You were talking about someone obviously doing something wrong I was talking about legit customers getting their accounts closed and there are hundreds if not thousands legit accounts being closed. This definitely doesn’t help with user growth. Read Revolut, Starling, Monese and Monzo reviews and compare them in app stores, you will see for yourself - most complaints are specifically about Monzo closing accounts.
You could do an experiment if someone opens a fresh Monzo account and transfers say 10-15k into that account it will be closed without any questions in maximum a couple of days. To some people in London 10k is pocket change and that’s what they would normally put into a bank account once its opened and ready to use. Try the same experiment with Revolut, Starling, Monese they won’t close it 100%, what might happen is they might get it temporarily suspended and ask for your proof of income, which if you have it it won’t be a problem to provide. I know people who had experience with what I just described. Once you have used the account for a while transferring larger sums is doable, but in the first few months it almost guarantees closure. As someone who has interest in monzo, I find it concering.
tbutz
(🏳️🌈 Producer of "low value commentary")
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There is no proof for this assertion. I won’t take trustpilot reviews and/or claims made by anonymous profiles on forums/facebook/reddit as proof of anything.
You do that experiment and come back to us when you have the results, eh?
All I’m seeing is a load of claims without substance and a lot of supposition about what other banks will or won’t do, compared to Monzo.
I’ve been with Monzo since the prepaid days and have also invested. I’m not concerned that Monzo are adhering to the rules.
I agree, it is shocking. You would have thought that the fact they had doubled their customer numbers since the previous raise and were not very exposed to bad debts would have offset the crisis/execution problems and led to a flat raise this time.
Tried it a year and a half ago on abandoning Starling for full time use of Monzo account open for two months and barely used till then. Had to do it either side of midnight owing to daily limits to add to the fun
Imagine my surprise on nothing happening except it working fine
Monzo is still a loss making business and burning through its cash. At the same time, its main income source (interchange) is down considerably and it has few other income streams.
It is also having to raise funds now - not by choice - so their bargaining position is weak. It’s execution problems/record won’t have helped.
In this context, user numbers are less important, companies are going to be rewarded for being profitable/sustainable and generating income. As the FT comments make clear, there are several other banks investors could back at much cheaper valuations.
I expect that post furlough, Monzo will be making more staff redundant in order to reduce costs.
Please show your proof. If you can’t offer any proof, there’s no ‘for sure’ about it.
I don’t have to search too hard to find stories about incumbents closing accounts. There was a whole issue a few years back around de-risking, where some banks appeared to be closing any and all accounts that were tangentially connected to Syrian nationals, for example.
As for challengers? Well, Monzo’s UK market share is reportedly greater than all other challengers combined. Need I say more?
this could easily be an effort to discredit Monzo, a mis-information campaign as has been seen with the recent whatsapp rumors and new monzo forum users, who post once and then vanish with nothing good to say and nothing to backup anything they are saying.
The £2 billion valuation is over a year old, I had hoped we would now be valued at £4 billion etc.
A 40% discount sure, hard times etc., but that should be £3 billion - so what’s happened in the last year to result in zero movement in valuation before the pandemic?
Their income has gone down considerably, Monzo are burning through cash and they have little visible progress since their last VC round in in terms of new products or income streams.
Things that they were going to rollout including Plus, Points, cheque imaging, mortgages etc gave all been delayed or scrapped. The US launch is making little progress and will also be affected by Covid - as well business accounts
They are not making money and at the same time valuations/share prices of others have become cheaper.
I mean when was the last time, anyone heard much from Tom (compared to Anne@Starling).
Monzo, like many other start-ups have expanded too quickly and not paid enough attention to controlling costs or generating revenue
Loss making. Revenue going down (across the retail banking sector, not just Monzo). Three failed (or aborted) launches of the premium account. Furloughing staff. Invisible CEO. Legacy banks catching up with features. Not a great recipe for investors.
Or you take the view which I’ve heard from investors like Chamath Palihapitiya is that even the best new company who needs to raise is going to be a Price Taker not Price Maker, and that is where Monzo is now.
There is nothing wrong doing stuff that gets burn rate down, and launching paid for at the moment when people are struggling isn’t going to be a good look. Saying half the year has gone by and nothing has happened, forgets that most of this year has been wiped out by pandemic.
I do agree that senior leadership has gone a bit submarine, and that’s not a good look.
I’m not very concerned about Monzo from neither a valuation or product perspective. I think they will come out stronger on the other side.
I’d be more concerned if I’m not Monzo, Starling or Revolut although some of the e-money challengers will probably be acquired by high street banks looking for tech and talent.
Were they? I stand to be corrected but I thought Monzo had started covering their marginal costs not their substantial fixed costs… and as you say, Covid means they are probably losing money on a marginal basis as well now.
Not sure why you are replying to me saying that, it is not something I said. I agree with you.
Toms last Tweet (other than some retweets) was four weeks ago and about writing a script to poll the website of his favourite artisanal flour mill for additional delivery slots. Not a great look. Rightly or wrongly, if you are going to be in the public eye as a CEO, you need to be a bit more engaged with your business than that. There is no comparison with Anne Boden’s Twitter account.
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