Yep, I understand the difficulty. The more people that press the point, the more the message will get through. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of people who are stuck in their ways, even when those ways are costly and inefficient.
My son’s football club cocked up his subscription then demanded cheque payments to catch up. I set up a standing order of monthly payments to clear the balance in the agreed time then emailed them to advise they wouldn’t recieve any cheques from me but they’d be paid by S/O. They accepted this and they got their money.
Another solution would be to use GoCardless. Each club could set up a direct debit with you and you could pull the agreed sum on completion of your services.
As a mobile first bank cheques aren’t at the forefront of our thinking or customer feedback
However, we’re at a very stage of exploring a few things like collecting stations and imaging. For now were just keeping it simple and you can post them in. Does that help?
Imaging doesn’t strike me as terribly important for the UK market - nice, but not essential. However, at the open office, a US launch was hinted at, and imaging will be essential for the US market…
Why, do they use a lot more cheques in the US? Or is there some other reason you think imaging won’t be used here? I’d love to have cheque imaging. It’s only 1-2 cheques a year that I have to deal with, but it would save a lot of hassle on those occasions.
Far, far more. Cheques are still extremely common in the US. I have a friend in the US who is still paid by cheque because her employer won’t do bank transfers (that’s rare, but still not unheard of).
Since person to person bank transfers are very new, fragmented between many services, and dependent on your bank participating (e.g. Zelle), cheques are still extremely common for person to person payments.
LOL, I do wonder how it’ll do in the US. Americans are definitely far more technophobic in general. That said, there’s a couple ways I think Monzo could develop a strong niche in the US:
Offer a chip and PIN card with contactless (like you do here). Both contactless and chip and PIN cards are rare, and the combination is almost unheard of (Amex, HSBC, and Capital One offer contactless at least as an option on all their cards, but they’re chip and signature; some credit unions have chip and PIN, but no contactless). This would appeal especially to the overseas travel market.
Build and extend the API to get the tech/nerd crowd.
In other words, do what you’re doing here. Don’t make it more restricted or dumbed down (by removing API access, PIN priority or contactless) for the US market, like most banks do. It will get the travel geeks and the nerds that way
How long ago was that? I don’t remember anything like that from living in the US, and I’m not sure how it’d work. The cheques are deposited by image normally in the US (snap front and back with phone, you keep the cheque and destroy it once it clears).
Ah okay, that makes more sense. I don’t think that would even be possible anymore as you don’t deposit the actual cheque, every bank lets you just take pictures (like Barclays is doing here).
I’ve just deposited a cheque by post and I’m really grateful for the FREEPOST address. I don’t feel as if I’m paying a fee by having to buy a stamp.
However, it would be really great if you could send me a message in app when you get the cheque to confirm you’ve received it and tell me when the funds will be available. I’ve spent the last week not hearing anything, worrying that it got lost in the post and not knowing when to expect the money to show up.
A bit of communication would go a really long way here. Thanks.
That’s very kind, @BethS, many thanks. Actually, in this case I sorted it earlier this morning through the in app chat. I now know that the cheque was received last week and will be cleared funds tomorrow.
I was offering feedback based on my experience, in case it’s helpful. I’m suggesting that early communication is a good idea?
although this is most likely many month down the tracks
