Better spending insights

[anon67208389]

It would be good to have more detailed spending insights

Visualisation / reports:

Projecting spend for the month based on current spending velocity
Pie / bar graphs of spend in & out over months of the year
Money in vs money out
Average money in vs money out
Average spend per category for a given timeframe ( week/ month / quarter)
List of vendors by total spend high to low over a given time frame (week, month, quarter)

A.I.:
Saving suggestions - eg spend less with amazon
Spending habits - e.g it looks like your spending 50pc more on entertainment this month

[SheaLavington (Super-cali-fragi-listic-expiali-docious)]

@anon67208389

Projecting spend for the month based on current spending velocity

What’s the benefit of this?.. It thinks I’m going to spend £4 for a sandwich but then BAM, something breaks and I have to replace it, not everything is able to be projected, especially money.

@anon67208389

Pie / bar graphs of spend in & out over months of the year

Why… This is one of the reasons I disliked Starling, I find it unnecessary and space wasting. This is all stuff that can be added by a third party at a later date via an API integration, or by yourself by exporting data. I would have to strongly disagree and suggest that Monzo focus on perfecting features, bringing Apple Pay and focusing on the road-map rather than spending development time making me a pretty graph to show me my spend which I can see anyway.

@anon67208389

Money in vs money out

This could work, it could be simple and based on their existing graph. Nothing major needing to be done. But again, I can see this in my transaction history, what benefit is seeing this as a report/visualization? if my balance is a + integer, I know I’ve got money and if I’ve got a - integer, I know I’ve not got enough

@anon67208389

List of vendors by total spend high to low over a given time frame (week, month, quarter)

Again,I can’t see any benefit of this, this is an API based integration where a third party could develop a tool allowing you to download / create reports or view live reports based on your spending habits and order them by biggest total spend, merchant, etc

I can already see the total spent and with who, I don’t need to order them by biggest total spend

@anon67208389

Saving suggestions - eg spend less with amazon

I see benefits of this, however I don’t see how you’d integrate it, I have my budget setup however this month I purchased the Pixel 2, it’s a one off and won’t happen again for a few years, does it mean I’m going to be asked to spend less with Google?.. AI is good, but you can’t use AI to determine peoples spending needs (yet), things go wrong, things break and I’d rather not have my bank telling me “We see you spending £24 at Sainsbury’s this month” if I’m trying to avoid buying more chocolate

@anon67208389

Spending habits

Don’t need any AI for this, I can see what I’m spending, if I’m using targets then I’m aware, if I’m not using it then I likely don’t care for it much.

I don’t want this sounding rude, I just disagree with most of what you suggested based on the graphs and reports I’d rather be in control of my own money rather than have an AI tell me I’m spending too much, I’ll spend it on what I bloody well want haha, and I’d like to have my bank focus on whats important rather than making some graphs for me. I can make those myself, integrated spending pots, Apple Pay, security, and overdrafts, I can’t do.

[anon56665608]

Personally I LOVE this idea! With a young family I need to be better at tracking my spend. I’d like something where I could categorize and see the spend for each category. I like the idea of showing a visual representation such as a pie graph splitting up my monthly wage into the categories that I’ve spent money on.

[SheaLavington (Super-cali-fragi-listic-expiali-docious)]

@anon56665608 Are you aware of third parties who already do this though? Apps that already allow you to see, report and manage multiple accounts. Why does it need to be a fundamental part of the bank for everyone when only a minority will use it. Why should development stop on key features to add some graphs?

[anon67208389]

@SheaLavington

What’s the benefit of this?.. It thinks I’m going to spend £4 for a sandwich but then BAM, something breaks and I have to replace it, not everything is able to be projected, especially money.

Good questions. The benefit is so you can see when you will reach your budget. So for a given month perhaps you’ve budgeted £500 but you went a little crazy on black Friday and bought too many pairs of jeans. Projected spend will help you figure out you’ll run out of money halfway through the month so you’d need to spend less over the next few days so your ‘velocity’ adjusts. How effective the projection is and how resilient it is to anomalous spending (e.g. your sandwich) depends how effectively the software can remove ‘spikes’ in your graph and create a nice average. (Not a bit deal if you know what you’re doing).

