We’re in the middle of rewriting the Spending analysis to make it better suited to current account usage, adding an understanding of Income, Planned Spending for bills, and money you set aside to save.
One of the challenges we have is deciding which time periods to split up your transactions into for analysis. We’ve explored a bunch of different ideas during our design process; but as most Sci-fi tells us, playing fast-and-loose with time can get very messy (why aren’t all months the same length?!).
Whilst offering total flexibility and customisation often sounds like it solves everyone’s problems, it can also add a lot of complexity that most people don’t need, and make it harder to ensure everything works reliably. We want to find the right balance.
Following Up from Zander’s poll last year, I’d like to get a bit more of a detailed refresh around when people get paid, and how often they have to pay bills.
Answering the following two (anonymous) questions will really help us work out how best to help people manage their cashflow.
Thanks!
When do you get paid?
A fixed date every month (or closest weekday)
The first/last/third/etc Friday (or other weekday) of the month
Paid monthly + occasional extra income from freelance work when people pay my damn invoices.
Bills are pretty irregular as most of my services bill me for usage which varies each month. I’d say my only regular bills would be rent and my gym subscription which are paid monthly - everything else is random.
Thanks @anon72173902 - In the cases where the 21st falls on a weekend, are you paid earlier/later than the 21st?
If you’re paid on a date instead of the 21st for some months, you’d be paid twice in one period, and potentially not at all in another. Considering that, what would make most sense for you?
Monthly for most bills but then you get the really annoying ones like council tax over 10 months, annual TV licence, home insurance and car insurance; and half-yearly water bill which all really throw a spanner in the works for budgeting. I’m changing most of these to monthly but can’t for insurance as you pay more.
I get paid on a fixed date (28th) but if that falls on a weekend then a day or two before that. I get my expenses paid separately and depends whenever I have time to submit
I told them I was no prepared to pay over 10 installments and would only pay over 12. They amended my direct debit accordingly. My water company also agreed for me to pay monthly if I was happy to use their budget plan (which a bit like BT’s as it based on past usage and up coming charges)
I always get paid on the 21st but in the case of last month I was paid on the 19th as 21st was a Sunday, this month I was paid on the 21st and it will be the same for March but April would be the 20th as 21st is a Sat.
One thing that helps me with the big yearly/half-yearly payments is setting up a pot and adding money each month, to slowly put money aside for when the dreaded bill arrives.
I get paid whenever my damn invoices are paid. Though with Monzo I try to pay myself via Faster Payments on the first of the month from my legacy account. All my direct debits come out monthly.
My current job pays me on the 28th every month (unless it falls on a weekend or bank holiday, in which case it’s the closest previous weekday).
However at my last job I was paid 3 standard days before the end of each month (so you skip over weekends and bank holidays when working it out). For example this year I’d have been paid on 26th February, 27th March, 26th April, etc.
Would it not be easier to have a fully flexible pulse? So instead of scrolling month by month it scrolls day by day? I mean, probably not easier but Just thinking out loud.
It could be cool if Monzo could recognise (or even if we can set) that an incoming payment is a salary. We could then ask the app to restart the month based on when that hits the account?
I think quite a lot of people who are contracted to get paid on a particular date in the month will get it paid on the nearest previous weekday if the original date falls on a weekend or bank holiday.
Just to throw a curveball in, there would need to be the ability to adjust manually, particularly around December when most people get paid early.
My pulse spikes at the end of each month, not at the start of each month 
(currently)
Just thinking out loud.