This thread is about redundancies. It’s not a story, it’s real. I don’t think there are any “stories” doing the rounds?
What are the chances of Monzo going bust?
Higher, if you leave because you’re worried about them going bust. (But essentially very slim really, but in the end there is always a possibility of any business or bank going bust)
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I don’t intend to leave as I know my funds are protected by the FSCS. (Not trying to kick off a bank run) just curious as monzo is such a new bank who are relatively small and are seemingly facing difficulty.
On the Plus relaunch, extrapolating and perhaps wildly, from the messaging we have had, I am imagining that the projections for its profitability have been wildly impacted by the incoming recession.
You have obviously the travel limitations which will likely be with us for the rest of the year, so that’s travel products now useless, and maybe other contracts and policies they’ve agreed that are now void or need to be reworked.
Plus, with recession looming I imagine there will be less likelihood of people subscribing.
Add all of that up and I reckon the profits from Plus are now less significant, and perhaps makes Monzo revisit the operating costs of Plus.
Given there’s still no real certainty of what “the new normal” is, it must be damn near impossible to forecast not only what the product should be but how it will perform.
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Mike,
I was not suggesting the redundancies weren’t real, they are and it’s very sad. I’ve been through that process myself.
I’m talking about the bank running into further difficulties. Northern Rock wasn’t in trouble till rumours started and there was a run on the bank as a result. And people tried to draw all their money out. This is what I was referring to, I probably should have explained it better.
Yes the bank is covered by guarantee up to £85,000 and for some that’s fine. And I did invest in the bank and I believe in it. I want to see it being successful.
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That’s fine but that’s not a story that’s running at the moment. It’s something you brought up yourself?
Spectator baited you with their PR. Many companies are returning the money from furlough scheme. They are just not shouting about it…
Time to close the forums then.
Monzo has moved away from the ‘fast lean friendly fun’ startup that they were. Whether we like it or not, they need to adapt their business, in good times and bad, and let us not pretend this community forum is influential. It provides some base ideas I’m sure but they are soon drowned out by the natural desire for people to want exactly what THEY want, which Monzo can’t and should not ever try and provide.
As for the redundancies, it sucks, I’ve been through three myself (and survived two further ones) so I know it’s tough to be on the ‘receiving’ end, but it’s business, and that means money and I’m sure the decisions were not taken lightly (I do believe Monzo cares about their staff).
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And it’s a shame too, because I think despite the Bank growing so much, we can still offer a valuable perspective about how “features work”, or UX flows from a consumer perspective, etc etc. We saw the power of that in Bruno’s redesign thread, and I’ve seen great things when other businesses use that voice well (YNAB, at one point did something similar with their forum).
I get we don’t represent the user base as a whole in terms of banking needs… But I’m sure there’s still value here!
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There is value, but it’s falling.
I still like chatting about fintech and getting others’ perspectives.
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You can have a ferrari but if you only drive it at 30mph is there really a point?
To get the best use out of it they need to re-buy into the community, take that ferrari to to the track and watch it purr 
Monzo is a Ferrari? That’s a bit of a leap.
Although maybe it isn’t. Ferrari being entirely closed door, expensive, limited practical use day to day… no no, keep going, tell me more about this Ferrari? Does it come in Hot Coral?
Imagine a Ferrari in Hot Coral.
Actually, imagine a Lamborghini in Hot Coral instead. I would love for Tom to have one of these!
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its quite a subjective number …" a lot " - out of the 4,280,000 customers how many counts as " a lot "
I had the opposite impression, based on this thread Support chat disappeared from app
There are a few vocal members who were mostly in support of the changes but the majority flatly disagreed with it.
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In my view it was the wrong decision to delay the launch of the new plus due to COVID.
If it’s ready why wait? Monzo are just denying themselves revenue.
Granted less people may choice to sign up during this time but I’m sure if they want they would afterwards.
I would be surprised if there wasn’t an option which didn’t include travel insurance. Perhaps that could (if it exists) launch now and leave the other till later.
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I probably used the wrong phrasing, but I guess my point would be some of the Forum members can act as a pretty good sounding board for how/what the impact of changes may be to the wider user base.
Maybe not “UX feedback” per se, but I think there are generally lots of threads here with users pointing out those challenges in a very constructive way. Case in point - some of the chat around the missing Chat button - I actually think broadly the feedback from The Forum around this was highlighting the problems, and were fair / reflective of what issues and challenges would be seen in the “Real World”.(maybe not all of the chat, all of the time though)
Often times those things are met with “you are not representative of our user base” - which I agree with for things like “Features in Plus”, but thers still a huge area of stuff where I think the Forum is a good “litmus test” for the wider customer base.
Either way though I do think that as Monzo grows, it’s to be expected that Things Change vs the Startup days, Transparency, Speed of feature roll out, engagement on here, whatever else - I think it’s all part and parcel of their growth journey. I don’t think all of that is bad per se, but I think we also have to expect different things as they go through that journey too?
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Because, if it is travel orientated, it would be terrible PR (which is exactly what they don’t want after two or three botched launches already), and they would be selling insurance that people can’t use. The exact reason that N26 were refunding people for a few months ago!
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