I use Monzo purely as a spending and savings account to keep it separate from my main high street bank. Was going to switch and wanted a modest £200 OD to keep it the same as I bank. I was declined as my income is apparently too low 
. Which is complete nonsense. It did say they were conservative with selection. Oh well, I’ll just stay as I am.
If you have plenty of money why do you need such a low overdraft?
Using the features Monzo provide you can create your own overdraft if you have savings. This way you won’t get charged and you’ll naturally manage your finances better.
It’s never a good idea to be reliant on an overdraft.
I didn’t have a great experience with Monzo and their overdrafts to be honest.
When setting up they sold the overdraft as a way to ‘avoid bounced payments’ (quite pushy marketing imo), which as said above isn’t an issue if you have accessible savings. Its also not as flexible a facility as they market, if you reduce it there is a chance you will be stuck at this level from month to month. When I tried to increase it, it sent me a notification saying I wasn’t eligible at all, creating a feeling it could be taken away. Also, when they changed to interest daily they said another hard search would be necessary. I closed it upon hearing this.
Back then I used to keep all my savings somewhere untouchable, but now I’m more comfortable to use £50 here and there and reimburse it. With plus I keep some savings in a pot, psychologically I like knowing it’s accruing interest but of course I am paying a fee…it means I check the Amex app less and can deposit cash 10 steps from my house now and again though.
I do also find a credit card a better tool for short term borrowing, but people often like overdrafts for the direct debit issue. Pots are great for this as said above.
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Good point! Especially if it’s the higher APR. I don’t use it, it’s only if I miscalculated an increase in a DD. I switch the savings over to cover the few pounds if that makes sense. Currently I do this from Monzo back to Natwest. Suppose it works and I’ll just carry on.
The bonus of Monzo with this is that they’ll tell you the day before that a DD is going to increase.
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Yes, this and the greyed out DD is one of the reasons I perceive accounts like Monzo/Starling to be better bills accounts. If I were to have a bills and spend set up, I’d actually rather use a legacy bank as a spending card to take on a night out etc (like some people use Monzo)
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Ahhh ok. That’s really useful to know. Thanks
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