Cash Deposits

Hmm, that wasn’t really my point. I was addressing the false narrative about #FullMonzo meaning we want people to exclusively use us and nothing else, which isn’t the case. It’s not possible for us to be competitive with every single company on every single feature, and neither is that our aim.

Lots of people, for example, are saving with the Marcus Goldman Sachs account which has a higher interest rate than our Interest Pots. However, we’re also seeing a high usage of the Interest Pots too, which means people value the convenience and UX, to the point where they’d forego a higher interest rate. Which, depending on how much you’re saving, could be substantially more money you’re not earning, compared to the cost of cash deposits.

So it’s not really about “like it or lump it” - more that if you feel passionately about this enough to forego the convenience, then there are alternatives for now. In the meantime, we’ll consider our options based on the data, feedback and usage over time, and it’s very possible we’ll revisit once we have some tangible stats to inform us.

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They’re not saying, that, though. They’re saying “You knew what you were signing up for with an app-based bank” and “There alternative ways of working around the issue.”

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Just on this simon will monzo actually ask for feedback on this when launched?

Savings pots feedback was restricted to the relevant thread on here which i think was silly. You have a great opportunity in the announcement popups? Or whatever you call them to gauge feedback from all monzo users. Surely this should be utilised more in order to get a wider view.

I think this feature will affect people who dont go on the forum more than people who check the forum often.

Before and after launch. The team working on this have been paying close attention to this thread already :grinning:

We also do user feedback sessions outside of the forum. Both digitally and by bringing people into the office to get feedback and do user testing of things.

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I would say #FullMonzo was more about using one Current Account. Before I switched from legacy I never used to have multiple bank accounts on the go… I knew moving to Monzo meant that I would need a bank account as back up but not for fundamental banking things**. I also think that charging for something that is fundamentally basic for a bank just opens the door to start charging for other things. There will be some on the forum that probably say “bank elsewhere then”, “Monzo aren’t profitable they can charge for anything”, “£1 isn’t much”. Actually, it is a lot for something that you’d expect to do as principle.

Throwing in Marcus savings account into the mix is a bit of a red herring… I have an investment portfolio with a different provider to my bank. And a credit card with American Express. You’re comparing different products.

EDIT: **I knew cash deposits weren’t available but I wasn’t expecting it to be a chargeable feature when it launched.

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I see a lot of people here stating that £1 isn’t that much money and that people should take the hit. It’s nice that you have lives that you can throw away £1 here and there.

Sorry to bring my soap box out again but I live in one of the, if not the, most deprived areas of the UK. I know that £1 can be a lot of money for some people who only have £10 to last them the next 2 weeks. Maybe they need to put it into their bank account to pay a bill. Losing £1 is a lot to them. The amount of times parents tell my school when they get paid so that they can rush to school to pay their children’s dinner money. The amount of times I pay for things for certain children in my class.

Monzo needs to be a bank for everyone, not a middle class section of London.

If you didn’t realise, I disagree with any deposit fee and feel Monzo should absorb it like they do for things like Apple Pay. The Coop Bank, who almost went bankrupt, has free cash deposits using a card at the Post Office which credit (almost) instantly. Wow, I would never have thought I would say the Coop were better than Monzo.

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A tad off topic but seen as you went there, I’m just curious as to how high usage is “high usage”? Is is as high as or anywhere near to the 100,000+ customers Marcus recently published they had?

I take exception to this. I don’t live in London, and I’m not middle-class (whatever that means nowadays). I don’t have a well paid job but I use Monzo because it’s helped me budget and see where my money goes each month. I’m now better placed to actually save money (there wasn’t much of that happening a few years ago, let me tell you) and even investing in shares via Freetrade (albeit in small amounts).

Monzo is a bank for everyone, if you ask me.

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Especially if you’re trying to get money into your account cos your £21 overdrawn and you worried…that £1 is two days of overdraft fees…

Yeah not sure how I feel on the £1 fee for small deposits (like under £100). I think this is prying on the vulnerable.

While I agree Monzo should take steps towards profitability, I do think it should really consider vulnerable people if it wants to still claim its high ethics, corporate responsibility, transparency and whatnot…

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The difference being that I am riled up by the frankly bizarre responses to what is a great thing that Monzo are doing.

This is a feature people have wanted for ages, it’s now finally about to become a reality and yet you and others are complaining that Monzo aren’t fronting the costs for us despite them clearly explaining why that is.

They are on a steady road to becoming profitable, you really think they are going to risk that by fronting costs for a service that they don’t know how popular it will be?

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I whole heartedly admit that my original post was a tad out of order in the language used, however I feel my thoughts behind the wording were completely justified.

Obviously two different people will have different opinions regarding situations like this and will both have reasons as to why they think their own opinion is the correct one.

In this instance I apologise to you, anyone else who was afronted by my post and also to the Monzo community staff.

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Is being close to bankruptcy a desirable trait for a bank to have? :thinking:

Every company needs to have a sustainable business model. Companies can offer some things for free, and need to charge for other things. NatWest, for example, will charge you 2.75% to use your card abroad. That’s £1 for every £37 you spend! Monzo, meanwhile, charges nothing and gives you a market leading exchange rate. Many bank accounts with a fraction of Monzo’s features charge you for the luxury of having the account open at all.

