Building a bridge to Monzo

At the moment I have not switched away from Nationwide as I still need to fall back to the occasional cheque and have some enice benefits that I pay for (insurance, breakdown cover etc.)

I use Yolt a lot as I can see my balances and debits across accounts. I was thinking if anyone would benefit from similar native functionality within Monzo?

I think it would help me over time, and build a bridge from my ‘old’ Nationwide and credit card accounts to a ‘new’ world of Monzo?

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Tim, Try Emma It does what Yolt can do but unlike Yolt you can add Monzo as well.

Thread for Emma feedback back is here

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I agree. I use Yolt, and personally prefer it from a bank (ING) rather than a software house

Well, You could say the same thing about Monzo :wink: I don’t think Software House is a correct term for any FinTech. Yolt is backed by ING but this doesn’t make it more trustworthy than any other properly regulated and approved service provider in this field IMHO. Emma, we know are obviously FCA registered.

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Just do what I did: Transfer everything over to :monzo: Monzo manually, and then send £13 back to Nationwide every month by standing order to pay for your insurance benefits. You can manually pay more over when you have a cheque to write, and you can tag this transaction in Monzo then too.

Nationwide have no minimum usage requirements. Best of both worlds.

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…nor reliable. :neutral_face:

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I would be curious to know why. Personally I would trust a “software house” a lot more than a legacy bank when it comes to delivering a good, usable product at a reasonable price.

I’m willing to let fintechs like Monzo off but that is mostly because I consider them more like software companies than banks.

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It is not a matter of usable product but security of data be that on their servers or at the user interface thru the app.

Banks (like ING and Monzo) comply with heavier regulations and have some experience in regulatory compliance (if only in a new venture from their staff’s experience elsewhere).

Software companies (as opposed to emoney institutions like Mondo and Monese) don’t have the same background, direction or motivation.

They may obtain registration of their product or app but it is only with time that their offering will be proven to live up to the same standards as those from banks, who in the case of ING have been trusted for many years.

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I don’t know where you’re going with that. FCA oversight is proportionate to the services that the startup offers. So Emma, for example, don’t need a banking license or have the same requirements because they can’t remove money from your account. The FCA makes sure that their security is adequate & they have to take out insurance against losses if anything goes wrong.

There’s no reason not to trust them just as much as any other regulated provider.

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I agree. I just stated how I felt, I did not say it was logical. I don’t think like Captain Spock with my head but go with feelings.

I did NOT say I dislike EMMA or other alternatives, nor that I would not use them.

I just stated that I use Yolt and someone asked me why I use it.

Serious question - do you want to see FinTech succeed? Because if you do, then raising concerns like that, when you do know better, is only going to put people off the startups.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t share your feelings. But you could at least acknowledge the fact that they’re irrational & maybe even mention why - share your knowledge & make a positive contribution to the discussion. For the benefit of other users who aren’t sure whether using these company’s services is safe.

Edits - added text in italics

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Of course I want fintechs to succeed. However any business has to know that consumers make decisions based on a miriad of factors, some of which will be totally illogical to your tidy mind. They may take into account the country the firm is from, the colour of the logo or shape of their font, how serious or trendy the name looks, if the app runs on their OS or device, what cost if any is involved, etc.

While an app to take photos may not worry them too much, I would argue that financial apps that access your money (be they able to handle it or just display data) fall into a different category and level of concern. Hence my being more picky about which aggregators I would choose.

You may disagree with me, you are welcome to do so, but my opinion is a valid one. I don’t want this thread to get derailed from the theme, so I will end debate on this now, so it can stay on topic.

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Could you please re-read my reply? You haven’t addressed the point that I was making at all.

Regulated does not necessarily mean trustworthy. Equifax are regulated.

Also, it’s worth pointing out that many of the reasons for using fintechs are not rational either. Several Monzo staff have said that they acknowledge that they are behind some others on features, but their app is more delightful to use. Tom has also stated on many occasions that Monzo’s focus is on people who don’t necessarily make rational decisions about their money.

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I didn’t say it did. It means as safe - Richard was comparing banks with other FinTech providers. Banks go bust too. Which is the FCA has requirements like the insurance I mentioned & we have FSCS protection etc.

Your 2nd paragraph also missed my point.

I would like to see Yolt capabilities added as native functionality inside of Monzo. I would help me no end. I also think it would help people switch to Monzo as a current account, over time.

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I said I agreed with you that there was no reason not to trust them as much as any other regulated provider, and agreed that my thoughts may not be logical but how my opinions based as much on feelings as facts. That is sufficient reply. As stated earlier I don’t want this thread derailed from the actual topic.

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To be clear, I wasn’t talking about this one post in particular, I was making a suggestion for you to consider whenever you post online.

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Ok, to address your point then, I would like some fintechs to succeed, but I don’t have particularly strong feelings. I certainly don’t think that inviting people to be sceptical of who they’re sharing their data with is a bad thing. The number of people who download random Android apps and grant them access to swathes of personal data is a real problem. If anything, the general public are too willing to give their personal data to random apps, and they need to be less trusting. Personally, I think a bigger danger to fintech would be if a number of apps misuse people’s data, and the lesson the general public learns is “don’t share your financial data with an app”, without knowing which ones are regulated and which aren’t. Sceptical comments on a relatively obscure forum are going to have zero negative impact compared to a Daily Mail article about people being ripped off because they gave their bank password to an app, with no mention of the subtleties or technicalities.

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