Big Issue With Spending, Feature improvements and Suggestions.
Since September of 2017, I have been a Monzo member, and I absolutely love this bank. I always recommend it to friends and family and it’s really cool to see the general public using and talking about the card.
Because I want this bank to succeed so much, I have to call out some overlooked things on the app. I also want to recommend some well-needed features to the app that I believe will help polish the app.
- Spending Section and Roundup
Firstly, the spending section. I use Monzo as my spending account meaning every month I transfer money from my main account and pay for everything on the Monzo card including bills via direct debit. The issue with spending is the transaction roundup, and how the spending section sees these transactions. The spending section doesn’t count the rounded up transaction as one which can be annoyingly bad. This is hard to explain so here’s an example of why it’s courses issues.
Let’s say I spent £1.40 at the local shop 5 times on separate occasions,
The transactions would look like this:
£1.40 + 60p round up = £2
£1.40 + 60p round up = £2
£1.40 + 60p round up = £2
£1.40 + 60p round up = £2
£1.40 + 60p round up = £2
Overall the round makes the transactions look like I’ve spent £10 but the spending section doesn’t see it like this. The spending section would look at the transactions as £7 which will mess up the budget goals. Because I deposit precisely how much I need to spend into my Monzo account, this can confuse me at times and it indicates I can spend more then I have available.
If my targets are set out like this before I go to the shops to buy 5 Freddo’s (LOL):
Targets:
Groceries - £10
Travel - £10
Eating Out - £10
Entertainment - £10
Total left to spend - £40
Available funds - £40
Coin Jar - £0
The spending tab will show me this after I’ve mad those delicious transactions:
Targets:
Groceries - £3 - Spent £7
Travel - £10
Eating Out - £10
Entertainment - £10
Total left to spend - £33
Available funds - £30
Coin Jar - £3
The spending section is saying I can spend £3 for groceries. Because the £3 was put in a “Coin Jar” pot for saving, I should really have £0 left to spend on groceries.
If you use Monzo as your main account and have loads of excess cash in the account, this may not be an issue. If you’re like me and put precisely how much you want to spend into the account, It can be annoying.
So users can choose, I think Monzo should have an option to toggle between grouping the roundup deduction to the transactions and having it as it is currently.
Also adding roundups to direct debits should be a thing or at least a toggle in the settings!
- Spending Budget
Budget targets shouldn’t be fixed to going up and down by £5. Sometimes a target needs to be £11, but the target would currently have to be set to £15. Clicking on the target should allow you to enter in a number.
- More Colours For Pots!
Please please please add more colours options for pots and even custom images! Adding a basic colour wheel would be nice. PLEASE MONZO!!!
Also being able o reorder pots would be pure fire.
- Black Monzo Card
This is a long shot but if you want to earn more capital, offer a black card to users. Trust me even if you give it a price tag of £20 it’ll sell quick!
P.S - Maybe go full AMEX on us and offer a metal black card hmmmmmmmmm… hmmmmmmmmm… hmmmmmmmmm…
- Transaction Logo Suggestions
Sometimes when I suggest a logos and they never get changed even though the logos on Twitter would be perfect to use. I know you may be drowning in logo requests so this isn’t a big issue.
Sorry for the essay and if I repeated anything that others have posted before!
Thanks Monzo!