Re suggested purchases:
As long as it’s not buried deep in some unread privacy policy, and is a verbose, clear statement of intent, then maybe. However, I’d need confidence that accounts with this feature off are not being used for other purposes too.
Re contact info:
I mean contact info for the shop or retailer. A phone number for thier central customer services or store ideally. A Twitter handle would be a nicety but the retailer email address would be more professional.
I really like the idea - I think the difficulty will be that unless pretty much 100% of retailers are supported then it will be a bit pointless. No-one wants Flux + various unsupported loyalty cards + possible other loyalty apps.
A lot of people won’t switch to a new solution unless it solves all of their problems (ie in this case covers all of the retailers / loyalty schemes they currently use)
Really appreciate the feedback @Bruce, thanks!
Really interesting, would you want links to anything else?
Completely agree, we’re don’t want to replace a retailers loyalty program we just want to get rid of the card so that you, as a customer, get all the benefits you already have but automatically as you pay.
We’re really conscious of how terrible creating unwanted suggestions would be we are focused on delivering great experiences. We get but in from retailers through reduced time at till, overheads and anonymised aggregate insights.
Thanks to your feedback we’ll be able to do it in the right way so it doesn’t feel like spam! 
You know a lot about the space, are you working in it? You’re absolutely right that it’s HARD, insanely hard. We have built a very strong network to enable us push forward fast. 
That’s full aligned to how we’re thinking about this
Makes a lot of sense, really appreciate the input!
Thanks @Rosie!
It’s something we think about a lot! Our approach is to start very localised to create the feel of high coverage before expanding.
My previous role was within a loyalty company which did loyalty for restaurants and shopping centres. We convinced retailers / shopping centres to become a single loyalty program to drive footfall into the centre. The data produced was the carrot.
The biggest problem with doing digital receipts without the help of the payment networks/protocols is matching up the transactions - there isn’t enough unique info to figure it out if you don’t have the PAN (which normally isn’t available)
That explains it, sounds super interesting!
This is a great point, you’re absolutely right about the PAN being unavailable! 
We create a unique token to match a payment mechanism (credit card, debit card, Apple Pay, Android Pay) to a specific transaction, to achieve one-to-one matching we work with various financial institutions.
This is why we’re displaying the data direct in the Monzo app as in the video above. There’s a graveyard of apps that have tried to go solo but have had limited coverage and failed, we are keen to avoid this!
First of all, I think this is a great idea. Like others on here, I am hugely wary of allowing access to my data. But I think if done right, and architected from the beginning with privacy and security in mind, there are huge opportunities to move beyond the antiquated receipt and loyalty systems currently used, whilst still respecting privacy. It sounds like you are starting from the perspective of doing this right, and respecting user privacy, rather than a quick, ill-considered grab to exploit users. And I’m more likely to trust an independent party than a large retailer for this kind of service, as I know the retailer ultimately just wants to sell me more goods.
Of course, I will remain sceptical until I see the final product and can read the policy, what I’m agreeing to, etc., but what I’ve read so far on this thread makes me very hopeful. Thanks for putting in the hard work – this aspect of banking is one I’m hugely keen to see progress on, and so far this is the first initiative that I’ve seen which has any promise (aside from any improvements Monzo will eventually provide natively, of course).
And thanks for gathering feedback early in your development process and being so responsive to what everyone has written. On to the specific questions you asked:
Ideally, I’d like more merchant details: phone number, opening hours, website and email. For online purchases, a link to the returns policy. It would be amazing if I need to go to the post office, and I could just look at the last transaction from my local Post Office and see what the opening hours are. Or need to return something to a shop, tap on the transaction for the item – or even just search for it, if the itemised receipt text is searchable – and see when the shop is open. Or if opening hours aren’t available, have a phone number there I can just tap to call.
