Announcing the Overdrafts Preview!

I think you pretty much sum up why Monzo is so much better.

If you ignore the part about how 8 days of overdraft on a not insubstantial amount was less than a single day of overdraft on Monzo, then sure.

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True. That is very strange, do you have planned or unplanned overdraft?

I get charged a huge amount for overdraft with TSB and Lloyds - Monzo works out cheaper for me but I understand other people can get much better rates elsewhere.

There’s an automatic overdraft facility of Ā£500 at about 10%. As far as I know it was a standard feature of the account when I opened it years ago. I don’t think I ever asked for it and have never used it before.

But my point was that a 50p flat rate is probably great for people who want to max out their overdraft, but for occasional accidental overdrafts it’s not.

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Yeah monzo overdraft is eyewateringly expensive, but they do give you the tools to avoid it.

I suspect if I ever needed it I’d just instantly max it out as it makes no sense to just slightly dip into it.

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Yeah this has been pointed out and it’s unfortunate IMHO but I do like the idea of flat fees instead of a percentage

Actually, this is an area where Monzo could really be challenge banking norms. The whole idea of overdraft is somewhat unfair, particularly for accounts that don’t pay any interest.

A truly revolutionary banking system might be to allow a temporary loan in proportion to your normal balance. If your account is normally at over £1000 for 3 weeks of the year, maybe you could be allowed to slip slightly negative for a couple of days when your mortgage is paid or some other big bill happens. People get paid at all sorts of points in the month, so overall it should all balance out.

Obviously, it’s not really to a bank’s advantage to do that, so I doubt we’ll ever see it from any of them, but it’s nice to dream of! (Also, I realise I’m going somewhat off topic, so apologies…)

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I don’t have an arranged overdraft. I have been in minus twice with Lloyds lately, forgetting to pay on the correct card. Haven’t been charged once. Not sure why, not complaining though. I was in minis for a few days on each occasion.

Interesting. I think that’s probably more an issue with Lloyds having terrible IT more than anything else! :stuck_out_tongue:

Who knows. That card has been removed from my wallet now so should be fine.

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Maybe you were lucky enough that the transactions merely authorized but not cleared, so by law they can’t charge you until the transaction clears. By the time it cleared you were in plus again so you never actually used the overdraft.

As bad as banking IT systems are, they are usually spot on when it comes to charging people money (sometimes overcharging even, but it’s not like the bank is gonna complain about it :wink: ) so this is the most likely reason for not being charged for that (occasional) overdraft.

Could well be, yes. Just glad I didn’t get hit with silly charges :joy:

This.

50p a day is crazy expensive. Transparent and simple yes, good for consumers? Far, far from it.

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It depends how much overdraft they’ll let you have…

100k at 50p a day I’ll take!

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Yes there’s a point where it becomes cheaper to dump your debt on a monzo overdraft than a credit card and/or loan, and it’s not that high either, if my back of the envelope calcs are right.

I’ll transfer my mortgage over!!!

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Agreed. Lloyds once charged interest on my savings account that had no possible borrowing facility. Yes, they actually deducted money from my savings and called it interest.

I moved banks.

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Shame about Lloyds, their app is top class, and the extra features are great. From what I read (repeatedly) they let themselves down on the customer service front.

Good to see many features of the overdraft, refusal of payments, opportunity to get back into the black by the end of the day (presuming spending registers in time on the current account). And good to see the buffer system being adopted.

All of which makes it more disappointing to see payday lenders levels of interest being charged even on arranged overdrafts.

I’m a bit surprised that Monzo is so much more than Starling. I’ve been using both for a while, but have focused more on Starling recently, and load it up on payday to cover work expenses and fuel purchases. I have been using the overdraft for a while, which is charged at 15% APR.

As an example, I’ve been overdrawn for 16 days in October so far (need to sort that out!), and the charge is Ā£3.63 - it would be Ā£8.00 with Monzo. There’s a handy overdraft calculator on the Starling website, and to match the maximum Monzo fee of Ā£15.50 you would need to be overdrawn by Ā£1,334 for the whole month (doesn’t happen that way in practice of course).

Many of the traditional banks fall into the 15-20% range for overdraft charges, so Monzo do seem expensive on this point.

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