The local branch of my legacy bank is closing down in June, so I’m looking for a new bank as I don’t have any particular loyalty to their online banking operation.
Will Monzo be able to essentially replace everything that my local bank does?
Will it be possible to deposit cash anywhere? That’s the only thing I can think of that Monzo won’t be able to do that I can do presently. (I suppose I can just do bank transfers if money needs to be sent to me.)
Monzo will probably in time be able to replace most of the things your local legacy bank does. In regards to things like mortgages and similar things, Monzo probably wont be the ones to offer those but they will be able to put you in touch with the cheapest and best provider once the API work is done.
In regards to cash, there has been some discussion about this and when the accounts first launch you would have to send in the cash to the Monzo office and it would be put in to your account (which I thoroughly dislike and will not use)
Much easier to hand over the cash to someone who then transfers and equal amount into your Monzo account with their debit card. It’ll be instant and much more secure.
I’m mainly thinking for things like gifts of cash - it should be fairly easy to get people to do a bank transfer in this day and age. And, if Monzo remains any good (and I have no reason to doubt that it will remain good), my family may be interested in joining too when it becomes a full-blown bank.
Yes, granny gives you £10 for your birthday, next day at work your colleague is short of lunch money so you give him the £10 and scan his debit card via the app to top up £10. Couldn’t be easier!
I’d encourage exploring the idea of using post offices. Some smaller traditional banks already do this (eg Co-op / smile) and pretty much everywhere has a nearby post office.
I would say PayPoint. We have had a few Post Offices shut in my area (in my town and the adjoining town) and we have no banks left in my or neighbouring towns and three cash machines removed with the two remaining being not big bank machines but independent ones. However despite banks and Post Offices shutting down the PayPoints are in convienience stores and are convienient to get to and open more hours, 08:00-22:00 seven days a week compared to our now closed Post Office which was open five days a week but shut for lunch from 12:30 - 2:00
You go into a shop with a PayPoint sign (which near me are small McColl’s stores or medium sized East of England Co-operative supermarkets) and hand over your debit card or a payment card (depending where your account is held) and they will swipe it or put it in the card reader and take your deposit and give you a receipt (though depending on the phone signal in that area your phone may bleep with confirmation in an app before the receipt has even finished printing).
I like PayPoint due to it being instant whereas my other account when paid in at a Post Office takes 24-48 hours to show up in my account
That sounds ok! And you make a good point about the number of PayPoint outlets (26,000) compared with 11,500 post offices. Cheques might remain a problem.
but they said we could post cheques to Monzo when the current accounts start…until they arrange an alternative method.
Also cheques are dying out…normally it is only a birthday present from an elderly Gran or when you fail to provide your bank account details on your self-assessment form and they fall back to providing your refund by cheque
It still costs them more in processing so you are encouraged to chose bank transfers over cheques wherever possible. Also, despite the cheque being scanned or photographed rather than manually handled the use cheque clearing days apply. So you get access to your money quicker if you get an FPS or BACS Credit over a cheque
And before you say they let you have your money by 12.00 the next day, yes but there is still a period while the money can be reversed and the cheque not honoured, so technically you can you really guarantee having the money until those few days have passed, so it is almost like the bank are lending you the money on trust for the period until (hopefully) the cheque is fully cleared
Any update on this? I feel a bit silly for asking, but I would very much like to be able to use my local Post Office branch for depositing cash on Monzo. They’re all nice people in there, many of whom I’ve known years. It was funny that time I had my passport photos taken in there - much more homely feeling than any clinical passport photo booth, and for the exact same price it felt like going back a century, being waited on whilst the nice gentleman takes your photo with his little compact.
I don’t want to use PayPoint, because it looks complicated and clinical, and you feel like you have to buy something whilst you’re in the shop.
You are lucky to have a Post Office like that near you. We have had two Post Offices shut near us in out town and the adjoining town. The PayPoint service has also proven to be better in the money is hitting your account quicker than when deposited via the Post Office
