Or to a country where £200 goes a long way, like it did in the Philippines. Together, they pretty much sum up ‘the vast majority of holidays’.
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Amen! I love Monzo, just wish it offered something more competitive on the ATM fees, so I don’t need to feel like I’m cheating on her with Starling! 
I’m glad they didn’t. Speaking personally, although I’d have preferred no change, £200 as an emergency cash withdrawal will be more than enough for me.
It’s always possible to obtain cash before one leaves (and the way the exchange rates have been going recently, the earlier the better these days 
) not to mention opening an account with Starling purely for overseas cash.
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Ultimately Monzo changed the way they worked so it was affordable for them. Starling haven’t yet and if I was going to a cash heavy country 100% I’d sign up for Starling to get the free withdrawals. If someone is offering it you’d be foolish not to take them up on it. I’d only end up using it for that purpose though, just like plenty did with Monzo.
I’ve always used Monzo with the idea it’s becoming a bank account so though this is a change it’s not something that makes me feel differently as it was never the USP for me joining.
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The whole point of a debit card is to enable access to your cash wherever you are at home or abroad, who wants the hassle of having to order and pay for and collect foreign currency each time you travel!
As for opening an account with Starling for overseas cash use, if you are going to open an account with them you may as well use it for everything you would have used Monzo for…and their overdrafts are cheaper too.
I rarely take cash out in EU and if I do it is normally less than €200, however I now have started using Starling as my main account as while I would be happy to pay the 1% (in Europe, 2% elsewhere) that it costs Monzo I am not happy to pay an extra 2% on top (i.e. 300% of the actual cost of the charges) if and when I ever need cash.
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Until they ditch GPS I wouldn’t rely on them day to day.
No one has to do this. It’s just an option. As is paying 3% on withdrawals over £200.
As I said, for my needs, the current fee structure isn’t too bad. Free money is always better, though
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Could it not be a £600 limit on a 90 day rolling period? I’m unlikely (probably as many normal folk) to take 12 trips abroad, 4 would be pushing it but at least for the twice I would normally go I wouldn’t be so hamstrung, for those that are lucky enough to travel abroad 12 times a year it would work out the same, right?
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Except it wouldn’t work out the same for Monzo. With a £600 limit on a 90 day rolling period, those taking infrequent trips would cost Monzo more, whilst those taking trips every month would cost them the same. Somebody has to cover the costs, and that means that for a significant number of people, it has to be not free - in this fee structure it’s those who have expensive, infrequent holidays subsidising those who take regular short holidays.
The other two options had less cross-subsidisation between users, but this is the one people voted for.
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I think that’s far more likely to be used only as a travel card then, or to attract people who only want that. Remember that the £200 in 30 days is designed to be part of a typical current account user’s usage mix - some activities generate revenue for Monzo (like making purchases and holding a balance) and others (like using ATMs and replacing cards) cost them money. Your proposal I think would lead to Monzo appealing to customers that do more things that cost and less that profit, I suspect.
That’s just not true, you’re picking out ATM fees as if they have to be profitable in their own right. If everyone used a reasonable amount of foreign ATM withdrawals as part of a diverse account activity mix, that would be fine (and what I believe Monzo initially expected before realising the MSE crowd would open accounts and use them for nothing other than enormous foreign withdrawals).
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We still would be, only able to use 6 months of the 12 available. I thought that the whole problem stemmed from people using it as a cheap card for abroad, instead of for the odd time as you would if it was used like a normal account. (I think it was moneysavingexpert that pointed it out as a great holiday card and lead to the abuse they took) hell they could even it out completely by giving everyone a £1000-1500 rolling yearly limit… but then the MSE crowd would cry foul.
Monzo (Tristan from memory) specifically stated that people signing up from the money saving expert promotion were not any worse for this than the user base in general, so I wish people would stop bringing that up.
All I’m saying is that to achieve the goal of breaking even on ATM fees, the costs have to be paid by some users. This was the size of free tier that Monzo’s modelling showed would break even, including the fact that most people won’t use their allowance every month. For some people with totally reasonable regular usage of the card, it won’t be free.
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Was breaking even on ATM fees, instead of the account as a whole, ever stated as a goal? It isn’t a goal for anything else that has a cost, like issuing cards, providing customer service, UK ATM use, etc.
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Fair point. But really, the discussion around pricing is the same whether your goal is ‘break even on ATM fees’ or ‘lose no more than £x on ATM fees’ - it just changes the specific numbers a bit.
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Perhaps it could be tiered when it becomes more of a complete product, if someone is depositing £xxxx into the account or some such criteria they are using it as their main acct, letting monzo hold their money, and probably doing the normal profitable activities, right? Maybe those users could see some lesser restrictions as a perk for using monzo like a real bank instead of for specific less profitable (or loss making) activities only.
My grumble about it is that 30 days rolling window would be confusing to most. I would have much preferred a monthly limit…
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Not necessarily, because it’s about the bigger picture - what type of customers are attracted. Some people may be overall break-even or profit with much larger foreign ATM use than others. Which brings us to…
I thought about this too, it’s common in legacy banking. Perks for pay-in minimums, numbers of POS debit transactions, etc. But it’s complex and a lot of people don’t quite understand it.
Monzo is incredibly simple (in a good way as @HughWells noted), which I love. But having tiered accounts with perks for behaving in a more-likely-to-be-profitable way feels very legacy.
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It may feel legacy, or in other words not different, but would you (low risk) accept a loan at 45% APR so that others (high risk, unemployed etc) could get loans at 45% APR?
If a bank tried that, those unlikely to default would choose another bank, and that bank would be left with a whole bunch of defaulters who got a damn good rate…
I’m not sure why I chose 45% but the point was if people know they’re a good customer and they get punished for the others’ behaviour they will go where they are treated according to their value, the people who are high risk would love that bank though and flock to it, which probably isn’t a good state of affairs to be honest.
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in this fee structure it is families on holiday subsidizing solo travelers and those travelling to Europe where charges are lower subsidizing those travelling to the Rest Of the World. Were there true equality and all customers paid Monzo’s costs equally that would be a fair system. As it is, having a free allowance forces up the percentage paid by some while subsidizing others. That makes it an inheritantly unfair system, and as a result forces me to use other providers, which is a shame as I thought a bank renowned for it’s openness and transparancy would be one that treats all customers equally. Instead they have opted for a system that will mean they continue to incur costs as a large number of customers withdraw just their free allocation (and avoid contributing to the very costs Monzo were worried about) and other customers will be paying for them by paying two or three times the cost the bank incurs.
Now I know Starling may not be able to keep free withdrawals indefinately and may have to consider at some point introducing charges, but I trust them to have a fairer system without some customers carrying a higher burden to subsidize others.
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Equality and fair aren’t the same thing. It isn’t equal, but please don’t make that out to be unfair. Do you want to start paying for replacement debit cards, etc?
Even then, that wouldn’t be equal or magically fair unless you also got a profit share in interest, interchange fees, etc.
Unfair is when ridiculous fees out of proportion to reality are charged, and common in banking. Monzo isn’t doing that, at all.
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