Flow (smart transaction automation for your bank accounts)

So for example I will be able to do transfers such as Bank A Current Account to Bank B Current Account, where I am the account holder at both banks?

This is the sort of thing I was hoping you would support and for my needs it’s were I see most utility. However, from your website it was not clear to me if your transfers would only be limited to transfers such as current account to savings account at the same bank.

As for transfers to accounts not owned by me. This is probably not something I would want immediately. I would first want to gain confidence in your system with transfers between my own accounts. But I could see it being potentially useful for any situation where you want a smarter version of a standing order.

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primarily the identification of a salary and the being able to spilt that for example using it to spilt into Monzo Pots but also say pay off my credit card as well.

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Hello @Flow-app! I haven’t done a lot of reading yet, but could you explain your business model, please? How will you make money?

Hi Peter!

Sure, it’s very simple: We’ll charge a monthly subscription for business users and are looking into “affiliate” Flows.

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Thanks!

Do you mean business account users, or would you be looking to charge Monzo to integrate with them?

Also, I’m not sure what you mean by “affiliate” flows. Could you give an example?

Sure. We mean that only people with a business account would pay a monthly subscription to Flow.

With affiliate Flows you can think of Flows and integrations with third parties. E.g. you could automatically transfer money to an investment account based on certain triggers. And if you don’t have an investment account but are interested in opening one, we could help you open one. Along this proces there might be a moment that we could earn money. We are exploring these routes. How do you feel about this?

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We are proud to announce that Flow received a €600.000 investment.

With this investment, we are ready to change the game of personal finance. Our app will launch early 2020 - and it will help people set up Smart Money Flows for every bank account. For example:

  • Tax-Flow: ‘For every incoming client payment, I want 21% of the amount to be transferred to my Tax Account.’
  • Savings-Flow: ‘On salary day, whatever money is left on my personal account, should be transferred to my pension fund.’

Flow will launch in The Netherlands first be available in the App Store and Play Store early 2020. Before that, you can already use the app through a pilot. Sign up now to be the first to get access. A UK launch is definitely on our wish list!

→ Read more about our investment

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I’m sorry I never replied to this. This sounds good to me as a potential customer - but I worry a bit about whether this model would to long term viability. If the majority of sign ups are consumer customers, and there aren’t enough companies offering affiliate/referral fees then I could see another unfortunate OneDox in the making.

But I really like the idea and am looking forward to seeing a beta! :blush:

Me again. Some feedback - I’ve signed up to your waiting list:

The Twitter handle on the graphic is wrong: if you tap on it you’re taken to @flowyourmoney (not @flowmomey).

Thanks for this Peter! The link is correct, the label is not. We’ll fix this.

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Long term viability is important. There are a lot of good apps that didn’t make it because of the wrong business model. What would be a reasonable price you would be willing to pay as a monthly subscription for a service like Flow?

I’m not sure. I think that something like £1 - £2 I’d probably give it a go. But I’d probably be much more interested in this as part of a broader proposition like a bundled bank account.

I’m pausing slightly because I’d need to think through what I’d use it for, then actually test it a bit in real life, discovering other potential uses.

So far, the benefit for me would be:

  • To move a percentage of income to another account
  • Move a set amount of money to my offset savings (a classic building society, so while it does online banking it doesn’t have open banking APIs or anything)
  • Move money to my Monzo Pots when I receive an incoming payment with a specific reference.
  • If Flow would be capable, to string a number of different transactions together (simple example: when I want to take money out of my travel pot I have to do two Monzo transactions) - perhaps on the basis of just tapping a button on demand in the Flow app
  • Automatically moving contents of Pots to external savings accounts at the end of the month (or preferably my payment cycle).
  • Automatically assigning notes to Monzo transactions, standing orders, direct debits etc.

If Flow could do all of that, I’d almost certainly subscribe for a month or two to test it out.

I suppose my concern is that a lot of that could (or you could argue should) be done by Monzo. I suppose you could see Flow as papering over gaps in banking apps. So what’s the killer difference - or the thing they won’t be able to / want to catch up with?

(I suspect the answer is complex IFTTT type rules or quasi scripting etc, but then the market does become quite niche quite quickly).

But please do find a way through because I’m super keen for this! :hot_coral_heart:

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Did a launch in The Netherlands happen?

Any further info on a potential UK launch?

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Hi o99, thanks for asking. We’re in the last phase of obtaining our PSD2 license (which we need in order to go live). We expect to go live this summer.

We are still researching what it takes to come to the UK. Because of Brexit, things have changed.

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Flow has been in touch:

Flow is ready for you!

Welcome to the future of money management and wealth building with Flow Money Automation.
Your money, your rules

This is your official invitation to become an early user of Flow. We’re launching the app with the bunq bank first, more banks are coming soon.

But sadness! Netherlands only and Bunq only for now.

Can someone get on and build a UK version, please? If anyone wants to found a start-up my DMs are open.

Hey @Flow-app :wave:

@o99 shared with us this tweet in another topic:

Fancy giving us Monzo customers an update on what you’re planning and how the app is developing? :raised_hands:

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Hi Peter, thanks for asking!

We didn’t sit still: we have applied for and received permission to offer our services in the UK! We are also adding ID verification methods to support non Dutch customers (including UK customers) and are implementing that this quarter. With that out of the way, we can technically start offering our services.

Our roadmap is: Connect all Dutch banks first (doing that right now), after that connect banks from other countries. Monzo is on the top of our list in the UK.

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Is this something you have already agreed with Monzo?

Otherwise I don’t see what it adds for them? It’s just you bettering a product they offer, when they could just improve it themselves?

I could be wrong but I believe if a third party provider has appropriate authorisation from the FCA Monzo (or any bank) are obliged to provide access. Otherwise what’s the point of open banking.

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Ahh true. I suppose Monzo has the API and they can tap into that.

I was thinking more of Flux that’s integrated into the app.