Core App: Better payments

[j06 (Jamie)]

You ARE special @Rat_au_van

[o99]

Now that we can edit notes on iOS for bank transfers I’ve only just realised this overwrites the reference field. This shouldn’t be allowed to happen. The transaction reference should remain as an uneditable field after the transaction has taken place, and the notes field should be distinct.

Would this request come under the scope of “better payments”?

[Rat_au_van (Em)]

[o99]

Maybe I was conflating direct debits and bank transfers, and the issue never existed with direct debits. But it’s definitely only relatively recently that you’ve been able to add/edit notes for bank transfers in iOS.

[Peter_G]

This is (relatively) new for iOS, I think. But it’s always worked that way on Android. It’s wrong, but I can’t see anyone leaping in to fix it - it feels fairly fundamental yet there’s no profit in fixing it.

[Alexxxxx (>50 categories pls)]

It was a few months ago now, maybe late summer?

I’d been harping on it about it for literally years and was so excited when it finally happened.

[o99]

Bit of a let down for me. I was also really keen for notes to be added to bank transfers in iOS, but now that I know it involves overwriting the original transfer reference I’m not sure I’m going to use it

[Rat_au_van (Em)]

Just add an extra line of notes

Only the first will show on the feed but the second line is there if you look at the note field of the transaction

there’s no character limit

[SouthseaOne (Michael)]

@o99

it involves overwriting the original transfer reference

If it works like the Android version, it doesn’t overwrite it, merely provides the reference as the default text you can add to

I’d be perfectly happy to see the suggestion from @Peter_G of having a read only original field as a user editable one, but I’ve not had major issues with the current implementation that known

[o99]

@SouthseaOne

If it works like the Android version, it doesn’t overwrite it, merely provides the reference as the default text you can add to

Here’s an example of a transaction page showing notes field and reference field. Like you say, the reference is used as default text for the notes field.

But when you edit the notes field it also edits the reference as well as the grey text at the bottom of the transaction details page (as shown in images below). I’m not sure why anyone wouldn’t want these to be immutable records of the transaction that took place and so untouchable by edits in the notes field

@Peter_G

This is (relatively) new for iOS, I think. But it’s always worked that way on Android. It’s wrong, but I can’t see anyone leaping in to fix it - it feels fairly fundamental yet there’s no profit in fixing it.

Surely it would simply involve mapping the reference field in the UI to the “description” field in the underlying data structure, which doesn’t seem to get modified when the notes are modified

[SebH]

@o99

I’ve never understood why there needs to be, or why it might be desirable to have, 3 separate payee lists (frequent, recent, and all).

Why not just have a single list with filter buttons (or menu) to choose between recent, frequent, and all?

Because scrolling a list is easier (more discoverable and less user effort) than using a filter selector, so it makes sense to have all on screen by default. Filter selectors are very Android-style so would seem particularly strange to an iOS user as well.

The way I see it is that the payee you want is probably either in recent or frequent, so a “quick glance” there first tells you if they are.

If they are not, then you resort to the longer list of all your payees - and it’s just a quick scroll down, without having to do anything else. At this point, you are now probably thinking alphabetically so again it is fairly easy, as you just jump to the letter you want with a fast scroll.

Many other banks are much more awkward with payee management.

I like the system of three types of payee, although I do welcome the changes to editing payees (especially the nickname field and separate default reference) and ability to add a payee without paying them first.

My worst gripe now is that a payee which is myself has an “Invite to Monzo” banner which is really stupid. There should be a way to say “this is me”.

[Peter_G]

@o99

Surely it would simply involve mapping the reference field in the UI to the “description” field in the underlying data structure, which doesn’t seem to get modified when the notes are modified

I’m glad that the data isn’t being overwritten in the backend, but my point wasn’t so much that this might not be relatively straightforward to do, more that there’s no motivation for Monzo to do it. They seem to be all about profit right now, so I can’t see this fix - which I agree is somewhat fundamental - getting prioritised.

[tbutz (🏳️‍🌈 Producer of "low value commentary")]

Has anyone else encountered the “account type” (business/personal) flag disappearing from their payees? My Freetrade payee was the only one I tidied up using the new payments system, and it’s lost its designation.

I’m on Android, latest update.

[davidwalton (Award Winning Hot Coral Analyst)]

I sent a payment to someone yesterday. That someone was already in my ‘confirmed contacts’ list using the redesigned payee profiles option in Labs - and I noticed that the payment send flow didn’t include any reference to Personal/Business account types at all, not even a display of the option pre-filled.

[nathanthomson8 (Nathan)]

@tbutz

Has anyone else encountered the “account type” (business/personal) flag disappearing from their payees?

mine resets daily ive noticed, hopefully something that gets fixed before comes out of labs

[SebH]

I think this happens if you have already selected the payee type in the “edit payee” management view, as that selection is saved for future use.

As the payee is then not going to change type, you aren’t asked again.

I haven’t personally experienced the selection getting “lost”, so I’m not sure what is triggering that, but I am on iOS. It seems like some kind of bug, probably in the Android version of the app?

[aCCount]

I didn’t know it ever got retained.

I seem to get asked business/personal every time I make a payment.

[kavi]

If you have set the account type using the new edit bank details screen then it should definitely be retained. I’m not seeing anything on my end that suggests this isn’t working – I can take a further look if you have any specific steps that seems to be causing this.

Because we only started requiring and setting the account type some months ago, any payees that you already had before this point won’t have an account type set for their bank details. Again, once you do specify one using the edit bank details screen it should stick.

Note that if you select the account type during the payment flow (via the bottom sheet selector) then that choice is not currently maintained as far as I remember.

[tbutz (🏳️‍🌈 Producer of "low value commentary")]

Unfortunately/typically I sent money to Freetrade just yesterday, so had to set it as “business” when I did that. It’s now showing as such when I look at the payee, so it’s definitely in place now, but I shall keep a beady eye on it and see if it changes back at any point. If it does I’ll certainly let you know.

Thanks for responding.

[Peter_G]

I’m having exactly the same thing. If I pay myself I usually have the account type retained, but occasionally (first use per day?) it blimps out.

I shall investigate further to see if I can replicate…