I understand that connected accounts and the features that come with that such as all your budgeting and breakdowns come with Monzo plus however I think since it runs off open banking API which other banks make available to people for free it would be good to allow one connected credit card and/or current account and then if you like it and want to add or include more then make that a paywalled feature of Monzo plus. For example a customer might want to use an Amex credit card for spending and Monzo as their main account for salary and bills and other debit spending and still want to see their spending insights in Monzo for the Amex but not want to pay extra for plus (which has, to its credit got lots of other great features). I don’t think this would take away from the value of plus but would add value to standard Monzo. Thoughts?
And what happens when that person already pays but now won’t pay anymore?
I think it’s a terrible idea personally. Monzo want to encourage people to spend, not give more away for free when people are already paying.
The Monzo integration is much better than other banks, so it’s not something that is free elsewhere.
There are loads of other features that you’d get with plus, “extra” connected accounts (if one was free for the free version of Monzo), virtual cards, the extra spending categories, interest, different Monzo card, credit score, etc. having ONE connected account isn’t worth £5 a month alone. Some people might not need all the other features.
I’ll agree that Monzo integration is second to none however
And maybe people don’t need those? Or want? Or use them?
If you start to dilute and give away features that people pay for, by its nature you will find people that don’t want to pay anymore because the thing they care about is now free.
Monzo have been giving away 3 month free trials instead of things like this at the moment.
I’d say on balance of probability very few people (out of all paying customers) pay £5 a month just to see one connected account in Monzo and use no other plus features. But that’s just my two cents.
The converse could be said that say Starling offered connected accounts with their budgeting features as a free feature (as they have for virtual cards for example) then you could argue then wouldn’t paying Monzo customers switch banks to get the same features for free. Wouldn’t it be better to keep customers in one place than for them to pack and up and go. Just another thought.
You could apply this argument to any Monzo Plus feature and it’s of course easier said than done. We often get “X should be free because Y give it away” arguments but it’s the commerciality of doing so which matters most.
If one bank gives it away for free, they’re likely to be making up the cost elsewhere. So it’s swings and roundabouts.
Monzo Plus seems to be doing well for Monzo at the moment, perhaps it’s something to consider for the future but as of now I don’t think they need to rock the apple cart by suddenly giving parts away. (ongoing trial aside as that’s only temporary).