I think listing warranty expiration date where appropriate would be great, too. For instance, if I bought a memory card that has a 2-year warranty, if I have a problem, I could search for it in Monzo, and the Flux receipt would not only show when I bought it, but when the warranty expires. I no longer have to search through the manufacturer’s website and figure out which warranty applies to my product, then hunt out the receipt to see when I bought it.
Being able to then export the receipt (as PDF) as a a proper proof-of-purchase that I can upload to a webform, or attach to an email, (as required by the warranty procedures) would be necessary. I already try and get rid of all paper receipts, scanning them in if no electronic copy is available to me. But some I have to keep as I’m not convinced my scan would be accepted in case of a warranty claim. Being certain that I don’t need the hard copy would be amazing, as would having all my receipts in Monzo.
However, I would also want the ability to export all my receipts (e.g. as individual PDFs) so I could store them myself if needed. Hard to imagine now ;-), but it’s conceivable that one day I might want to move away from Monzo, they close down current accounts, of they get bought by HSBC 
, etc. I don’t want my receipts held hostage. I think this goes back to some people’s concerns about who owns the data. Ultimately, these are my receipts, and I want to be able to do what I want with them.
I realise that I’ve strayed away from answering the question a bit, but I want to end this answer by saying that I think key to what you’re doing is that you don’t require me to enter my email address or any information with the retailer. There are some places I go that offer an email receipt (particularly independent cafés using iZettle POSes). But I can’t be bothered with entering my email address, and with larger (e.g. non-independent shops), I actually don’t want them having this information, as they’ll likely spam me. The great thing about contactless is how quick and frictionless it makes the payment side of things. From what I see, Flux continues to reduce the friction in the transaction process. Manually providing data to the merchant would obviously increase the friction, and is a retrograde step.
This is hugely valuable to me, in the way you’re talking about doing it – stamp cards. Because I don’t want retailers building up data on me and spamming me, I don’t use any of the chains’ loyalty schemes (e.g., ones where you are issued with a plastic card). If I did, my problem would actually be solved, as I use a great app called Stocard to store the few plastic cards I have (e.g. Library card, local shop that offers an early bird discount), so that I never have to carry the card around. However, what I do use are local cafés’ stamp card schemes (no data collection!).
The problem for me, is that I like a very thin wallet (3 cards and cash) and don’t want to crowd my pocket with loads of pieces of cardboard. I don’t go to cafés daily, and there are only one or two that I go to regularly enough to make it worth always having the stamp card on me. However, over a month, I will go into several others at least once. Inevitably this tends to be spur-of-the-moment/opportunistic, so I’ve left the stamp card at home. I either loose out on the stamp, or get a new one and then have to later consolidate six cards with one or two stamps each. I find the whole thing a bit of a hassle, and generally just forgo the stamps except for at 2-3 places. I understand why the cafés use stamp cards. They are incredibly cheap to implement, and they don’t want huge overheads for a loyalty scheme. If you could solve the problem in a way that is financially viable for small cafés, that would be amazing. I’m really unconcerned about the big loyalty schemes (Tesco, Costa, Boots, etc.).
I don’t have a problem with your example of offering Alice’s Café’s new chicken wrap because I normally order the chicken sandwich. But I also think it’s a bit of a contrived example. If we’re talking about an independent café which I frequent, it’s incredibly unlikely I wouldn’t notice a menu change. Even if it’s a chain café/restaurant which I frequent, I’m sure I would notice a menu change, and those places normally blast it in your face whenever they have something new to offer. 
So I’m not sure there’s much value to add there.
I think something more sophisticated might be interesting. Say, I’m in a different town, or a part of town I don’t go to frequently, I would find it very useful to find places nearby that I’m likely to like. If I’m in an unfamiliar area and I could go to a transaction from my local coffee shop and tap a button that says, “Find places like this near me”, and Flux would recommend a local coffee shop with similar qualities (e.g. specialty coffee and homemade cakes, or the nearest Costa, depending on what profile the coffee shop in the transaction has), that would be fantastic.
