This would make trends next level
In fact so would budgeting of any kind within that section…
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Are there any plans to add Virgin Money Credit Cards to the connected accounts, as well as Chase Bank at all?
Would be really handy to see these so I then have a complete overview of all my finances, even more so with Tymit and PayPal Credit (although I imagine the latter is probably unlikely 
)
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By my calculations, Virgin is the only low hanging fruit left (aside from moving those in Labs to live).
Chase doesn’t currently have an API but rumour has it they’ll have one in a few months time. It’d be good to have Monzo early out of the gates for that.
Those aside, I suspect we’re into diminishing returns. Starling Goals/spaces/pots/things would be good. And loans (from credit reports like mortgages). But my heart and head are both screaming manual accounts please!
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Genuinely curious with this one. Like connect accounts in and manually update the balance and transactions?
That seems difficult on a small device. I think if Monzo were ever to do a tablet/web/iPad version then definitely this!
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Shouldn’t be difficult on a small device.
A few options:
- Just the balance (enter an account name and value, super easy on mobile).
- Manual transactions (would love this - I’d be all over my back data - but might be more difficult on a small screen. How about inverse Google Sheets - you put your data in the sheet and Monzo sucks it in?)
- Automatic balance updates (so the balance of your manual account automatically updates if you send money to it from Monzo / receive money from it).
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And just while I’m on it, what do manual accounts get you?
- All your missing accounts in Monzo - not everything will ever be able to be connected through open banking.
- Releases the potential to have net worth and sophisticated features in Trends.
- (With transaction level data) the ability to upload back data so that you can compare years pre-Monzo and those post Monzo.
Basically it’s the key to so so much!
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With the Starling Connected Accounts, I wish I could connect my Personal account and Business (sole trader) account at once.
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I’m 100% behind manual accounts. I want to be able to see everything in one place. Even if I want to put in loans etc.
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Absolutely. It’s an easy win.
I really need Monzo to get over its aversion to it!
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This!
Also I’d like to see them split into groups such as current account, credit card, loans, savings, investments etc… I could then finally ditch MoneyDashboard.
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While I’m totally Team Manual Accounts, do we think Monzo will add Chase at launch or will it be years?
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Is it popular enough in the grand scheme of things?
I don’t really care about connected accounts so I don’t really know who is there and who isn’t from the normal popular accounts.
If you take what’s in Labs, it’s really just Virgin that’s missing from the big names. Chase isn’t there.
That’s the big question. I suspect not. But if Monzo made open banking free for everyone it’d have quite a bit of leverage with smaller brands wanting a part of the action. Adding Chase might be a sneaky way to bleed JP Morgan of the incentives money they’re throwing around whilst keeping the Monzo as the primary customer interface.
Anyway, they’ll do what they do!
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Virgin Money pleeeaaasssee…
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Bit of an oddity on Nationwide connected accounts:
Looks a bit like two fields have been concatenated?
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Is there any indication about the state of including more banks in the connected accounts? Personally I’m specifically interested in Virgin Money and Kroo, but any news would be good…
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I too am keen to hear about Virgin Money given it was number 3 in that poll. I was surprised when I opened an account and couldn’t add it to Monzo, even via labs - just assumed it would be there!
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It seems all the old brands are merged into virgin money brand, and accessible over a single API.
Weird it hasn’t been implemented yet.
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I’m only guessing here, but I’d be surprised if they don’t have it in staff testing. I’m suspecting a combination of discontinuing different brand APIs and technical issues (and probably higher priority stuff…)
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Yes and no!
Yes: the brands B, Clydesdale Bank, Yorkshire Bank and Virgin Money have now all been fully migrated and merged into products branded as Virgin Money - but they are still using two APIs.
Originally, Yorkshire Bank and Clydesdale Bank both ran on the same technology which was two instances of the same system (a bit like how NatWest and RBS are the same but separate, so RBS accounts don’t show in the NatWest app). B ran “over the top” and was more of a branding layer - at signup, you had to pick if you wanted your B account to be a “Yorkshire Bank” one (and get an 05 sort code) or a “Clydesdale Bank” one (with an 82 sort code). Systems were interlinked to some extent and both ran on the “CYBG” platform. This platform was called iB and served both brands.
Separately, Virgin Money (then not part of CYBG at all) was running systems that, ultimately, could be traced back to the days of Northern Rock. They were, as you might imagine, very “old-style building society” and tech-limited - although they had built a new platform specifically for credit cards, which was not so bad, and were working on their own new modern banking platform to replace their legacy tech. This would have been equivalent to iB (which was CYBG’s successful attempt to modernise their systems dating from around 2015/16).
After the two businesses merged, the new platform at “old Virgin Money” was scrapped in favour of pressing forward with iB from the former CYBG side of the business. The credit card platform at old Virgin Money was judged to be better than iB’s credit card support though, so that was kept and credit cards have all been moved over to it. The other legacy platform, which now mostly has old savings accounts on it, is still running but is to be phased out and most new savings accounts are now opened on the iB platform instead.
For expedience, the new “Virgin Money current account” was implemented as a straight rebrand of B. Virgin Money now seem to be acquiring new customers on a default of their 82 sort code range; but they still have legacy ex-Yorkshire customers on 05 and legacy savings on 08-60-64. Some more obscure savings accounts for new and existing customers, especially if they are not existing VM customers, are still being opened on this system. If you had accounts with the former Clydesdale brand as well as Yorkshire, you will have two profiles on the iB system as well.
All of this is to say that implementing proper Virgin Money support still requires linking up to two APIs - one which is usually called “Virgin Money credit cards” (and sends you to a page where you pick if you are actually connecting a credit card or an old savings account) and another which is known usually as just “Virgin Money” but is, in fact, all of their other accounts.
This situation shows no real sign of sorting itself out in the short to medium term either, as all Virgin Money’s initial merger integration work appears to have already been done. I think they have now just given up and judged further simplification as too risky.
This messy history is also why Virgin Money have about 5 different apps for all their different account types too!
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