An update and a big ask!

[Sarahm (Sarah)]

Hi there!

Here’s an update on what we’ve been working on, and a big ask for your thoughts!

We’ve been focussing on doing a lot of research over the past few weeks, and we have some questions that we’d love to hear your thoughts on too.We’re focussing on building a product that makes money work for you, and we plan on doing this by asking you every step of the way for your input.

We’ve spoken to existing Beta customers as well as people who haven’t signed up to Monzo yet, over the last few weeks. We’ve been asking some questions about spending, and this is where we’d love to hear your thoughts too. Your responses will directly shape what Monzo US starts to look like, and what we prioritise on our roadmap, so the more detail you can provide the better!

The questions:

How often do you use your debit card?
How many cards do you have in your wallet, and what are they?
How do you budget your day-to-day spending and how often do you stick to that budget?
What excites you about Monzo?
What would Monzo need to do to be the first card you pull out of your wallet when you go to pay at the store?

Excited to see what you say, and to start building the product you really want to see!

Sarah
Operations

[Kclk (Kevin)]

I have two debit cards, my Monzo card and my primary bank card with Simple.

I also have three credit cards. A discover, chase and Amex.

With simple, every Friday all my bills are sorted into envelopes. Anything left over is for groceries and incidentals.

Monzo’s growth and innovation excites me.

Monzo needs to get the auto sorting I have now with simple to make me go Full Monzo

[jamar0303 (Jason Y)]

All right, point by point:

1. Specifically my Monzo card, only a few times since I first got it (I haven’t managed to put a lot of money into it). Debit cards in general, barely. I usually use them when I need funds to instantly clear for a TransferWise transfer and for ATM transactions (either withdrawal or deposit). I used to use my Discover debit card for small purchases back when it paid out a fixed $0.10 cash back per purchase (so spending a dollar at a vending machine for a soda effectively got me 10% back)

2. Hoo boy. I’m going to be very far from typical here. I have 12 cards right now (yes, my wallet is reaching its limit). ICBC UnionPay credit card, ICBC Global Travel Visa credit card, KEB Hana Bank debit card (China-issued cards), Credit Saison prepaid Visa (Japanese), Bank of Montreal debit card (Canadian), Barclaycard AAdvantage and Ring credit cards, Chase Sapphire Preferred, Citi Costco credit card, Discover credit and debit cards, SoFi Money debit card (this used to be Denizen debit card before they announced their closure), and now Monzo.

Quick explanation for the non-US cards: The Chinese cards are because I do some side work for clients in China and get paid there. The Canadian card is because I keep some of my money in Canadian dollars and go back and forth often (also, it’s Maestro- handy in some European countries). The prepaid Visa is to buy things from Japanese online stores. I top it up with cash when I’m in Japan (which is somewhat often- I make a point of booking a layover in Japan when I travel to and from China).

EDIT: Also, because the Discover debit card doesn’t work outside of North America (and is quite frankly not very well accepted outside the US), it’s removed from my wallet when I’m not in the US.

3. I set a limit each day depending on what I need to do that day. I try to stick to it, but at the same time don’t beat myself up too much if I can’t stick to it. For the most part, not policing myself too hard has worked out OK.

4. The exciting part about Monzo, for me, is being part of the process- banking is one thing, even banking with minimal fees, but being invested in the creation of the final product, being able to say in the future that “I helped make it what it is now” would take it to a whole other level.

5. Protection. Some might say rewards or discounts, but for me, those are secondary. Right now one of the biggest reasons I prefer credit cards is because if my card number leaks and my card is misused, if it’s my debit card then it’s my funds gone while the matter is sorted, whereas with a credit card, it’s just part of my credit line blocked off while the matter is resolved. The assurance that if that were to happen, that I could just tap the bad charge(s), say “that’s not mine”, and poof, the money is immediately back while the matter is being sorted out would help a lot.

[FoxFire720 (Kyle B)]

How often do you use your debit card?

• A few times a month. I’ve been leveraging my CCs more to take advantage of cash back

How many cards do you have in your wallet, and what are they?

• Apple Card
• Capital One Quicksilver
• BoA Debit Card
• PayFlex HSA

How do you budget your day-to-day spending and how often do you stick to that budget?

