For me the strongest selling point of Monzo is that you are totally transparent - but as a community talking about people abusing the account is wrong. We all use the features of the product that work best for our lives - in this case one of the features has a cost which isn’t sustainable so (brilliantly) you are asking what should we do.
For me Option 1 is the best idea - it’s clear and transparent. Option 2 would mean someone travelling in Europe is subsidising RoW travellers - for me that’s not clear or transparent. Likewise Option 3 starts taking you down the ‘Value Added’ account route and you lose the USP that Monzo has fought so hard for.
A hybrid of Option 1 and 3 might also work - with the ability to prepay as a bought add-on, but then the cost of transacting that might mean that option 1 is actually cheapest in the long term for us and Monzo
I think there should be an annual limit and within reason like £750-£1500 a year, that’s just my thoughts
The limit should start on the day you join Monzo rather than on Jan 1st, it’s just fairer that way rather than someone taking out a big amount when they say joined Monzo in November and the clean slate starts on Jan 1
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Ok then. I’m in for route 1!
Thanks for the reply.
Another point for consideration that probably won’t draw much love from those going on about ‘real users’ and ‘abuse’ of the card, but is worth mentioning for Monzo as a whole:
Completely ignoring the issue of foreign ATM fees, Monzo must expect to turn a profit on its banking services within the UK. How will this work? What user behaviours will drive that profit? What other user behaviours might correlate with heavy overseas use? Is there an overlap?
I have no idea of the answer, and it’s probably difficult to judge until the CA goes live, but surely profitability has to be judged on an overall user basis, rather than feature by feature. There’s a risk that removing a major selling point might drive away users who could be very profitable. This seems like a decision to be taken in light of more data and real-world experience with the CA, in light of Monzo’s overall strategy, rather than put to a single-issue vote.
I agree with the yearly allowance idea. People who take advantage of the Monzo high fees are people who make their money in the UK and then only spend it in their own country. They should take most of the burden if they want to.
Yearly allowance!
Also, people saying that people are ‘abusing’ the current system, Monzo offer a free amount of widthdrawals per year on the card, it’s not our fault that they have found out it is unsustainable/ now they have enough customers can start charging.
The service is there and is being offered, I’m not abusing it by staying in the current limits- they shouldn’t have been offered in the first place if they didn’t want people using that much
Option4
If the Ava rage charge per user per year is £16 why not charge this as a annual fee and then keep everything as it was No Charge. Or there will be no difference than any other pre loaded card
Annual limit as opposed to monthly limit would be great. % charged after running over the annual limit. This would be the best for the majority who would use it for holidays.
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I understand the need for a small charge to withdraw cash abroad, and I’m sure the majority of committed users are equally willing to accept this reality.
Given that the average Monzo user most likely withdraws internationally in Europe, and that those who do so are, in all probability, on holiday and liable to withdraw substantially, I feel it’s shortsighted to accept the €200 free limit with the penalty of a 3% charge thereafter. At a 3% rate, I and many others will see little in the way of differentiation between using my Monzo abroad versus a combination of credit/debit cards from a conventional bank as the fee-free limit suggested verges on nothing more than a gesture. In an effort to create a sustainable, Monzo-positive environment which is both encouraging to the new and existing user, how about the 1% Europe, 2% elsewhere baseline but with a fee-free withdrawal allowance earned through consistent use of the card in the U.K.? This would ensure that Monzo remains appealing as a travel card through offering competitive rates whilst allowing core users to benefit fully. This will surely suit those existing heavy users while offering a habit-building challenge to those who wish to earn a fee-free allowance.
Just my thoughts, keep doing what you’re doing.
Ryan
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I would vote option 3 out of the 3 options you’ve presented but I wish to support this version of option 4;
£200pm with a rollover of maximum 3 months
definitely should incorporate those of us that are using the card in the UK like you envisioned to gain loyalty of some sort too; if you incentivise use in the UK you will see the behavioral change you want out of users that you purely using the card abroad.
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I use card wherever there is an option - but many places (and countries) this isn’t an option at all. This isn’t something I can change, and it won’t be changed by Monzo’s policy either as it will be related to the business and the cost per card transaction THEY would be charged. I don’t see how your logic follows.
My vote goes to option 1: easy to remember and easy to calculate into your budget.
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I think some other people have also suggested a variation of Option 3.
Each card holder has an annual worldwide withdrawal allowance. So if you take option 3 for example, this would be £1,200.
This would allow people to withdraw unto £1,200 when abroad without paying any fees. Once a card holder uses this allowance, they would then be charged the fee for withdrawing extra cash.
Where is the voting button???
Tom has said before that charges are nearly
and that…
Therefore any fees introduced should reflect that.
Anyone voting now is doing it on the basis of what benefits their likely usage, but surely Monzo need to decide based on potential use by new current account customers
Alas, It’s a done deal already… the £200 free per month and 3% thereafter is miles in front.
But that won’t work for me. I go to Thailand once or twice a year (ALL the ATMs there already charge the user about £4, which is added to the total transaction at source, for the privilege of using them) and I need to get about £400 out of ATMs at least three or four times whilst I’m there.
I do understand your dilemma and empathise but, for me, if you implement the current winning scenario, I may as well just go back to using my Nationwide Flex account for the sake of 0.34% a throw. The saving, compared to convenience of just having the money come out of my current account instead of having to load up my Monzo card first makes it not worth bothering with Monzo.
I’d support the 1.5% worldwide and would happily pay a bit extra whilst in Europe (where I also visit regularly) for the benefit of a fixed, lower-cost ATM fee whilst anywhere abroad. It would still be good value compared to all the competition, wherever you travelled to.
Sadly, it’s looking like it’ll be ‘bye bye’ from me when you’ve made your decision.
The guy who suggested allowing you a percentage of your annual UK spend has probably got a good idea but I’d need to cost that out versus what I currently get from my 0.5% cash-back card.
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I love my monzo card and applied for one precisely because of the lack of fees for transactions abroad including cash withdrawal. I understand the need to ensure a sustainable business however it surprises me that so many people have chosen to select option 3 as the most popular option. This would be no good for the way I use the card and would likely result in me choosing to use once of the other apps that has a far more favourable rate for cash withdrawal (at least 2 I’ve seen still offer the MasterCard rate of exchange and fee free cash withdrawal). 3% seems like extortion to access your own cash abroad and to be fair its outside of Europe that this is most important as many developing nations have limited abilities to accept card payments making it necessary to have large sums of cash to travel in these areas. Having recently seen how extortionate forex companies are I loved using my mono card to access cash to pay for my travel expenses in the Philippines where many places were unable to accept cards. Therefore option 2 seems way better in my opinion. If the decision was to go with option 3 as others have said above it will have to be bye bye monzo and hello revolut. Was looking forward to a current account as well…
Agreed dude, 3% is pretty nasty
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Why not allow 1000 withdraw a year… This allows at least one good holiday spending money, then evoke a charge for any more use. This let’s the majority to keep this benefit and the minority high users of this service pay accordingly
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Certainly the yearly allowance is preferable. If this is not acceptable by Monzo then the monthly allowance should have the facility to rollover if unused for three or four months.
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