✅ Bill Pots (previously Committed Spending Pot)

But I don’t think that would be possible to do, as the DD debits the Account and not the Pot - the Pot doesn’t have its own sort code and account number so how would the DD request know to take the money out of say Pot 3 of 8 pots?

A pot doesn’t need to have a sort code… the account has a sort code… what happens inside the account is down to Monzos engineering…

The DD is sent to Monzo… Monzo can process it however they see fit. If you assign DD to Pot 2… them Monzo first look in pot 2, and if pot 2 fails - then your main balance… and if that fails, then perhaps it can look to pull money from your other pots (and alert you that it has had to do this to stop you from defaulting).

However, if you’re out of money - you’re out of money… Monzo can’t fix that.

My DD is £400… I have £400 in the pot I have allocated… £400 is taken from that pot.

My DD is £400… I have £200 in my allocated pot, and £300 in my balance. £200 is taken from my pot, £200 is taken from my balance. Leaving £100 in my balance.

My DD is £400… I have £10 in my pot, and a balance of ZERO… I have a combined total of £390 in all my other pots - so Monzo grabs the money from that to stop me from defaulting and tells me.

My DD is £400… I have £10 in my pot, and a balance of ZERO… I default as I have insufficient funds.

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Making alot of assumptions here as I have no idea what the makeup of monzo’s backend and dbs are but how id personally do it is…

  • Place a flag on a committed spending pot
  • Do a check before paying dd to see if flag is enabled
  • Take amount from ringfenced pot with committed flag/toggle

Orrrr

  • Do automatically transfers/withdrawal from ringfenced pot to main at midnight as a more simple solution

Just assign each Direct Debit with an ID (if they don’t already).

In this example my Sky TV could be #9112, so the rule on my account would be:

when a payment request for {#9112} is made deduct {requested_amount} from {pot}.

Kind of like how IFTTT works :slight_smile:

In coding terms there’s a lot more to it than that, but on paper that’s how I’d guess it would work :sweat_smile:

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I get that point but its whether you can actually make that payment from the pot - I assume that you probably can’t and so the money would have to be drawn through, hence the possible issues if it isn’t. If you can make that payment directly through the pot then happy days.

I’m not asking Monzo to fix whether you have enough money - you may have enough money just split over your account and pot - right now Monzo isn’t intelligent enough to move that money in and out (whether they should be able to do that is another question).

Oh yeah exactly the two options you provide below sort it completely (I’m not saying it can’t or won’t be done just highlighting some potential issues).

I’m assuming they can’t make the payment out of a “flagged” pot so would need to move It around (like IFTTT does) so my point was - what happens if something causes that movement to fail.

What if the pot is locked or a savings pot? :speak_no_evil:

It’s just software… they write the software - they control the software… its just some logic / a condition to test.

They already have mechanisms to alert you to when a Direct Debit will be taken… so there seems no logical reason why that cannot be used to instruct a transaction from a pot. Their API already facilitates transfers from pots, else IFTTT wouldn’t work…

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A locked savings pot is just that - locked… your money is tied up. This is no different to having money locked away in a savings account.

I was joking! :laughing:

I know what you’re saying, read my comment a few up from yours :wink:

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:exploding_head::exploding_head:

Now you’ve done it. :rofl::rofl:

Which is in one of the most heavily regulated sectors in the UK. What I’m trying to say is I don’t know If it is as simple as “just allow payments out of pots” - because if it was, would this not already be a feature? I assume that something needs to have a sort code and account number or something to facilitate a payment out. Right now pots aren’t making payments, you are moving money around not paying anyone.

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I’m a software engineer… we’re not that heavily regulated… I can’t think of any rule which would prevent money being taken from an allocated pot…

But if it did have a sort code and account number, it would be so much simpler, wouldn’t it?

I’m guessing that it would be easier for Monzo to assign account numbers to committed spending pots, than to engineer some complex software solution for Them.

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I meant the Banking/Finance sector…

Why would that be simpler? You’d end up with multiple accounts… people would be setting up and closing accounts at will… this sounds like a regulatory nightmare. Not to mention the havoc it would play with your credit file… It’s a non starter.

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As does allowing any customer at will to pick a new pot to pay their DDs out of. What if they decide to close the pot/ change the pot - does Monzo need to do all the legroom to ensure the DD is then re-routed back to the main account?

Well yeah… its just software. If a customer closes the pot, the assignment no longer exists and the DD gets taken from the main balance as it normally would?

It’s just logic… think IFTTT but better…

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Which would be a separate billing account? There’s a thread for that somewhere (and it’s how I manage my money, allbeit not entirely in Monzo (yet, if they allow two personal accounts, then maybe!)

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Assuming payments out of pots is possible…

Why is it not ok to create multiple accounts with sort codes and account numbers,

But ok to do with with Pots?

If its just software you could effectively achieve the same outcome?

Either way, we still don’t know if it is even possible to pay out of pots so both options are non-starters.

I’m not sure what the issue is here.

Monzo obviously wouldn’t release a Committed Spend pot unless they were confident it works.

However, if everything goes wrong and a Direct Debit isn’t taken from the Committed Spend pot then you can just retry the Direct Debit in the morning.

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On how I hope Committed Spend pots will work

  • I think having the Committed Spend pot move the money into your main account an hour or so before the Direct Debit comes out would be a false solution.

  • I’d like the pot withdrawal and the Direct Debit to be taken out seemlessly without the money hitting my main account (ie: I don’t want to be able to accidentally spend the money I’ve set aside for Direct Debits).

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