I chose Option 1, because it’s the only one I feel is truly fair. With options 2 and 3 you’ll always have some customers subsidising others (mostly EU travellers paying more the subsidise mostly non-EU, or big users subsidising the smaller ones). There’s a cost, it’s passed on, simple.
I don’t see the need to “punish” big users for withdrawing money abroad, as has been alluded to many times in this thread. I also don’t like anything that leads to Monzo acting more like a traditional bank, subsidising some users with fees for others etc.
Pre-paid cards one of the options above but for the current account I would like to see 2 types of current accounts a basic and a premium at a monthly cost where cash withdrawals abroad would continue to be free.
You would have to offer more than free cash withdrawals abroad to be worth a monthly charge. I.e. Discounts on dilveroo as you already partner with them on bill payment.
Not having fees on foreign ATM is clearly a fantastic differentiator. So it seems to me that the best thing to do is to keep zero fees but only for those cardholders where foreign ATM usage is a reasonable % of overall annual usage. What’s reasonable? You would need to model it. But the majority of active users that use the card for domestic purposes will have a relative small value of foreign ATM transactions as a % of overall usage. The users with the highest ATM usage will be business users (they should pay something for the privilege) and users who have, say, a second home abroad (and Monzo shouldn’t have to subsidise the fact that they do not appear to want or have a foreign bank account). It might be possible to offer a graduated fee scale.
This is an excellent idea and something I was going to suggest. Perhaps some sort of health bar in the app where people who use it regularly have a higher allowance.
I love the transparency of the newsletter and post around this issue, very refreshing!
Thoughts on options:
Option 3 clearly has the majority of votes at the moment and I can understand the appeal for the customer but my concern is that ultimately it’s likely to be more damaging to Monzo as nothing is truly free; all of these £200 allowances are going to have to be covered somehow (the very issue Monzo has at the moment).
Scenario: if everyone only uses their £200 a month and never crosses over into the 3% charge then Monzo will be in the same situation as now. This model makes a big assumption about how consumers will react to the change and in my opinion isn’t really a fair solution.
Personally, I would rather cover the exact costs, Option 1, as this most accurately represents the costs incurred by Monzo. I don’t think it’s fair to expect Monzo to cover costs on our behalf. Ultimately, these costs are going to bite back somehow, if not directly then indirectly in some other means.
I think if people use the card solely for withdrawals abroad/ outside UK they should be charged a minimal fee but for others who use it for withdrawals and transactions as I do it should stay free of charge
I got an email as an existing card holder. I think it might be best to be free for atm withdrawals inside the EEA as it cost less for atm withdrawals compared to cash withdrawals outside the EEA. However, perhaps you need to think of ways to raise more cash. For example, replacing all those loyalty cards at shops with a Monzo account. Also you would need to have a reasonable monthly subscription like £15 for frequent travellers like Netflix, Amazon Prime or Cineworld Unlimited Card.
I am on board with Option 4 being charge those who tend to use Monzo only when they are outside UK and Do Not charge regular Monzo card users. Would be a pity seeing charges on us regular users as you will only ditter us from using Monzo going forward in turn looking for the next new biz who would like the Monzo that first started off.
Nationwide run a scheme whereby the more you spend with their credit card domestically, the greater your international fee-free allowance. Could Monzo not eye a similar system, particularly as the blogpost does call out users who use their cards abroad and nowhere else?
For example, for every month you spend over some modest amount (£250 perhaps), excluding transfers so people can’t game it by creating standing orders to rinse through the account, you get some fee-free allowance (could be directly proportional to how much you’ve spent the prior month even, or some system whereby you get say 10% allowance since your last trip abroad) and then anything beyond is the 1,2% geographic variant option?
This should shift the costs to the users that exclusively use Monzo abroad (who would get option 1 by default and cover their own costs), while maximising the perks for those of us who are committed to the bank (a sort of enhanced option 3, where those who are core Monzo users get generous allowances).
I guess I should start by saying that, whilst I’ve not yet used my Monzo card abroad, this fee-free withdrawl was one of the main things that attracted me to the card. I have a bunch of different bank cards I could use abroad, all charge me differing rates of fee, and I can never remember which one is the best to use because none of them clearly document their fees.
That said, if the fee-free option can’t be maintained, then it seems that the ideal is to have as close to cost as possible.
Even though I’d mostly use the card outside Europe, for me the only fair option is option 1 - a subset of users shouldn’t be subsidising the others.
Option 2 would mean that there could be cheaper ways of withdrawing cash in Europe than Monzo, which would lead to people switching to that vendor for European withdrawls and people mostly using Monzo for outside-Europe, which would just lead to the same situation we currently see.
Option 3 sounds nice (£200 free, right?), but the reality is that it’s worse if you need to withdraw more than £300 in a month. Most people travel abroad only a couple of times a year, so it’s highly likely they’ll exceed the £200 threshold and probably £300 as well. Those that travel more frequently and are voting for the £200 free, I suspect are the people who are already using the facility more than average anyway.
So, I’m voting for option 1. It’s clear and transparent what the costs are, and if they’re essentially just passing on the cost to us, it’s unlikely another company will swoop in and steal Monzo’s business by undercutting them on rate.
Also, if the solution is “charging a monthly fee”, it’d be hard to imagine there not being a massive drop in users - because there’ll be a lot of people (probably including me), who’d just revert back to any of the high street banks who don’t charge a monthly fee.
love it, great idea Park38c and the other person that mentioned this further up
Option 4: Each user can select how they want to be charged for foreign ATM fees, by selecting it from the list of options within the app. The selection is then locked in for a number of months or permanently
This way, Monzo covers their costs, and each user is happy that they are being charged in the way that suits them best
Monzo wan’t to let us the community decide, so why not let us all decide on a individual basis
This is surly a much more Monzo way of doing things…
There are serious issues with that idea. If some pick the tarrif where they get £200 worth of withdrawals free the cost of those withdrawals is to be covered by charging others 3%. If however you have a pick and choose tariff method someone will withdraw £200 free on their chosen fees yet another withdrawing over that amount may be paying 1% under their chosen fees. Monzo ends up not covering their costs as a result and then needs to either revise their fees again and introduce higher percentage charges or perhaps a small monthly charge for the account
Surly all three of the available options are viable for monzo, otherwise why have them?
I see no difference between selecting one for everyone, or allowing each user to choose the option best for them
After selecting the option yourself, you can’t then argue that someone else is paying more or less than you are…
Maybe then, lock in that choice for 12 months, to stop people switching and changing to often to manipulate things?
I see where your coming from re the £200 free withdrawal, but who really only spends 200 cash in a given month when abroad? The cap alone will curb all the fees from the small minority that are racking them up currently
they may be all viable separately but if you allow people to pick and chose then it is no longer viable as then Monzo will not be covering their costs as their income from charges/fees drops if customers are not all on the same arrangement
