ATM Fees Abroad: Asking the Monzo Community to decide pricing

The drawback, for me, of the £200 per month is that it doesn’t reflect my usage. I use the card extensively in the uk and occasionally travel abroad. When there I will use the card for cash from ATM several times and easily bust the £200 level which means I will be paying lots. If the limit were cumulative, i.e. £2400 over 12 months, that works for me.

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This is what I was thinking. It might be harder to implement and communicate but higher withdrawal limits for someone who actively uses the card and generates revenue that way?

Limited for those who are using Monzo as a glorified currency card.

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Honestly this whole discussion has left a bad impression for me on Monzo. You can’t offer a service and then label users as “offenders” when they use it. It’s absolutely absurd. Surely when you first created the business model you’d have done some calculations and projections on what is sustainable or not and factored that in. Given there are other cards and services who offer the exact same thing but for free why would people take up Monzo going forward? The free withdrawals was certainly a draw card for me when I first signed up and I’ve since recommended you to a number of family and friends. I did sign up to Monzo for the international withdrawals but I also use it now on a daily basis in the UK, though now I’d think twice about recommending you because there’s not much to recommend. Your IP is the beautiful app and budgeting functionalities but it won’t be long until the other banks catch up, some banks are already doing a small segment of what you offer now in terms of a tracker.

If you need an option, go with a rewards based option based on UK usage which a lot of people have recommended. You say there’s a 4th option but really there isn’t, there’s just 3 we can pick on because none of the other suggestions have even been looked at but your team.

Finally those who use your service are smart and thrifty. Not offenders as you label them.

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Hi @Wangy,

So I guess first off that I was the one who used the term offenders i.e. “worst offenders” in the context of those 13% who make up something like 85% of these charges, whilst it was probably the wrong word to use when what I meant was those who cost an unreasonably disproportionate amount in charges but at the time it reflected my general shock at those figures and the feeling that it’s unreasonable for everyone else to foot the bill for their excessive use.

First of all whilst it has been batted about, I don’t think that monzo has ever used the term offenders, however, this topic has obviously caused some strong feelings on both sides. The initial prepaid account was never designed as a tool for ~400,000 users with so much international use. Unfortunately, sites like MSE and others highlighted the free withdrawals and many people took advantage of this offer which could not have been foreseen when the project was launched so I really don’t think it’s fair to say that they should have expected this kind of growth and international use.

Whilst I get by your tone that you are angry, I don’t think it’s fair that you take it out on monzo for calling the worst users offenders (when that was in fact meant to be a non-offensive turn of phrase initially posted by me and never repeated by anyone from the organisation itself). I also don’t think it’s fair to say that they should have expected the sheer number of people using it mainly for expensive international ATM withdrawals.

The big question is this, do you want a bank that thrives or do you want Northern Rock V2

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I like the word offenders I also like the word freeloaders.

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Mud-slinging helps no one. Everyone is a freeloader. You may have invested but as a customer, are you or anyone else profitable to Monzo?

Last I checked, it was removing the prepaid scheme and introducing overdrafts that are the main sources of short-term income.

I honestly think that this discussion has caused a lot of strong feelings on all sides but the discussion itself was necessary for the future of the business.

I now can’t wait for it to be over, a decision to be made and for everyone to reunite and get on with it :slight_smile:

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Hi @maxjwalker,

That is fair and thank you for pointing it out. It definitely is the general tone of this forum, it feels like the non travellers vs the travellers and I don’t think it should be like that at all.

The banking sector in the U.K. Is so fragmented so to have someone like Monzo come in and disturb it was definitely refreshing. As I’ve said I’ve raved about it to anyone who’ll listen but to change tactics so soon I wonder what else is coming up next. With all the cash that have been deposited into Monzo accounts, Monzo is definitely making money, just not as much as before and I understand things need to change.

But saying your trying to build a people’s bank? No. Don’t sugar coat it. It’s always profit first like all the other banks.

In what way?

I have never claimed to be however when I travel I don’t smash the card everyday for cash, in fact I have only ever used it twice for a contactless payment and always used my Metrobank card.

For me the best option is to have up to 200 pounds monthly without charge.
My advice for Monzo is, if it is possible, to tell us which transactions report profit to the project and we could try use more another services to compensate.
Also you can offer Rewards/Cashback increasing limits to the people that use the service in “profitable/reasonable” terms for the project.

We don’t want the project goes to trash :smiley:.

Oh definitely, this discussion has really got heated, I guess it’s because of the sheer disparity of the figures for those who don’t really use it abroad 85% by 13% of users. And for those users who do travel regularly, sites like MSE and whatever kind of sold them a deal that wasn’t really the deal being offered. Without going too far into that topic it;s a bit like brexit in its polarising effect, I’d just like us to get back to everyday business.

I get that but in some ways I’d rather the pain was over quickly before the problem gets worse, It must be a pretty big issue to be this urgent to sort. I respect them a lot for at least involving the community in the decision and I trust the team to do whats best to keep it sustainable

I like to think that there is a middle ground like the co-op, sure its a business but it also acts in the interests of its members. With monzo as an investor I would hope to at least one day get a small profit for sure but actually I like the product and lets be honest its definitely not a wal-mart or an apple, this forum shows at least it does accept feedback :slight_smile:

Trying to come up with a point here, I guess my overall point is that to me they wouldn’t have made this decision to change things up if it wasn’t absolutely necessary because it was obvious that it would cause friction and at least they have asked everyone their views on the matter which most businesses wouldn’t have.

Depends of your account you have 3 limits, at least my one is that:

  • Daily

  • Monthly

  • Yearly

And that apply for the total amount that you withdrawn, no per transaction.

Everyone has an account, handled by AWS servers, supported by a team of 24/7 support, with developers writing for multiple systems, and Monzo’s hq costs on top. If you’re telling me that the interest from my money pays for all of that, or there’s some hidden fee they reap from somewhere - great, I’m wrong. Otherwise, I’m not seeing where I’m paying for this service. Anyone not paying for something would be a freeloader, no?

Try with another browser or cleaning the cookies. I can see witouht problem on the pc and the mobile.

HI,

I don’t really like any of the options. My last bank had a policy where I had to retain a certain balance in the account every month and only then did i benefit from fee free ATM withdrawals and wholesale exchange rate.

Monzo really wants to differ from the charging model and think of an option which is both innovative and safe from being abused.

I hope I have provided some food for thought…

and what? if you did “smash the card”…and what? you used a feature of the card.

getting emotional about a bank card, much?

Are all ATM charges the same? Is there an opportunity to work with specific ATM owners to provide more favourable rates and then instruct us to use these ATMs?

Just curious regarding option 3 then, if one took out £250 in one transaction, would the 3% be levied only on the last £50 of the withdrawl? Or would it be applied to the whole withdrawl?

So say that £250 was your monthly spend, if the rate was 3% it would be 3% of the £50 so £1.50.
MW