• weekly, use it more as a guide than a strict plan (trying to change that)

What excites you about Monzo?

• speed of innovation, connection to the customer experience

What would Monzo need to do to be the first card you pull out of your wallet when you go to pay at the store?

• some form of cash back to incentive me to use it for day to day purchases over my CC.

[IslanderNY]

Most of the day to day spending is paid by debit card. For me, debit card plays a major role in keeping the expenses within control and budget. I use credit card only for big purchase items as it will make it easy to return or file complaint or to get extended warranty, etc.

Wallet nowadays include mobile wallet as well. In my real wallet, I carry 2 debit cards and 2 credit cards. My mobile wallet holds 2 debit and 4 credit cards.

I use Mint to keep track of my spending, bills and budget. I am a strong believer in zero based budgeting.

The most important attraction towards Monzo is it’s genuine effort in bringing a banking product that will be liked and used by most of the common users like me. All other main street banks are like “this is a product we designed which you can take it if you like. We are not going to make any changes to it. You can leave us if you don’t like us.” But, Monzo is ready to listen to the viewpoints of the customers and tries to make its product better. Even discussing through this forum itself is never heard of in the financial sector.

In USA, everyone uses a bank as his/her main bank where he/she gets his/her salary credited. In order to make Monzo as my main bank, the first and foremost feature I expect is an early direct deposit. Currently, my bank credits my salary 2 days in advance of due date. The second factor is allowing auto debits for bill payments. The third one is to make Monzo offer surcharge/fee free ATM withdrawals. Then Monzo should be compatible with online payment sites such as PayPal, Venmo, Cash app to make instant transfers possible. I am eagerly waiting for Pots and check desposit feature.

[Js38wju3jda]

Thinking in my US mindset

@Sarahm

How often do you use your debit card?

Only to withdraw / deposit cash.

@Sarahm

How many cards do you have in your wallet, and what are they?

7 Cards.

Chase Debt
Schwab Debit
BofA Debit

United Milage Plus Explorer
United Awards
Discover
Chase Sapphire Preferred

@Sarahm

How do you budget your day-to-day spending and how often do you stick to that budget?

I budget in my head. 95% accuracy

@Sarahm

What excites you about Monzo?

Decent UK/US integration.

@Sarahm

What would Monzo need to do to be the first card you pull out of your wallet when you go to pay at the store?

Better benefits than my CC. Rather thank think about what would make Monzo need to do to get one to make card purchases, consider what would Monzo need to do to use Monzo to manage one’s finances. Killer budgeting, and killer bill pay would be a starter.

[iodio (Brian)]

To answer the questions:

1. I use my debit card maybe 1-2 times a day.

2. I carry 6 cards in my wallet. I have my Monzo Beta debit card (shout out to the team for sending me one even though I could no longer attend the NYC beta event) and my Charles Schwab debit card. I carry an Apple Card, Chase Sapphire Preferred, a Costco Visa, and Amex with me as far as credit cards go.

3. I usually budget in my head which is no longer working well for me which is why I am looking to utilize my debit card more. However, Schwab doesn’t provide any tools in their app for categorization and budgeting. They do provide international ATM fee reimbursement which makes them worth it.

4. I am excited by the whole Fintech movement in general and I like that Monzo is going to be a community built bank with features the users actually find useful.

5. Automatic budgeting and transaction sorting. Maybe some sort of rewards if possible. Monzo would be my only debit card if it had mobile check deposit and some sort of free ATM network though.

[melody]

i got this rather random notification from twitter over the weekend so i guess i have to respond to this now

How often do you use your debit card?

to be honest, i’m surprised by how little i use or need a card. at this point, i find that i am paying with my card maybe once every other day, and it’s mostly at major chains. it’s largely because most non-chain places i spend my money on a day-to-day basis either don’t accept card or disincentive card use.

this does change when i’m around other people tho!