Given that Monzo would just be seeking to cover costs (not even make any money), some of the comments above are quite difficult to read.

In my view, before reaching a full judgement on how bad any fees are, it’s important to consider how much Monzo has saved you in unfair fees & charges, bad exchange rates, and non-sterling transaction fees over the lifetime of your account.

If you’re somebody who deposits cash so frequently that you would like to save money by using another bank account, then that’s entirely fair. If, like me, you are somebody who has to deposit cash once in a blue moon – it’s probably a good option :slight_smile:

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This a million times over.

Monzo has established itself as an app-based digital bank. Cash deposits is not something that I even considered being possible (I had to research cheque depositing before switching to Monzo as I do get some cheques from work).

If you need to deposit small amounts of cash into a bank regularly, then I would have thought having a highstreet bank account would make more sense.

Monzo will never be a one-size-fits-all bank, but as someone who can’t remember the last time he deposited cash into an account (I’d just put it in my wallet and spend it - transferring the amount into savings from my current account as it’s a “bonus” as though I’d withdrawn it) being able to deposit cash seems like very niche functionality for a digital bank to have.

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I understand that Monzo have to put as good a spin on this as they can. However, charging people to deposit the very money that will ultimately be used to generate profits doesn’t sit well with me at all.

Depositing cash is a basic feature of any bank amount. It’s a necessity. Monzo shouldn’t charge for this service IMHO.

If you want to charge for foreign ATM withdrawals, go ahead. If you want to calculate overdraft fees based on the main balance, ignoring any money in Pots, so be it. Don’t penalise people for wanting to deposit their money with you though!

Transparent Monzo may be but I think you’re a million miles away from being fair.

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Feel like threads like this soon become insufferable because there will always be a group of people who feel any fee, no matter how big, if it will affect them, is unacceptable.

I feel like if you’ve joined the community forum then there’s a high likelihood you have an account which clearly means that cash topups were not your number one priority because it’s not been supported up until now. If you get cash regularly then you must have an alternative method which isn’t going to disappear when Monzo adds this capability.

Genuinely after reading this thread I feel like Monzo might as well just not add the feature :man_facepalming: The complaining about the lack of the feature is seemingly less than the complaining about the fee for the feature existing!

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Not totally sure how I feel about the £1 fee.

On the one hand, it doesn’t affect me. I hate cash, and I wholeheartedly yearn for a world where we can live without it entirely and I believe that is possible in our lifetimes.

I’m also a fan of convenience. If it costs me £1 and that negates the need for me to take a longer trip into town (which would likely cost as much as £1 to park the car for that time) then it’s worth it, for me.

On the other hand, I know people who rely on cash more frequently for a variety of reasons and to a certain extent it’s their preference and it’s their convenience.

But it’s also true that for these people, every penny, or in this case, every pound counts.

So, big deal, right? There’s options. I get it. I know that being #FullMonzo doesn’t prevent you from using other banks, accounts, and financial services.

But, when it comes to something as fundamental as depositing your own money, is it a wise business decision to tell customers that you can but “it will cost you” and if you don’t like it “use another bank”? There’s a definite fixed cost to offering this service, which is obviously what the £1 is for. But is there a potentially hidden cost to charging for this service?

If your customers are having to keep their existing relationship with their existing bank because Monzo doesn’t offer a satisfactorily parity in the service they have come to expect, then doesn’t that pose a long term risk that one day the customer could be tempted back to their old bank? Or decide to use that bank for some financial service they could have procured from Monzo instead?

I absolutely agree with regards to the sustainable business approach of covering your costs for this service, and as I’ve already said, if I ever happen to need to deposit cash, the £1 will certainly not put me off, but you need to be sure that the decision to charge for this isn’t a short sighted one that ultimately costs you more than it would do if the service was free to start with.

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To discuss? To voice opinions without turning into an ugly rant raging that if it isn’t my way then I hate it and it’s the worst thing ever?

(To be clear not saying that you were doing this but there were definitely some comments which were totally unnecessary, there’s a line)

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Some good points there :+1:t2:

Monzo (rightly) don’t charge for domestic ATM cash withdrawals, yet it has some cost attached to it. There are certain things that should be free of charge with any bank account. Depositing cash is one of them.

I do think the charge will see some customers going back to their old traditional bank, which as mentioned above could well see them using that bank for savings, loans, etc.

A poor business decision IMHO.

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They’re a business though as well as a bank. They’ve pitched themselves as a digital bank with no branches and have come up with a simple solution for a service people have requested.

Monzo’s USP to me is a bank with an app user interface that’s simple and has the added functionality of a budgeting app. Plus commision-free spending for when I’m on holiday.

They have no reason to be “fair”. That infers they need to provide a service that everyone wants / demands which makes no sense. If it’s a deal breaker for a customer to have a cash depositing bank account with no charges then Monzo isn’t for them, surely?

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