Collective bargaining service to save money on bills

So Monzo has access to all the electricity companies, gas companies, mobile phone companies, broadband companies, etc that we use. They can see our direct debits, and figure out from that what services we use from what companies.

So my suggestion is why doesn’t Monzo put that data to use to try and negotiate on our behalf to get better deals? There’s services out there that already do this:

https://thebigdeal.com/how-it-works

And maybe some others I don’t know about.

Seems Monzo is perfectly positioned to create this kind of service, and it would be a great revenue steam for Monzo and a great service for users.

Imagine the discounts Monzo could get by saying ‘Look, I have 400,000 people looking for a new gas supplier. What’s the best deal you can give them if they all switch at once?’…

There could be a way in the app to click on direct debts, and explain what you’re getting for that money. For example I could click on my TalkTalk direct debit and select some options to show what I’m currently getting. 72mbps, unlimited download, and of course Monzo already knows how much I pay.

Everyone could do that, and then Monzo could go shopping for us and manage the switch.

Monzos prime reason for existing, as far as I can tell, is to facilitate saving money by making people more aware of their spending habits. That’s why people use it.

This is a very on brand idea, imo. It adds value.

It’s prime reason for existing is to generate profit, just like any other business :+1: It is a nice idea though. I wonder if there is some kind of regulatory red tape for a bank to offer services like this? I know they used to have ads for Octopus(?) when they were much smaller. They are a much bigger player now though so should be able to negotiate hard both for consumers and for their kickback. Possibly not energy right now though, but the principle can be extended to all kinds of other services.

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I think the “switch to lower prices, churn and repeat” model for utilities is effectively dead. All the challenger brands competing with low prices have gone bust, or will very soon.

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There was another company that did it until recently called Flipper, that voluntarily closed down a week or so ago as it decided there was no money in this model anymore as the market consolidated to a few suppliers.

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