[anon67208389]

@SheaLavington

Are you aware of third parties who already do this though? Apps that already allow you to see, report and manage multiple accounts. Why does it need to be a fundamental part of the bank for everyone when only a minority will use it. Why should development stop on key features to add some graphs?

Third parties do this and then sell vast amounts of your financial data to pay for this service. I would like Monzo to do this because I hope they don’t behave in this manner.

[anon67208389]

@SheaLavington

Don’t need any AI for this, I can see what I’m spending, if I’m using targets then I’m aware, if I’m not using it then I likely don’t care for it much.

I don’t want this sounding rude, I just disagree with most of what you suggested based on the graphs and reports I’d rather be in control of my own money rather than have an AI tell me I’m spending too much, I’ll spend it on what I bloody well want haha, and I’d like to have my bank focus on whats important rather than making some graphs for me. I can make those myself, integrated spending pots, Apple Pay, security, and overdrafts, I can’t do.

It’s not rude to state your preferences with that said, I believe they would be valuable

[SheaLavington (Super-cali-fragi-listic-expiali-docious)]

That makes sense, cheers for the clarification but I’d like to pass you the same question as Fido, why does this need to be a fundamental part of Monzo when a minority would use it, why should Monzo stop developing ground breaking features to make graphs that already exist on third party apps like Yolt? I just want to see and manage my money, I don’t require an AI to tell me how much I’m spending and if I do, I shouldn’t be in control of money

[anon67208389]

@SheaLavington

I see benefits of this, however I don’t see how you’d integrate it, I have my budget setup however this month I purchased the Pixel 2, it’s a one off and won’t happen again for a few years, does it mean I’m going to be asked to spend less with Google?.. AI is good, but you can’t use AI to determine peoples spending needs (yet), things go wrong, things break and I’d rather not have my bank telling me “We see you spending £24 at Sainsbury’s this month” if I’m trying to avoid buying more chocolate

Similar response to the spending projection really. A decent programme could relatively easily look at your spending and figure out your pixel is an anomaly ‘or spike in the graph’ and discount it and instead favour a ‘creeping average’ over time. Though that would be an interesting feature to test and evaluate what was more useful from the broad user bases point of view.

[WillP79]

Agreed, with the exception of Apple Pay. Apple whingers should buy a decent (and cheaper!) phone, and it sounds like you have done!

[anon67208389]

@SheaLavington

Why… This is one of the reasons I disliked Starling, I find it unnecessary and space wasting. This is all stuff that can be added by a third party at a later date via an API integration, or by yourself by exporting data. I would have to strongly disagree and suggest that Monzo focus on perfecting features, bringing Apple Pay and focusing on the road-map rather than spending development time making me a pretty graph to show me my spend which I can see anyway.

I agree with you that things like apple pay (and overdrafts!) should be a priority.

I think third party integration is risky because of data privacy issues (3rd parties sell your financial data) and also clunky. The new normal is about minimising consumer friction - not creating additional steps to access something fundamental. I would argue accessing information about your spend is an essential activity that has long been outside the grasp of your average consumer because that data isn’t easy and straightforward to access and visualise. This is important because if you spend less it fosters trust with your bank and helps consumers save money.

[anon67208389]

@SheaLavington

I see benefits of this, however I don’t see how you’d integrate it, I have my budget setup however this month I purchased the Pixel 2, it’s a one off and won’t happen again for a few years, does it mean I’m going to be asked to spend less with Google?.. AI is good, but you can’t use AI to determine peoples spending needs (yet), things go wrong, things break and I’d rather not have my bank telling me “We see you spending £24 at Sainsbury’s this month” if I’m trying to avoid buying more chocolate

You can simplify the problem - and look at average spend over time and then drastic and sustained increases with a certain vendor. You don’t need to understand information about specific items

[anon67208389]

@SheaLavington

This could work, it could be simple and based on their existing graph. Nothing major needing to be done. But again, I can see this in my transaction history, what benefit is seeing this as a report/visualization? if my balance is a + integer, I know I’ve got money and if I’ve got a - integer, I know I’ve not got enough

Ease of access to valuable visual financial data. Minimise fricition.

