Hey, I’m Anthony - I haven’t been around the forums much but I’m in our Core team and deal with the card end of things!
I’ve been mulling over which delivery services we’d offer for our current accounts recently and thought I’d put it out into the community to see what your thoughts are.
At the moment the way we deal with any ‘urgent’ card requests is through our already busy customer support team, I’d like to offer this service through the app. For the current accounts the cards will have names on so will go via the manufacturer, this will increase delivery time by around 1 day but I wouldn’t want to lose the ability to get cards into people’s hands very quickly if they needed or wanted it.
It would be great to offer an expedited service to users, but to do this we’d need to (for the short term!) give out cards without names on them as we do with the pre-paid cards, as they’d need to go straight from HQ.
Downside: As we scale it’s unlikely we would be able to offer this service for free like we do now too. If all our current users requested expedited delivery to get their first debit card it would cost ~£1m!
What are your thoughts on getting a card without a name on when you’ve paid for expedited delivery?
Short term we’d be aiming for guaranteed ‘same day’ in central London and ‘next day’ outside, is this something for which you would feel £10 is reasonable? Ideally lower, but getting the price of £5 get a lot more tricky, thoughts?
Apologies for the essay, looking forward to hearing any thoughts you have on this, nothing set in stone yet!
I’d have thought around 3 business days to receive a (free) card with your name is an acceptable wait time. People who request an urgent name-free card could then be charged £5 to receive one and then an additional £5 for a new one with their name on it.
Personally I think you should just offer one streamlined service. If that means it takes up 2-3 working days then that is still market leading.
If you go down the premium service and charge route you are straying from the no fees and charges understanding and you will end up stuck in the mud like Revolut.
I’d be in no hurry for next day delivery and have no issues waiting 3-4 business days for free delivery. Expedited delivery should be an option for those who’d prefer it, though not sure I’d want to pay more than £5 unless I was desperate for a replacement.
I think paying £5 - £10 for an expedited delivery service would be a great option that could be readily available for those that might require it. Obviously, most people would wait a 2-3 working day period (beats most in the market).
I’d readily pay £10 for the service if I needed the card urgently and there was no other option than waiting for the normal delivery service.
Would it be easier to get to the £5 price point if you offered two options:
Next day (incl London) for £5
Same day (London only) for £10
£10 for next day delivery does sound like a lot, especially when I, as an individual with no bulk deal, can go into the Post Office and send a letter Special Delivery guaranteed by 1pm next day for £6.45. I understand you’re trying to keep it simple, but it would seem like the rest of the UK is subsidising same day delivery in London.
I don’t think of Monzo offering a ‘no fees and charges’ service. I see them as offering a ‘no hidden, surprising, or extortionate fees and charges’. Additionally that fees are simple to understand and easy to know when you will incur them. The issue with Revolut is that you need to keep a spreadsheet running in your head just to know when you might incur a fee, and you need an optimisation strategy to use your account in the least costly way. Monzo definitely need to avoid that – I don’t want to find managing my account more stressful because of little fees dotted about.
But I think a fee for expedited delivery is pretty clear conceptually, and feels like you are paying for an extra service, not somehow propping up the rest of the ‘free’ operation. It would be unreasonable for every Monzo customer to be effectively subsidising expedited delivery. Especially given the efforts Monzo is going to, to ensure that normal card delivery is as quick as possible.
I don’t mind waiting 3-5 days as long as Apple Pay is available as I can get by with that. If I really needed a card with my name on the next day I’d pay the going DHL rate (or whoever) but then if I miss the cut off for next day then I’d see no point in paying and just wait as it would be 3 days till I got it anyway.
To be 100% honest, situations like this is why I have a Metro Bank account in addition to Monzo. It’s one of the strengths of creating branches where you can have people to verify your identity and have card printing facilities on-site (the other being cash handling).
Staying full Monzo for card payments and such, I personally would not find same day delivery useful as I live and work outside of what is considered London where same-day delivery is a distant dream. While I likely would pay £5-10 for this, I wouldn’t feel too great about it knowing I could walk to my local Metro Bank branch. I guess that’s because I’m normally willing to wait or do something myself to resolve an issue though.
Again, comparing to Metro Bank, I don’t feel that paying for expedited delivery only to receive a nameless card is very competitive. I realise the massive logistical and financial challenges but the gold standard has already been set there.
If I’m honest, the place where Monzo could do some real good is in instant issuing and replacement of Apple Pay/Android Pay cards, instead of waiting for the physical card to arrive and entering that in, providing an “Add to Wallet/Android Pay” button or using the instant replacement method (really just updates some metadata AFAIK) to get someone back up and running on contactless in seconds, rather than hours/days, even if that’s temporary until their full card arrives. Especially with Apple devices, people are carrying around a full NFC radio with a secure element that can run an EMV card environment!
Sorry to throw a wet towel over this but I don’t consider the proposals to be competitive or good solutions to the problem. It feels like a beta-quality workaround for London-based users.
Assuming that a trip to a Metro Bank branch will take around an hour, I’d still argue that this is competitive since an hour of your time is probably worth at least £5 - £10. Personally, I’d rather not have the hassle of having to visit a branch (& book an appointment, at least in some cases) either.
Either way, Monzo have been very clear about the fact that they won’t be setting up a branch network because as you hinted, the cost is considerable.
Jonas has mentioned that he’d like Monzo to implement this & we know that Monzo have been allocated enough virtual cards to enable it so hopefully this is only a temporary solution for Apple / Android Pay users, although obviously not all users will have access to that feature.
Thanks for asking. I agree with much that’s already been written. While I don’t think I’d need the card that urgently, it would be nice to be given the option.
For me the most ideal solution is that if I do lose my card and need a replacement:
the new card details are communicated to me so I can I can continue shopping online until the physical card arrives
Apple Pay or Android Pay continues to work (or I am re-provisioned with a new virtual card) - and to make my life easier, temporarily increase my Apple Pay transaction limit, so (if I’m in the UK at least) receiving my replacement card is actually much less urgent
Not sure whether that last bit is technically feasible, but would be interested to hear your thoughts
While this may be mathematically true to many people, it’s generally a nice walk in to the high street and you get treated pretty well at Metro with no appointments needed, it’s also a lunch/dinner opportunity! I know Monzo certainly won’t be touching the branch model but on the level of my wallet, that’s who they’re competing against. I personally believe Metro and Monzo pair well together with Metro handling cash and cheques in a way Monzo won’t.
Personally I would be more annoyed that monzo couldn’t offer me anything apart from a 3/4 day delivery. I think having the option is good for people who really need it.
I think the £10 is fine, if someone is in an emergency chances are the won’t care about the fee as it’s not outrageous and there is a reason why the fee is there.
Does the fee have to be £5 or £10? Why not something in between.
I’m outside of London so it would be next day for me. I have no problem with the £10 fee. I would want my name on it, however if it’s an emergency then I guess I would live without.
temporarily increase my Apple Pay transaction limit, so (if I’m in the UK at least) receiving my replacement card is actually much less urgent