Bait and switch

I’ve seen they’re developing this Beta app but as you said it’s a little too late. With the size of the bank and the resources they must have they could have delivered this app ages ago, they’re stuck in the dark ages

Dunno about that - it’s good to know you’re not going to be out of pocket if a d/d goes amiss or something

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You really shouldn’t be anyway, because the guarantee is about it transferring properly. If you don’t close your old account, then if it doesn’t transfer it will hopefully just come out of the old account.

At no point in time has Monzo depicted itself as a free lunch, being an early user, and now a current account user seeing the transparency of the team running the bank and the clear roadmap, I am in no doubt about Monzo’s ability to transform the banking experience is really important to me! As well as listening to their customer base. Its not a bank for everyone (some people still like legacy banking) but for people like me who want a clear picture of my finances and where I could make better choices it’s invaluable to me :slightly_smiling_face:

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That’s awkward, then. They want it to be a bank for a billion people.

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Totally agree. When I first got into Monzo, there were various aspects that were pushed which formed the core of their services offered.

This included topping up, not just because it’s a pre-paid card, but the convenience of being able to do so means there are virtually no delays in getting your cash, versus other means, which can range from minutes to days. To find out this will potentially be a chargeable service going forward is a bummer, but understandable from a cost perspective.

Considering there was the compromise on the ATM fees abroad a short while back, it makes me wonder what else will be lost going forward.

I am happy that Monzo is now a proper bank offering current account services, but more needs to be done to separate from bigger brick and mortar offerings, where you can take cash and physically interact with someone. Monzo is pretty much still in its infancy, and should be doing more to attract people on board.

Because of the way things are, I’m personally not yet fully ready to commit to using Monzo as a full current account, but it will be a ‘spending’ account for me. Reading around the forums, I see that many many people are doi the same thing.

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I don’t believe that Monzo deliberately employs a ‘bait and switch’ tactic.

I do believe that a deliberate policy decision was made to widen the customer base and use MSE to bring Monzo to a wider audience.

Way back sometime in the 80’s I owned a VW Polo. It could drink both leaded and unleaded without any modification. Unleaded was just being introduced into the UK. I remember one filling station that had one unleaded pump. The pump was padlocked with all sorts of dire warnings about what would happen to your engine. I even had to remonstrate with the cashier and I seem to think that the fuel cost more. Some 30+ years later it is almost impossible to obtain fuel that an unmodified engine can safely burn-the tables have fully turned.

Why do I relate this tale? To demonstrate that sea change can and will occur with the right education, support, advantages and availability. The next big push is in to electric cars. This cannot really happen without solving the longer distance problem. I have no doubt that a solution will be found.

I digress. What is Monzo’s raison d’etre? Apparently it is to bring to a billion people the world’s best current account. Statements like ‘foreign exchange transactions should be seamless and without the need for consumer thought’. I actually can relate to that and can see money changers in the Middle East making a living on a very small buy/sell split. There is no need for the outrageous charges that we are used to being charged.

Reading this forum (and others) I see a big user base in tracking contactless payments instantly. Customers are using the account as an alternative to cash.
There is no doubt that governments and businesses (on the whole) want to move to a cashless society.
I saw somewhere a business account that was free to use but only allowed electronic transactions. It was marketed alongside a traditional business account with the ability to accept cheques and cash.

My point being is for Monzo to consider either just to offer electronic transactions (no cheques, no cash in or out and no top ups) or an account that offers those non electronic facilities but for a fee as well as a cashless account.

Obviously, my Polo could take leaded as well as unleaded which was good because initially it was hard to buy unleaded. In a similar way Monzo users in the main are maintaining their existing bank accounts.

In conclusion, if you are trail blazing then pioneer the cashless way and provide an account that doesn’t use ATMs or accept cheques etc. It is pointless trying to match the existing banks with a product that cannot compete because of no CASS or statements or joint accounts.

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That’s a really interesting perspective, @Apostle!

I just wanted to firstly pick up on one thing at the end here :point_down:

CASS, statements and joint accounts are all things that we want to introduce, so we will be offering these soon enough.

