I use pots extensively to track how much I have saved towards various goals, some short term (I have a course to pay for in January) and some permanent (monthly saving towards annual insurance renewal).
Recently we bought flights for next year, my wife covered the immediate cost so now I owe her £286. I’ve created a pot to track that and I’ll transfer it over when it’s full but it would be convenient to have a proper concept of a debt owed in the app.
This would be similar to a pot but would start at the balance and reduce towards zero as payments are made. The debt object would be linked to a contact and reduce the balance as payments are made to that contact either through a “make payment” button or recurring payments and be automstically marked as closed once the outstanding balance reaches zero.
Sounds super complicated and I can see lots of pitfalls that could happen in the process. As you said just a pot with a goal and then transfer it manually when you hit your target.
Or, I have similar and we have a joint account. Set up the pot in there and then when it hits the target your wife can do with it as she pleases. Either spend it directly from the joint account or withdraw it to another account.
At present if you set a target for a Pot, and you reach it, you get a notification. You can also see a X% of £Y goal when you look at the pot.
Personally I don’t think we need more than that. When you get the notification that your pot is at £286, just go in, withdraw/close it, then ping the money on to her?
That works for this specific scenario where I can repay the whole amount in one go, but what if I’d borrowed £4000 from my parents for a car and agreed to pay them back over 12 months?
I think for me the missing thing in Pots is the flexibility around goals - it’s not particularly actionable. (Missing the “T” in SMART)
It would be super handy if you could enter a Goal Completion target date, and it gives you a monthly amount, or enter a monthly payment and it will estimate when you’ll hit your goal.
I’m all for tech doing work for us, but still not seeing much of a use for this. As @Ordog suggests, simple arithmetic and you can set it up.
Personally, would rather Monzo focused on other things.
However, I can see the value in a ‘debt’ pot (or maybe call it “Owed” as a type of pot) and have it function as you say. Set a target and when it’s reached it performs a preset action (move/pay) and closes the Pot automatically.
I can see how it could work well in the new layout, similar to a credit card showing -£x like mentioned above, however there are more pressing things id like looked at personally first.
This solution assumes you have 1 debt per a contact and that all payments to that contact reduces your debt. Anything that falls outside of that assumption will break the system or require further development/manual intervention.
I like the idea of tracking spending and debt together to gain a better view of your finances but I’m not sure this is the solution.