How many cards do you have in your wallet, and what are they?

okay sooo here’s a pic of my wallet right now!

left pockets are for transit cards (i carry many redundancies b/c I like swiping friends and people in need into the subway esp in the age of increased police brutality for fare evasion)

Philly transit: 1 SEPTA transpass (unlimited travel on all modes except regional rail), 1 SEPTA anywhere pass (unlimited travel on all modes), 2 SEPTA key cards

NYC Transit: 1 MTA pride metrocard, 1 Port Authority metrocard, NJ transit tickets for my most common trip combos

right pockets are for other jawns

Loyalty: Wawa rewards card, various punch cards, extra Monzo card for the next time someone complains about their bank

Memberships: Costco card, generic photo ID, Amusement IC

I keep my more used cards in a lanyard; seperate from my wallet

Keychain: unlimited ice cream tag, bikeshare tag, pony charm for good luck

Lanyard: SEPTA anywhere pass, Monzo card, Cash app card

Not shown: contactless transit card embedded into an eevee i carry around

How do you budget your day-to-day spending and how often do you stick to that budget?

low key i just carry like a $10-20 dollar bill with me and if i’m outta money then i’m outta money. i don’t really “budget” beyond that, but i’d like to start at some point.

What excites you about Monzo?

y’all listen to your users, give me more control on how i track spending, steer away from most of bullshit that i’ve had to put up with on other banks, have trans-inclusive policies, etc, and honestly i appreciate that tbh

i meet with people in the UK on a regular basis who have been Monzo users over the past few years, specifically at my little pony conventions and “tech” conferences. i’m also in fintech circles and monzo gets disproportionately mentioned much more than other banks, so it’s not just me when i say this thing has legs!

What would Monzo need to do to be the first card you pull out of your wallet when you go to pay at the store?

it already is by the virtue of being the only card. someone once said my hot chip was “sexy”, i don’t think hot chip liked being catcalled but whatever

i occasionally use cash app card where it actually saves me money: I get them “boosts” that give me 10-20% off random places, and $1 off every coffee, tacos, or MTA subway entry. if Monzo could have a similar program that saves me money and/or give me free tacos, i’d dig it!

[lombard7 (John Russell Lombard)]

How often do I use my debit card?

• Rarely. I only use it when for some reason I have a few dollars left over in my budget and I use my debit card for something small, like buying a cup of coffee or breakfast on the way to work.

How many cards do you have in your wallet, and what are they??

• Four. American Express Platinum and Gold, my debit card and a Visa card just in case i’m somewhere that won’t take American Express.

How do you budget your day-to-day spending and how often do you stick to that budget?

• I use www.personalcapital.com to keep track of exactly how much money I have at any given time and I stick to it VERY closely.

What excites you about Monzo?

• I like the idea of Pots and being able to set money aside for future events. I’d like to think Monzo will be better at things like instant notifications, and the whole fintech side of finance then a traditional bricks and mortar bank would be.

What would Monzo need to do to be the first card you pull out of your wallet when you go to pay at the store?

• I have to be honest, this is going to be a VERY tough ask. You’d have to come up with some type of rewards program or mix of incentives that would make it more advantageous from a rewards point of view then the Amex card I currently use

[summonblood (Jordan)]

How often do you use your debit card?

• Everyday for all expenses

How many cards do you have in your wallet, and what are they?

• Three: Chime, Venmo card, USAlliance

How do you budget your day-to-day spending and how often do you stick to that budget?

• I don’t budget really (wish I did), but track spending on an app called Albert. I don’t

What excites you about Monzo?

• Love challenger banks because all focus is on tech, convenience, and user experience. Unfortunately, all the US challenger banks have been bought by large US banks, which means a forced union of the old, awful ways and the new.

• Monzo was started, grew on its own, and became a leader in banking - always as a challenger bank. That’s what excites me. Monzo didn’t need to gobble up competitors & their talent to adapt to the changing ways, Monzo is the change that must be adapted to! I believe Monzo’s success and the other UK challenger banks will force US banking laws to adapt to enable further innovation too!

• Features: Monzo has pretty much everything all in one app, debit, credit, expense tracking, budgeting, and more!

What would Monzo need to do to be the first card you pull out of your wallet when you go to pay at the store?

• 1st and foremost, easy to add to Apple Pay; I don’t want to open my wallet!

• 2nd, I have desperately been craving for the ability to black list specific vendors instantly OR have checking accounts that are vendor whitelisted depending on which checking account is being charged and from what vendor I’m being charged. Why is having money in my account allow the charge? Tell the vendor I have no money for their bs!

