I never use my Monzo card, or any other bank card for that matter. I use Apple Pay for everything (mostly for the convenience).
My card is a waste of resources, if I had the option I wouldn’t have got it.
During signup I think you should be asked whether you need a card, with the ability to opt out of receiving a card. Of course if you needed your card at a future date you could simply order one (they come so fast).
I simply think that Monzo is churning out a huge amount of plastic to people who (generally speaking) are much more technically savvy and therefore less likely to need a card.
The only feature that I can see being a problem is cash withdrawal, but cash is rarely needed and MasterCard is rolling out Contactless ATMs in the near future: Emergency Cash via ATM network
I like the idea of having the option but it’s completely unusable until all card details (including CVC) are available in app.
Personally I wouldn’t use it until contactless ATMs are a thing.
It’s less plastic than a water bottle. I don’t know why you wouldn’t want one, even if you just put it in a safe place, in case your phone was ever stolen/broken.
Surely that’s the same as asking what happens when you lose or damage your card? I don’t think that takes away from the idea being proposed.
I personally haven’t used my card in months besides withdrawing cash for the barber once every 6-8 weeks. If contactless ATMs were around, I could live without a card. Until then it might be tricky, but I still appreciate the idea.
Certainly that is an issue, but I don’t carry my card with me regularly so if my phone gets damaged I’m screwed anyway.
Also I’m not suggesting making this mandatory, so if you don’t want to take the risk then you wouldn’t have to
Individually yes, but combined 3 million customers must go through huge amounts
phildawson
(Sorry, I will have to escalate this.)
9
We just need Monzo to partner with the likes of Barclays for contactless ATMs and NatWest where you can use the app to generate a code to withdraw with.
You’re correct about the CVV. I’m still not quite sure why it isn’t in the app.
Also I expect it depends where one lives, major cities are much less reliant on cash. Personally I can’t even remember the last time I used an ATM, though having contactless ATMs as a backup would help more people use this
I’m not saying it shouldn’t be an option - no one should be forced to have something they don’t need - I’m just really struggling to see who this would appeal to (other than yourself of course!)
I quite often don’t take my wallet out now either. Earlier in the year though, I had my phone nicked, and I’m just thinking what an absolutely nightmare it would have been if I didn’t have a backup card.
Yes, this would be fantastic. I used to have a NatWest account before I switched to Monzo and this is feature was super useful every now and then when I was stuck.
I’m inclined to believe that those banks aren’t willing to partner with others on these services, given that they’ve been around so long and no other banks offer it through them
2 Likes
phildawson
(Sorry, I will have to escalate this.)
13
I suppose I have the backup that I have multiple bank accounts (and therefore multiple cards), so I would just be able to transfer money around to an account with a card. Though I wouldn’t be able to transfer money from Monzo without a phone
Riiiiiiiight. So your backup plan, in order to not have a card on your Monzo account, is to have a spare account with a card sitting around just in case.
So, explain again how you’ve just saved the banking industry from, to quote you, “churning out a huge amount of plastic”?
The idea is (for the time being) that every individual would have one (backup) card, rather than one for each account.
I would love to suggest this to other banks but I’m not sure any of them care, whereas Monzo is exactly the sort of bank to try something a bit different, such as this.
I’d be keen to not have a physical card. If I lost or damaged my iPhone I could just get that repaired using my credit card. (granted that’s still a physical card, but every little helps right?)
I also have an android phone through my employer, I have google pay set up on there should I ever need it.
If it costs monzo approximately £2.50 to make and post a card that’s still a saving. The level of users choosing not to opt for a physical card will only increase as time goes on.
When I opened my Barclays account they asked if I wanted a card, I declined but a month later I had to go into the branch and order one. Really annoying I couldn’t do it online or over the phone.
Anyway, I don’t see the harm for Monzo to offer accounts without cards, if it saves money and cuts down waste then there’s not really any downside
with NatWest