If the proposal under Option 3 is for £200 per month fee-free, could maybe some of this be “rolled over”? i.e. if I use my allowance every month, I just get £200 per month. But if I only sporadically withdraw cash abroad, could maybe two or three months’ worth roll up? For example:
Jan - withdraw £200
Feb - no withdrawal (£200 allowance rolled over to March)
Mar - no withdrawal (£200+£200 allowance rolled over to April)
Apr - no withdrawal (£200+£200+£200 allowance rolled over to May)
May - no withdrawal (maximum of £600 allowance reached, so no further rollover)
Jul - £600 withdrawal allowed fee-free
Voted option 1, but as mentioned above I think I’d rather a slightly higher monthly or a quarterly allowance instead.
With option 2 or 3 there’s too much of a chance that it’ll turn out Monzo will have a majority of customers visiting the EU (whilst Monzo is U.K. only) and will be seen to making money on not reducing the % down to the cost amount because it’s complicated to do so.
It would be better if Monzo agreed to regularly review the charges once it has more data to see if the charges need to move down or up. Too many times prices move up but not back down.
The problem I see with Option 3 (which is currently in the lead) is that it’s not always easy to tell what £200 is in the local currency. I voted for option 1 as I think it’s both simple and fair.
As others have mentioned, it’s strangely different dependent on country. People travelling to Germany especially will hit the limit quicker than if they travel to somewhere where cash isn’t king.
If there were some way of having a yes/no prompt on the phone for accepting the charge, I’d be happier with an actual cost pass-on.
I think it should be an annual limit, maybe less than the £2400 theoretical cumulative monthly limit but still an annual limit. I might go on one holiday a year, and want to use say £1000 of ATM withdrawals.
Your’re preventing those milking the card for free cash by having a limit, but you aren’t stopping genuine users who have gone abroad and run out of cash…
I would say the stat the 13% of people drive 85% of the cost in any given month is a touch misleading. This could well be a reflection of the number of people away in a given month, since it’s not the same people each month.
One further suggestion, why don’t you offer FX prior to people going away. Thus have a prepaid Euro sum on the card which could be withdrawn when away by switch something in the app?
"the majority of customers would end up supporting a small minority who benefit from the card’s rates, while not necessarily engaging with the wider benefits of Monzo"
Option 4: You need to offer the 0% ATM withdrawal fees to those who use the card in the UK and eventually have a current account. By depositing a certain amount in the current account each month (e.g. £1000), these users are then eligible for 0% ATM withdrawals fees worldwide. Monzo makes money out of these deposits which will then off-set the £16 lost each year in fees.
The 0% fees should be a reward for those customers that take advantage of the features which make Monzo money in the background (e.g. Deposits). The danger of introducing any fees at all for ATM withdrawals is users will simply go to Revolut etc. This is clearly the number 1 USP of Monzo and you guys need to offset this cost elsewhere in order to keep the user figures up
I’m probably a bad example but a % fee on overseas transactions is a total deal breaker for me. I live and work aboard for most of the year in countries where accepting card payments is rare, so I have to withdraw a lot of cash.
I really love Monzo, and was very excited to switch to a current account but I’ve recently had problems with the annual ATM fee and with the addition of a % on overseas transactions, this would probably result in me leaving Monzo entirely.
Compare this to my Halifax clarity card where I’m paying zero fees and have no withdrawal cap.
In saying that, if there was an option to pay a small fixed fee to withdraw overseas without a % charge I would definitely consider it. However, it’s going to be a hard sell to get me to move from a service where I’m paying nothing so there would really need to be value added elsewhere.
Monzo already has a concept of a “month” through its tracking of my monthly spending. If option 3 is the way forward, will it be grouped into these months, or will it be another setup, such as a rolling month?
e.g. if I were to withdraw £150 on 29/9 and £150 on 3/10. A rolling month setup would be better for Monzo, but using the current month setup would be better for me.
Ive voted for option 3 because it is the least bad. In my view £200 a month is too low. What about a more generous allowance if the clients has other beneficial behavior such as maintaining a certain balance ?
No commission cash outside Europe is your most USP, I can use Metro Debit inside Europe. Too tight a cash limit and I/we will just carry more than 1 card !
Is it possible to offer all 3 options to a new card/account holder when they sign up, they then pick their preferred option and they have to stick with it for one year. After which they can review how it’s working for them and then have the option to move to one of the other fee structures?
Could Monzo share some correlation data showing amount of revenue generating activity (e.g. UK card use, interest on held funds) versus ATM fees? It would be interesting to see the scattergram to see how different users are grouped
In particular the evidence that some users are only using Monzo for high value overseas ATM transactions versus whether limiting this would also limit heavy users who generate revenue
It has been suggested before, but I think a fairly yearly allowance would be a better system. Having a monthly cap allows people who travel often and possibly for work, using their monzo while they travel, but not in the UK, abuse the system. Therefore having a single yearly allowance of £600-800 allows those who travel a 2-3 times a year to take advantage of the free ATM withdrawals, without abusing the system.
I assume it would be marginally more difficult to implement, but another suggestions which feels like it addresses the issues raised in the community post, would be to reward users who use their monzo in the UK, for every x spent in the UK, you gain another x amount in your free ATM withdrawals. This means you reward users who use the card at home and abroad and stop people using it purely as a travel card. This feels like it addresses the problems you raised, but also means you can charge a percentage once people go past their limit.
