So I actually signed up myself in the US a while ago, but I wasn’t able to order a card (that was only available for US citizens) but I was at least able to register my username.
You might have seen pictures of their cards online, they have a funky feature that lets you engrave whatever you want on the front of cards. This one belongs to the founder, Jack Dorsey (also co-founder and CEO of Twitter)
Doesn’t look like their cards are available in the UK yet though, just the P2P payments. I’m not sure that’s really enough to make any kind of dent over here, but it’ll be interesting to see how they develop in this market.
Yeah, it will be interesting to see what develops, because it has to offer something that is more than marginally better (or not better at all) that what is already around. I notice in the app store, the screenshot says payments are deposited in “as little as a day”. That may be good in the US, but that’s worse than the vast majority of Faster Payments which are P2P and instant. I think there’s more of a gap in the US market because the banking system is so fragmented and broken (I hear people even still use cheques!).
I’m trying to simplify my financial life, so another account and another card that doesn’t do anything except transfer money is not going to be attractive. As I say, it will be interesting to see what develops and if they can offer something that gains traction and is a step change in functionality.
On the other hand, there are literally hundreds of banks and credit unions there and generally people tend to have closer relationships with them, so there may be even more inertia there.
It’s a market we’re looking at, and I think we’re well positioned to do something about it, but only time will tell!
I imagine there is a lot of inertia, and I would be surprised if there was anything like CASS, so people might be more hesitant to switch. But I’m sure Monzo will have an offering in the US that is light years ahead of what’s out there, so there will be lots of incentive.
App’s jazzy enough, though blanks itself in the task switcher, won’t go splitscreen and has its own numeric keyboard.
Usernames are unique worldwide, so trying to get a cashtag (urgh) of £vitaminj clashes with pre-existing $vitaminj - shame.
Does it piggyback/link with paym for some semblance of interoperability (with a “standard” that no-one knows or cares about)? No.
What’s the card for in the US? Googling suggests it’s for paying with money sitting in your Cash account? But P2P here seems to dump money you get sent directly back into your bank account rather than holding onto it - is the model different in the US or has it “upgraded” to a prepay type system?
And how are they making money here? By default all payments are via debit cards, so they will be paying percentages on everything. You can put your bank account details into the app too, which I guess lets them dodge some fees, but they don’t push you to it at all.
But mainly … why am I signing up for this, again? Hmm
But it’s still almost impossible to get a chip and PIN card in the US, and difficult to get a contactless card… so those features alone could sell it for foreign travellers!
Not sure… in the US its main point is to replace cheques…