  Oh, you forgot to set a calendar reminder to cancel a trial subscription? Well I can just blacklist them now, so the future charge won’t happen, yet I can still use my card elsewhere. Oh, someone managed to swipe my credit card information while traveling abroad? Declined, I just have US vendors whitelisted when I got back! Or maybe my drunk mind thinks that because my beer budget ran out I should spend my set aside rent money. Well good thing sober me only whitelisted my rental company, so declined!

• 3rd, easily allowing me to open up tons of internal checking accounts that also allows me to automatically split my paycheck into each account for specific recurring bills & budgets OR a joint account that I can open up with friends for things like rent & utilities. ALERT: You don’t have enough money in your joint account to pay your rent in 3 days! I get to text my friends whats up rather than it all coming out of my account.

  Managing multiple bank accounts, asking Accounting to set up multiple direct deposits, or needing to remember to transfer this money on x day is a huge pain in my rear. Billing dates aren’t always consistent and I want money set aside for those automatically from my direct deposit and separated into it’s own checking account. I don’t trust myself with all my money being in one place - the temptation is too great when the number is big!

  Technical Workaround: Maybe Monzo could manage the singular checking account, but for the customer facing side it looks and operates like I have many. If I could switch which internal account is being charged on the fly - budgeting would become a breeze.

---

If Monzo could just do #1, you’ll get some of my spending money.

If Monzo could do #1 & #2, you’ll become my primary bank.

If Monzo could do #1 & #2 & #3, I’ll close every other bank account I have and Monzo will become my singular bank for life.

[dgn]

How often do you use your debit card?

Almost never. Only when I need to withdraw cash and I don’t remember when is the last time I needed some. Blame Venmo

How many cards do you have in your wallet, and what are they?

• Chase credit card for joint expenses with my partner. The bulk of my spending goes there
• Chase credit card for personal expenses
• ID, transit pass
  (I have a pretty minimalistic wallet. I use contactless from my phone whenever I can, where I have Monzo, Revolut and a few other cards loaded, but I only use them when travelling)

How do you budget your day-to-day spending and how often do you stick to that budget?

I have a monthly budget on a spreadsheet, have all my accounts linked a dashboard service (e.g. Mint, Personal Capital) and check from that. I don’t go over budget overall but some categories often overflow into others.

What excites you about Monzo?

Care for customers and their opinions, openness, hope that it will be different from all of the messed up US-based options we currently have

What would Monzo need to do to be the first card you pull out of your wallet when you go to pay at the store?

• At least match in benefits a basic cashback card. 1-1.5% would be nice. https://zero.app starts at 1% cashback, their weird model based on credit cards probably helps them making it profitable.
  I might still use a higher benefits card for big purchases but would be happy to use Monzo for day to day expenses. By paying the external credit card for the big tickets items from Monzo checking, that way budget tracking in the app would still make sense.
• If Monzo can have an integration with other credit card services and can reflect the expenses on the app as they happen, updating the budgets and the available balance in real time (see zero.app again) it would be really cool and make me use Monzo as checking account even if I don’t use the debit card much.

[Mariastojkova12345 (Maria)]

Hi my name is maria stojkova and I last months lost my bank account my mum‘s card and I doesn’t know nothing about my card please can you help me with my card because I doesn’t I can’t do login so please can you help me how can I get back my my card because next Friday I need to get my payment from my works or it doesn’t have any card just discard ideas in this

<Edit: removed email address>

[BethS]

Hello @Mariastojkova12345 please email help@monzo.com for assistance.

[Cameron]

Just the way MasterCard, Visa, Maestro and American Express work. I don’t think we will ever see the ability to block specific merchants unless something drastic changes.

Hope I am wrong tho because that idea sounds dope.

[Js38wju3jda]

This should be possible as it is done with fleet cards and EBT cards in the US.

Fleet cards only allow fuel to
be bought for example.

[jamar0303 (Jason Y)]

I’d always thought the way both of those achieve it is by being on different card networks that either allow that kind of control, or simply aren’t linked to merchants that fleet operators or the EBT providing authorities don’t want their users to be spending at, and that the major card networks themselves couldn’t implement that. Still, if it could be implemented, merchant or category specific card and account/routing numbers would definitely get my attention.

