then as and when you need to pay bills top up within 1 minute with as much as you need and the touch of a couple of buttons pay your bill - all your bill spends can then be exported to a spreadsheet to see all your bill expenses every month - accounts done- what could be simpler ?