At the moment, we’re entirely focussed on the mammoth task of moving our near half a million customers over to the current account, but once that’s out the way we’ll have much more time to devote to implementing new features and services :slightly_smiling_face:

As for this; I totally get it. The future will surely be cashless, and personally, I almost never use cash! I think the issue here is that so many people still use cash, and for some emergencies you really really need it when all else fails. We would never want to leave our customers in a position where they were stuck without access to their money, so it’s quite unlikely we’d ever stop offering cash withdrawals altogether - at least until society advances to a point where it simply is no longer needed. (Of course, this brings up a whole other argument of ‘how does society advance if no one starts the push forward’, but we’ll leave that for another day :sweat_smile:)

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Is Monzo bait and switch?

No. They’ve been transparent about changes. For example they were honest about their problems with ATM charges and the changes they made to the charges for using ATMs abroad were put out to customers to vote on what would be preferred.

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I have been pretty happy the past year using Monzo, but as many others, I have now closed the account and moved to Revolut as the recent changes ref charges and bank account upgrade were not relevant to me as I now live in Spain, as long as you understand that it might be a great solution for you if you are UK based and don’t travel much abroad but sadly it is no longer for me and many like me.

Monzo has always been clear that both the prepaid card and current account are only for people who live in the UK and Channel Islands. N26 and bunq have both been recommended on these forums as good accounts for people living in mainland Europe.

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and Monese and Fire EUR accounts.

Monese have also Spanish language support available too

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I think Monzo are so far very straightforward. I have been robbed on multiple occasions by legacy banks who have triple charged for actions they have taken against my will and without warning. They have represented cheques knowing they will fail simply to make money, increased interest when I was struggling, lost cheques (I photographed one that they denied I had paid in) charged me for sending a letter about charging me and the list goes on. Two banks refused me an overdraft, one because I had used one befor and another because I had not used one before and told me it was government policy. That’s like taking my fire extinguishers away because I have had a fire or had not had a fire before. I’m for Monzo!
Merlin

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Monzo isn’t intended for people living abroad, and never was. So, I wouldn’t expect it to be suited to you and people like you. It was never intended for people living abroad pushing large amounts of cash conversion, and they added ATM fees to curb this behaviour.

For travellers, even frequent travellers, they’ve given a £200 a month fee-free allowance and POS use continues to be fee-free. This covers the vast majority of travel needs (except to expensive low card acceptance countries like Japan).

You can easily go a month in the US, Canada, many European countries, etc on £200 or less worth of local currency. Remember, even somewhere like Japan most hotels and hostels take cards. Some hostels in Eastern Europe don’t, but a week holiday should still be under £200 in cash expenses.

Heck, here, at home, in England, I don’t come anywhere near £200 a month in cash use. Maybe £20, at the absolute most… I’d guess my average is quite a bit lower. When I lived in the US, it was similar, almost certainly under $20. Thus, I’d say Monzo’s great for travel abroad, in most cases.

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Wow, this comes across as really unfriendly. :hushed:

Monzo’s stated goal is a billion customers. They’ll need customers overseas to reach that goal.

It’s early days for the current account. Worth keeping an eye on for potential US and EU customers, from what I’ve read.

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Yeah, it does if taken out of context! I was only using the person I was replying to’s terminology. Definitely not intended to be unfriendly at all, simply, the product wasn’t likely to be designed for those needs.

Yup, they will. They announced at the December open office that the US is likely to be their first overseas market and some of the reasons for that. Eventually, I’m sure Monzo will take over much of the world, but until that happens, it’s not going to be made with people living outside of the service area as a priority.

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The context of the whole post read as critical and negative. May not have been your intention.

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It reads a s pretty factual to me and sums up much of the thoughts I had when reading the original post.

At the moment Monzo offers UK accounts to UK residents and really isn’t suited to the scenario described. In the future when local currency accounts may be offered in different countries then this will undoubtedly change.

Remember that tone is in the mind of the reader which is why it’s best not to respond to it.

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I stand corrected, then.

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