I see what you are saying, and I’m sure there will be others who value the ease of setting up, coupled with the delay in withdrawing funds.
But as @Ordog has already said, something like the Marcus account is incredibly easy to set up - Although I appreciate people would probably assume it wasn’t.
My biggest gripe with the Monzo account is not the interest rate, because 1 or 1.5 is so negliable for a lot of people.
It’s the “next working day” withdrawal time frame.
If I had to dip into my savings, the chances are it’s an emergency, and i’d need them there and then. Requesting on a Friday, and receiving on a Monday just seems like everything Monzo isn’t.
Completely get it’s a first version, and it’ll possibly lead the way to future integrations with other partners, but I’m just disappointed this first integration seems so… backward.
However, like I said, that’s just my opinion for my situation - I’m sure it’ll be great for others who really don’t want to look elsewhere.
I must admit I haven’t actually gone through the sign up process for Marcus so perhaps it is easier than usual, but whenever I’ve signed up for bank accounts in the past it’s taken me ages and required a lot of form-filling so that’s created a perception in my mind that I automatically apply to all bank accounts with traditional banks, like Goldman’s, rightly or wrongly.
While it’s encouraging to hear that you succeeded in switching energy supplier in 2 minutes, I’m not convinced it’s usually that easy. I’ve actually switched fairly recently and it took me ages to look through the endless different plans available online (some with fixed tariffs, some variable tariffs, so many different suppliers, different unit rates and standing charges…) to work out if any would save me money. Then I had to call them up and spend about half an hour on the phone, waiting in the queue for an operator then listening while they tried to tell me about all the plan options they had available, then giving them a lot of information about my situation and energy details, then having them read me the terms and conditions before I could complete the switch.
To me, there so much value in the simplicity and ease that Monzo offers. Therefore I completely agree with you @nickh that it does seem quite un-Monzo-like for them to have this next working day restriction on moving money around and I’m also hoping to see this removed down the line. I made a transfer out of my savings pot this morning and the feed is now saying that the money is going to arrive in my current account on Monday at 15:00. It would seem far smoother for Monzo to just make the money accessible in my account immediately when I withdraw from a savings pot even if they have to wait another day to receive it back from Investec behind the scenes.
Better hope I don’t have any emergencies any time soon
When I did it, I used the money savings expert comparison tool which did all the comparing for me after I simply put my usage in. The website told me that Outfox The Market was cheapest so I went there, gave them my details and current provider and they did an equivalent CASS service. It was all sorted so quickly that I hadn’t even finished my brew
This is pretty much my experience as well, you shouldn’t have to be doing any searching yourself or phoning anybody these days. There are even companies now that search best prices for you and switch you automatically (that are free) without you having to do anything
Not impressed unfortunately, the 24 hour wait means it’s useless for an Emergency Fund.
Plus, what happens if it starts with £1000 and then I take 50p out? Do I get 0% interest on everything? Is the interest calculated on the days you have £1k+ in the account, or does the account have to close?
Shame it has to be random as i think you are missing out on a huge portion of potential feedback from users that would actually use the functionality rather than just flat out ignore the option… and yes - I would certainly look to be one of those users
I think the people who flat out ignore the option are just as valid as those who decide to use it - Something @Feathers mentioned above.
There would be a danger that if the sample was made up of die hard Monzo fans, the results would be skewed, and Monzo wouldn’t get a true representation of their user base.
The vast majority of Monzo users aren’t on this forum, and likely don’t really care too much about the little things that we all obsess about here (myself included).
My hope is the feedback is overwhelmingly negative (or simply ignored), so that Monzo go back, and look to really put a better package together.
I have no doubt the sign up process is slick, and arguably better than having to set up a new savings account elsewhere (all the feedback seems to suggest it’s a very nice on boarding process).
But the actual functionality of the pot, with the withdrawal delay is the kicker here (judging by the comments).
