Business Accounts - an update

Monzo Chat Business Banking
1

Hey folks :wave:

It’s been a little while since we’ve updated you on the progress we’re making with business accounts. I’m sorry we’ve been quiet! We’ve just sent the Business Banking Monthly email to those who’ve registered interest with a full update - so check your email if you’re signed up (if you’re not, you can sign up here)!

We’ve just opened our 1,000th account

Since June, we’ve been slowly inviting more businesses to open accounts with us. We moved from 100, who tested accounts with us, to now having 1,000 businesses. We’ve been listening to lots of feedback, and we’re really pleased with the progress we’ve made so far.

We’re going to focus on building things you’ll love, and making sure everything’s smooth in the background

We’ve learned a lot moving from 100 to 1,000 business accounts, but we’ve got more to do. So we’ve decided to focus on building more great business-specific features, like the Tax Pot, proper multi-level and multi-user access, supporting our upcoming new look, and a few of the bigger features from our ideas board. We also know that there’s lots of prep work in the background that we still need to do to make sure that we can support businesses operationally, so we’re focusing on that too.

So we’re slowing down on offering more business accounts for now

But, we’ll let you know through email and an app notification when we’re ready to offer you an account. Some of you have been in touch to let us know that you really need an account soon - if that’s the case, for now, we’d recommend opening a business account somewhere else (you’ll be able to use the Current Account Switch Service when we’re able to open you an account later, if you’d like!)

We know it’s been a while for those of you who registered interest towards the very beginning - and we really appreciate your support. But the most important thing to us is getting this right, so we’re going to do just that!

Have a great bank holiday weekend! :sunny:

7 Likes
2

Very very disappointed in this decision, I’ve been waiting a long time and now your telling everyone to look elsewhere for a business bank account, shocking and I’m very disappointed with Monzo as a whole now :weary::frowning:

6 Likes
3

What’s the best way to give you feedback ? I found couple bugs.

4

At least they’re being honest with you, surely it’s better to launch a properly designed, feature rich account when it’s ready rather than rolling out a sub-standard product to the masses?

6 Likes
5

I don’t want or need a feature rich account, I just need a simple business bank account that will operate in a similar fashion to my personal account. I use FreeAgent for everything else and it works very well for my needs. Why can’t Monzo offer a basic business account instead of trying to be everything for all.

Most businesses use accounting software integration anyway and some of these are already supported so why not start with a basic account (which is basically already in place) and then build and offer everything else later when they are happy it’s all working

1 Like
6

Have you looked at Starling? It’s what I went with. Basic in terms of account features, but has FreeAgent integration, plus Starling have a banking licence, unlike most of the other fintech business account providers.

1 Like
7

Thanks, I waited and resisted in looking at Starling as I have a Monzo personal account, but because of this decision I (and I’m sure a lot of people) will now look into opening a Starling business account, which may then lead me to going FullStarling, but we’ll see how it goes with that.

1 Like
8

When Monzo said they were going to do a business account they said

Without the funding, we still plan to launch business bank accounts in the future. But because we won’t have the extra firepower, they’ll be a longer-term project that we probably won’t be able to launch for a few years.

The fact that they lauched trial accounts so early was a surprise, but they said it was going to be long term

1 Like
9

I’ve enjoyed being part of the trial and giving feedback on the account. I’ve got high-hopes for the future of Monzo Business accounts, but for now, I’m switching away.

I use a business account for is a very small number of transactions per month, and right now, I don’t see any value in it at £5 per month, so I’m closing the account.

I look forward to following its progress.

3 Likes
10

Wonder if someone else will get your place :eyes:

11

I’ve been trying to avoid signing up for Starling but none of the others are as good. Tide isn’t a full bank and doesn’t do payment notifications for some reason, though its on their medium term plan. Revolut might do the trick, now it’s got a free tier, but similar non-regulated issue. Coconut has a nice app but payments take hours to go through and again, not a bank.

12

Me too, not that I wanted a business account anyway but everything seems to be going the same way now. I’ll continue using monzo as my salaried account but I’m out in every other way. Not renewing plus, or getting metal card, be leaving forum soon. Won’t be following their new features anymore

1 Like
13

Not getting the RBS remedies money is finally catching up it seems

2 Likes
14

Expanding too quickly has caused businesses in the past to lose touch with their mission, get overloaded and hurt their reputation.

This is slightly hypocritical since I got an invite and am using their platform, but I can see why they may wish to slow down how fast they roll out the program, work on making the platform exactly how they want it, before opening it up further. Keeping the circle smaller lets you focus on your set of customers better. If that set is representative of the overall future customer base, it’s a good way to tailor your platform.

I can see why they want to do it this way.

In response to comments about Starling and competing business accounts, I do think people have heard Monzo’s introduction into business accounts and offered some competition in this area. Revolut went from £25/mo (£300/yr) min for its business account offering to free very recently. Monzo’s slower expansion may result in people turning to competitors like that, but I think if they have a strong product they’ll always have customers.

Revolut I have a personal account with and like some of their operating features, but given how common I hear about randomly limited accounts and their lack of a banking license and requirement to follow rules on banks is enough for me not to make it my main bank. Starling is a mess, imo, and how they even have a banking license is so beyond me. I would rather use a traditional bank (ironic, since my main personal bank account is a traditional bank, but point stands).

From my usage of it so far, though, I can say I’m pretty happy with Monzo business. I looked into all the offerings possible as I was looking into moving, Monzo came out on top, and I’m happy with the experience so far.

15

They’re charging £5/mo currently, and this may rise or be split into tiers. If they’re charging, I would hope they make it a fully featured business account. I didn’t get a Monzo account for “the basic experience”. I’d use a traditional bank for that.

Accounting software is somewhat expensive and the industry is uncompetitive. Looking at the websites, and feature and marketing practices of the existing solutions is a good enough indicator that there’s room for competition in this space. The industry is a mess imho.

But I don’t think Monzo is trying to be an accounting software replacement (yet, at least). And if that’s true, I don’t know why they’re focusing on invoices and such. I think their developer hours could be better invested in other things currently.

1 Like
16

What are you basing this on, out of curiosity?

2 Likes
18

Hello my name is Paul,

I have a Monzo account and I love it . I have convinced my business to open a Monzo account but I have some questions .

My director wants an account that he can transfer funds into say £500 each month or at a time so that I can buy things for the business as and when I need to. I.e. like petty cash.

However he will need access to see what is being purchased. Can the monzo app be put onto to two or more phones and transactions monitored ? Or can he have the account in either his name the business name but also have a card for me to use ? with my details etc.

Ideally this new way of banking would help him. He has lots of businesses . So if he could open accounts for different businesses that allows him to see expenditure as it happens but also he can see transactions and pass them to the business accountant that would be ideal ?

Is Monzo doing any thing like this or is it way off ?

Can a personal Monzo account allow 2 people on it ie the account owner and a designated User ?

Thanks Paul

19

The answer to this is no. Two Monzo users can have a joint account, but personal accounts are limited to one person, one account.

Also, Monzo have paused the rollout of business accounts, so if your company doesn’t already have one, it will be some time before it can open one.