EDIT: While I’m at it, one thing that I’d certainly like to see that would also really really be nice to have would be the ability to get a Maestro card for travels to continental Europe. Some banks and credit unions already offer Maestro if you tell them you want an “ATM only card” (counterintuitive, I know), so it’s not unusual to see, but pretty much all of the ones that do these days charge foreign transaction fees. Then again, I would expect this to happen for UK customers before we US customers see it, so I’m not holding my breath on this.

[tom_b]

How often do you use your debit card?

Very rarely. Occasional cash withdrawals, and I have virtual debit cards set up for a couple of subscriptions so that I can cancel them easily.

How many cards do you have in your wallet, and what are they?

Amex, corporate expense card, debit card. I also use Privacy for virtual debit cards, and I have an Apple Card on my phone.

How do you budget your day-to-day spending and how often do you stick to that budget?

I don’t set fixed budgets as such, I use Mint to track spending and see where the money is going. I stick to my savings target by having part of my paycheck paid straight into a savings account.

What excites you about Monzo?

UX!! I liked using the Monzo app in the UK, most of the financial apps in the US are fairly poor by comparison. In particular every spending tracker I’ve tried has been pretty bad, none of them are able to categorize transactions accurately.

What would Monzo need to do to be the first card you pull out of your wallet when you go to pay at the store?

Better points / travel perks than Amex Platinum.

I’m quite happy with credit cards for spending in the US. The killer feature for me would be to integrate a decent spending tracker (that links other accounts) with a current account, so I can track everything in a single place. I’d happily pay a fee for this.

[mhiddi]

@melody Hello fellow Philadelphian! Laughed at your use of jawn which only a few here might get. The Septa key card has been great, even though their system appears to use Windows 95 Wasn’t plans in place for them to eventually make use of the Mastercard feature with funds loaded to your travel wallet?

[mhiddi]

How often do I use my debit card?

Very rarely. With credit cards in America offering incentives for cashback and purchase protections, it just doesn’t make sense for me to use my debit card on purchases. For me, a debit card is almost exclusively used for physical cash withdraws at an ATM.

How many cards do you have in your wallet, and what are they?

Five or six if you include the card I have linked on my phone through Apple Pay.
Capital One and Chase credit cards. Debit card from the bank where my paycheck is deposited to. Transit cards. ID.

How do you budget your day-to-day spending and how often do you stick to that budget?

I know about how much I can spend in a week on my credit card and then pay it off through my personal bank account my work paycheck is attached to.

What excites you about Monzo?

The technology focus and their willingness to listen to the community. I have to be honest as a beta card holder though, that there is currently no incentive for me to use my Monzo card outside of the guise of being considered a disrupter to the traditional banking sector. I know of Monzo from friends in the UK, and features for American users and how we bank are just not there yet.

What would Monzo need to do to be the first card you pull out of your wallet when you go to pay at the store?

To be brutally honest, I don’t think that Monzo is going to be able to compete with the credit card incentives that Americans enjoy. The focus should be on being a better bank as contactless and electronic transfers become more common. I originally signed up for Monzo USA because I knew it was a common way my UK friends transferred money between each other. Direct bank transfers are more common in UK, while apps like Venmo are used here in the States. I was disappointed to learn that I couldn’t transfer money from my Monzo USA account to a Monzo UK friend.

An honest question here, but is budgeting help the only thing Monzo can realistically offer here in the States? I’d like to move more money into my Monzo account but for a company being touted as a tech disruptor, I’m failing to see a lot of the tech.

[Thrifty (Craig)]

The questions:

How often do you use your debit card?
Only to withdraw cold hard cash - all purchases are made with a credit card (sorry).
How many cards do you have in your wallet, and what are they?
I use a slim plastic card wallet which contains one credit card (one on rotation of four) my debit card, my driving licence and my T card.
How do you budget your day-to-day spending and how often do you stick to that budget?
Mentally budget - rarely deviate from budget.
What excites you about Monzo?
Excited to see what products could be offered to disrupt the market. Very interested to see what Monzo can offer that can’t or won’t be easily replicated by the big boys.
What would Monzo need to do to be the first card you pull out of your wallet when you go to pay at the store?
Offer the same benefits as my selection of credit cards and impact my credit rating in the same way.