[anon67208389]

Thanks @anon56665608 glad you agree I think that understanding spending in one click is important because for about 80pc of the country that isn’t minted and or isn’t an accountant or data scientist getting nudges and insights that help customers to save a bit is important. I also think it needs to be easy - I don’t think the average person wants to integrate software via Api’s or install apps and move out of one trusted ecosystem (Monzo) to another.

I also trust Monzo to not share my financial data which might not initially be so obvious. A while ago I looked into third parties who provide spending insights - they essentially sell your spending data to people like insurers etc (means you could wind up getting higher insurance premiums if those insurers decide your spending habits make you more risky for example).

[SheaLavington (Super-cali-fragi-listic-expiali-docious)]

Selling financial data against a name would be in breach of the data protection act therefore I see no risk, the data would also be accessed by an API therefore anything returned will be a call back and would be in the best interest to cache it rather than store it. the only risk would be based with the consumer and who they pick and the legality of the third party report provider they’re with.

And graphs I wouldn’t call fundamental. Useful, not fundamental, a graph isn’t required for the bank to work correctly, however there are some things that are needed. I agree it would cause less friction and ease of use, but this is for a minority group, but for the users who do not want it, it causes more friction as they’re avoiding the functionality they don’t want. I think graphs are a part of a small minority. I can see what Ive spent. I know what I’m likely to spend, I don’t need a graph for it. If I want to see my total spend by retailer from highest to lowest, I’ll put it in a spreadsheet and check, it’s not something I need on a day to day basis.

To be fair, with this, when the API is released, I’m looking at building a web app and you’ve pointed out that some want reports and graphs, therefore it’s functionality I ‘could’ build in, which allows users to build their own reports based on what they need in a separate tab. The difference is, I could work on graphs and spending habits, and have my bank secure my money.

[SheaLavington (Super-cali-fragi-listic-expiali-docious)]

@anon67208389

• I don’t think the average person wants to integrate software via Api’s or install apps and move out of one trusted ecosystem (Monzo) to another.

You wouldn’t have to, you may have missed the point. You find a service you like and click Link. You don’t use the API, the developer does.

@anon67208389

they essentially sell your spending data to people like insurers etc (means you could wind up getting higher insurance premiums if those insurers decide your spending habits make you more risky for example).

Got a name for these companies? I’m certain that would be a violation if the data protection act. Seems like paranoia to me what crazy services have you signed up for if they’re doing that.

A true developer would avoid storing that information anyway as it could change at any point. It would be cached meaning it’s stored on a local device or a secure remote file with encryption. There wouldn’t be any physical ties to you also meaning any database breach would only give them access to limited information which is encrypted and then requires further files to do damage.

---

I’m going to leave my comments at that as we don’t seem to be getting anywhere just two opinions haha.

[anon67208389]

@SheaLavington - from what I read (admittedly a while ago so I could be wrong) services like OnTrees etc have a business model around user data.

Cool that you’re building a web app to generate reports - is there any reason you see it would be better to do this externally as opposed to directly in the Monzo ecosystem?

[Dunsford (Colin Robinson)]

I think some of your requests would look good and use the extra space on an iPad if were ever to build such a thing

[Feathers (MikeF)]

Yes, I could see some of this maybe using up the ‘extra’ space on an iPad app but even then they have limited appeal and most of them are things I would want to turn off or hide.

An external integration offering an extended service such would seem to be ideal allowing Monzo developers to get on with the fundamental ‘money management’ functionality.

[anon56665608]

Yes I am. I dont know why you think development should stop on key features. Are you in charge on the roadmap and priorities? Do you know how much effort is required for this??? Im guessing NO. Nobody is asking for everyone to down tools and start working on this. Its an idea and its a good one. Isnt tht what this forum is about? Accept that other people like this idea and your opinion is not the only opinion in this world. Sheesh! Im out!