I was thinking about integrating people that don’t use Monzo. I think it would it be great to have people download the app and get verified by some method (maybe linking a bank account), and then have a “virtual card”. The reason for this is as follows. I was thinking about the idea of having a “kitty” function for things like a night of drinking, but it didn’t seem feasible unless everyone had Monzo. My idea is a “contribute and spend from shared funds” is as follows:
The non-monzo user gets the app and registers as a user.
They link a bank account. If they don’t want to link a bank account, the app only functions as a balance display to a shared funds group (like a kitty).
Once a bank account is linked, they can join and add funds to shared groups (e.g. “kitty”), created by full Monzo users and contribute some money. (Maybe you should limit group creation to full members as a security measure?). This in turn gives them access to a Monzo “pre-paid” eCard called “Kitty” in their phones wallet.
The non-monzo user can then see the available balance on the group “Kitty”, who spent what, and also spend available funds via the ecard.
This also gives me the idea of a Monzo “pre-paid-e-card”. Top money up on it and use as you will.
That’s an interesting idea - I wonder if monzo would need to do some sort of due diligence on them though? Or maybe if you approve it, they simply piggy back on your kitty pot?
Sounds like a good idea - but accepting funds from third parties will be the issue I believe (money laundering/refunds etc).
However, if it was a case of a “Sharable Pot” which can be linked to other installations and they could generate virtual e-card numbers (or for a small fee, have a physical card) it could work - it’ll have to be “Intended for usage by the account holder or other authorised by the account holder” stuff and be a good “selling point” for parents I think (pocket money into the “Thing 1’s Sharable Pot” every week and the kid can budget with their own debit card which will show up in the parent’s feed).
If people want to add funds, then either Monzo.me (with a setting to go to a specific pot) or bank transfer (as in these cases, Monzo can - for regulatory purposes - “show” who/where the money came from).
Extremely close to your idea, but I think it avoids most of the legal hassles that might come up (although, I’m not a lawyer, not financial/legal advice, grain of salt needed yadda yadda )
This is a pretty interesting idea. There was talk of a shareable pot and assigning a pot its own account number, 16 digit card number etc (kind of like Click Travel for anyone who has used that) but I cant remember what the official stance was on that…
Adding in the option for non users to have access via a bank account would be possible if the above was implemented but adding the View Balance option would be the tricky part, unless you can do an explicit invite shareable link or something…
Why not link a pot to a virtual e-card? This would be a great way to give children pocket money or as a gift instead of silly gift cards!
You could customize your pot-linked gift card with a nice background for birthdays, Christmas etc and then ask if you want to upgrade to a current account with Monzo.
I hate having to spend more than a gift card’s total because you can’t get change back. Spend part of a virtual card and then use the left over to open a Mozo account!
)
users to have access via a bank account would be possible if the above was implemented but adding the View Balance option would be the tricky part, unless you can do an explicit invite shareable link or something…