Auto top-up

A bit like TfL do with the Oyster card, if your balance drops below £20, you can set up an auto top-up from a debit card. Would be very useful to be able to set the limit and the amount by which it automatically tops up.

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I don’t think it’s a good idea as it could cause you to become easily overdrawn with your main bank. At least doing it manually means you can check your balance before moving money over.

Also worth remembering the pre-paid card is only a temporary product until their full bank account is launched. Features that aren’t useful in the context of a proper bank account probably aren’t worth spending developer time on. Once it’s a full bank Monzo would hope you’d use it as your main account and therefore the principle of ‘topping up’ doesn’t really apply once it’s a bank account.

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It’s a good idea but not needed once Monzo are a proper bank. They’ll stop sending out prepaid cards and will be issuing proper debit cards.

I suppose that ultimately it will be your salary that becomes the auto top-up when the full current account becomes available - cuts out the middlemen somewhat!

Agreed, if my main salary could be paid in then no need for auto top-up

It’s certainly not a bad idea, given their Road Map suggests becoming a full Bank is likely in 6 to 9 months. If you currently have Direct Debits set up or Auto Top Up like TfL on your main bank account then this may be a useful feature. Though having an opt in with limits would be essential. However, this clearly depends on whether it is a ‘quick-win’ feature or technically complex and not worth committing resources. So I can see both sides.

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Interesting that many members feel that when the full bank is ready this will not be needed.

I’m yet to fully use the budgeting features (I’m on Android) - but I use Monzo to record my ‘discretionary spending’ (i.e. non essential).
I use First Direct as my main bank account, and wouldn’t consider changing.

My main issue is I’ve been declined a few times due to forgetting to top-up (I know it only takes a few seconds). The issue for me is that payments should be reliable - even though declines are caused by my own user error, it becomes easier to just use my main a/c card, which defeats the purpose.

If there was an auto top-up (or something like PayPal, where it takes from my Monzo balance first, then my main back a/c) then it would give me security that I wouldn’t face the embarrassment of my card being declined.

With native BACS and Faster Payments support, would become possible to push payments to Monzo on a regular basis from another account rather than have to pull in the form of a top-up.

(Yes, I know it is technically possible using the bank transfer top-up feature today but it’s got a huge delay to it and so on.)

I agree - although I really don’t want to log in to my First Direct account each time I want to top-up my Monzo account. Happy with the current card-based top-up method, just want to avoid getting declined (which is a horrible experience for users, even if it is their own fault!)

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This is too dangerous on a card - with Tfl its less risky because if your oyster got stolen they would struggle to spend a lot of of money (you can’t really spend loads of money on Tfl easily and it has a cap under a tenner per day). If your monzo card got stolen and had auto top up you could be in big trouble - a card thief with a card that auto tops up is dangerous! And monzo and want to agree because they won’t want to risk paying out

I see what you mean but you’d freeze your account once you lose your Monzo card. Even if an automatic top up, increased your balance after your card was stolen, I’m pretty sure (I don’t work for Monzo) that Monzo would still be liable for any money that’s spent (as long as their terms are met).

Put a limit (1 auto top-up per day) or send me an email when you do an auto top-up. Whatever helps meet their fraud guidelines.

The main thing is that without it, I need to consider how much available balance I have before I make a purchase, which could be enough for me to avoid using Monzo in the first place.

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I would like auto top-up and/or an app notification once I go below a threshold amount.

I also like the idea in a previous post of a per day limit on auto top-up or perhaps a rule that says more than 1 auto top–up request per day requires some additional authentication.

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Like Monzo prepaid card bPay is a prepaid service, however they have (the option of) auto-topup and I see no reason why something like this could not be considered by Monzo

I’m not sure I’d want auto-top up, but a notification with a link to top up when I’m within £10 of my prepaid credit running out would be handy. I’m new to Monzo. Does that already exist?

You’ll receive the notification when your balance reaches £15 but yes, that’s exactly what’s set up already :thumbsup:

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Hurrah. I like it when I don’t have to wait for the things I’d like! Yet another reason to like this shiny little card.

Thanks Alex!

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Would be worth making this an option for people who do want it, perhaps with a daily top-up limit, to prevent the target account from becoming overdrawn.

If only other banks had an API, so monzo could check if drawing money was a good idea or not…

I top up my Monzo card once per month, so at the start of the month I have the same amount in it, let’s say £400.

At the end of the month, I would like Monzo to top my card up so it’s back at £400.

This way, I can see throughout the month how much I have left to spend for the month. If I run out of money, I have to manually top it up, but then I know I’ve gone over my allowance for the month.

This is also the safest option - if the card is lost, or if I die, then the card won’t keep on topping up repeatedly every month, as the balance will just sit at £400 forever. If the card is stolen, I have up to a month to disable it before it gets loaded with more money that a crook could take from it.

Please add this feature! :smile_cat:

The prepaid card will be phased out by the end of the year in favour of current accounts so I don’t think this feature or any other new ones will be added now.

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