Depositing Cash at the Post Office

There’s nothing to stop Monzo opening a network of branches if they think it’s the cheapest way of offering free cash deposits :joy:

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Not being able to afford them might be an issue?

I would be very sad that this terrible pun would no longer apply :wink:

https://monzo.teemill.co.uk/product/the-developer/

This makes sense to me.

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I wonder if you could partner with a clearing bank to have access to their deposit ATMs

Also it wouldn’t surprise me if all this was a subliminal ploy to get people to stop using cash.

I like that Starling allow fee-free cash deposits, and its the only reason I have an account with them. It probably has funds in it for about 2 minutes a year, when cash is deposited at the post office, by the time I’ve left the post office and It’s been transferred into my Monzo account.

If Starling wants to swallow the costs of that, then great, likewise if Monzo doesn’t, then that’s fine too, its an open competitive market where you have choices.

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You could swallow the public cost and then just subsidise it through something

If it were your choice where would you add additional costs to generate the revenue from to subsidise it?

Theres a number of options I think.

  1. firstly I’d research an automated way such as Deposit ATMs ( just because the overhead goes down as more automation is used)
  2. I’d then look at a partnership with the Post office(they have insurance and other products) which theoretically you could ask for free cash deposits for free advertising/access to customers
  3. Monzo Plus- but what is the actual cost of the post office processing the cash. I know Monzo have stated that’s the charge is to cover costs. I wonder whether a two pound a month charge would cover the transactions for a month. Or is this an add-on of sorts because some people need deposits (for jobs etc) and some don’t. The same with card withdrawals. I don’t ever use my limit. I just thought of something cool whether you could give your limit to others(i.e contact COps and say I want to reduce my withdrawal limit) and then that could go into a pot so the net allowance remains the same.
    As I don’t know the cost it’s hard to say how much you need to monetise.

I think this is too much of an assumption at this point, I would assume the opposite, that paying someone to use their network of ATMs, cash transport and handling systems, would be more costly.

This is interesting, but I personally would not want to be advertised to in order to subsidise a service I don’t use.

This is also interesting. I don’t anticipate this being ready soon though, so I don’t think would work for right now. I’m also not sure how those who would use Monzo Plus, but have no need of cash deposits, would feel about subsidising those that do? Again, I personally wouldn’t want to take on the cost of a service I don’t use - I would prefer just to have a fixed cost and if I ever do want to use it know exactly what it was costing me.

AFAIK this is a security thing, not a cost thing. You can withdraw more if you need to, you just need to let COps know in advance.

This would be an interesting add on to see how the cost/revenue balanced out.

Surely if the complaint is customers shouldn’t be paying for cash deposits or foreign atm withdrawals then adding it to Monzo plus solves nothing. Customers who want those facilities will still be paying for it, just in advance

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I think @NeilM’s suggestion, with the exception of the last one, is that those services would be priced high enough that the revenue generated could be used to subsidise other, ‘free’, services.

It’s not something I agree with, but it is an established practice other places.

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I don’t want to subsidise services I don’t use. Isn’t that what Monzo is trying to get away from, silly fees to subsidise other things?

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I agree.

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12 posts were merged into an existing topic: Monzo Plus - Small Scale Trial

2 posts were merged into an existing topic: Monzo Plus - Small Scale Trial

Starling subsidising Monzo. Why don’t you just spend it from the starling account?

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I’ve moved a number of posts to the Monzo Plus thread. It’s staying closed until staff take a look on Monday - let’s stick to cash deposits at the Post Office in the meantime!

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I genuinely don’t know enough about banking systems to know if it would be cost effective. It would an interesting research project to see. Especially how you would build the correct anti money laundering procedures

This would in my mind take the form of a dismissable notification in fee or by email(a literal 20 seconds of thats cool but who cares, no puh notification whats so ever and you had to click the marketing toggle)
I wonder if this comes down whether you believe that that any fee subsidising is a “tax” on you an individual for a service that you don’t use. I mean this is why overdrafts and overdraft fees are a “good” way to make money(Good in terms of Profitability not in terms of Morality((personally I think they’re terribly confusing))).
This then puts the onus on other revenue streams such as Businesses.I don’t know how businesses that deal in cash deposit large volumes(if anyone knows that would be helpful). It would make sense to develop business features that both would use therefore cutting development cost. Personally why you would sign a contract for a building in central London is beyond me((the cost is probably extreme)and off topic).
Also the post office will be re negotiating all of their current contracts due to it being a loss making enterprise, so maybe you’ll find the flip side that Monzo becomes cheaper as the other negotiated a non market competitive rate and now need to renegotiate.
On a final and slightly random note can supermarkets be used to deposit money… They give you cashback so can you do it the other way

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Because I want my money in one place, especially if it’s a lump of cash for a specific thing I’ve brought from my Monzo account. I’d deposit the cash via my Natwest joint account but my wife will spend it before I get it back.

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