Randomly popping up ‘deals’ or ‘things I might want’ is not something I’m interested in. I’ve no problem with your including this in Flux, as long as: (1) I can turn it off; (2) it’s clear that my privacy interests are being looked after.
I would like an option to automatically email me a PDF copy of the receipt. Ideally I can set a default, but also override it and turn the option on and off for particular merchants. For instance, I want to automatically receive an emailed receipt every time I shop at Argos, get a train ticket, etc., but I definitely don’t want one every time I go to my local coffee shop, buy a sandwich, etc. This should be done through the email address already registered with Monzo, ideally you wouldn’t even know what that address is. You just tell Monzo to email me the PDF receipt. That way, the receipt comes through as ‘official’ Monzo email (helps with email filters, automation, etc.). But however it’s done, going back to part of my answer to Q1, I would like the ability to automatically keep my receipts independently of the Monzo app.
Finally, your plan to start on a concentrated area to provide maximum coverage, and then expand, sounds smart. I imagine you’re thinking of somewhere in London, but can I suggest that Edinburgh would be a great place to start. 
We have a vibrant community of shops and cafés, it’s a small city, so manageable, and you could get loads of publicity during the many festivals in the city. 
So am I right in thinking that you’re targeting retailers? Or are you actively working on integrating with POS systems? Surely the latter would yield exposure to retailers anyway and hence more customers too, unless I’m missing something. If so, then I know eposNow is a pretty popular system (with an app store) especially around Norfolk and I’d be keen to trial this locally
So far a lot of the suggestions have been top notch: paper receipts are a nuisance; I hate my wallet bulging with loyalty cards; suggestions are mostly annoying unless they’re adding some real value; I’m keen for loyalty program integration as long as its not too intrusive and having it happen automatically is a bonus for anyone surely. Great work and definitely looks promising 
One thing that hasn’t been suggested is an integration with Monzo’s bill splitting functionality. Say I pay for dinner with some mates, I get the itemised receipt, and I simply tap on the items for one person, choose the person and it sends them off a request to pay me back for their total. I think this could definitely reduce friction during that process, as it currently stands, its a case of getting the calculator out and working it out. I think this might be difficult to implement at the moment as you’re using the image API, but I certainly like this idea and perhaps Monzo would be keen to help integrate it too?
Oooh, I like that! This could be really useful for a number of situations (train tickets, picking up some groceries or something from another shop for someone, etc.). Great idea!
Wow, what an epic response - I really appreciate the time you put into it @jzw95!
This is aligned to how we are working. From day 1, we’ve been working with a top law firm in the Fintech space to ensure that we are compliant with the new data protection (GDPR) regulations.
This is fantastic insights and definitely an area we are keen to explore. As an extension of the above a use case that we are looking at is to remind you when a return period / warranty is about to expire in case you want to take something back or renew, would that be valuable to you?
Completely agree that this is very important! Would you want to be able to export from the Monzo app directly or would you want to have a separate website you could log into from which you could see and download all of your receipts? Also, would a web or app view be more useful for you?
Absolutely, we’ll always allow you to get a copy of your receipts when you need them.
It means a huge amount to us that you really ‘get’ the problem we are solving! We believe that payments will become more and more invisible because ultimately you don’t go to a shop to pay, you go to a shop to purchase a product or have an experience. We are removing one part of the payment cycle which is the receipt and we’re insanely obsessed about about digitising and organising the world’s receipts. I realise this is slightly insane but I’m so obsessed about solving this problem that I built a wall of hate… which you can see here [WARNING: 55MB IMAGE]
This is great to know. Our focus is not on creating loyalty programs as we think there are many players in the market doing this but we are happy to present existing loyalty to make the consumer’s life easier and more seamless.
That’s fair, the example was oversimplified. Thanks for your thought on it 
We’re on the same page with that!
For what reason would you like to have this on email as well as in the Monzo app? Is it in case of the unlikely event that something bad happens to Monzo?
We’ll certainly strongly consider this once we’ve nailed down London!
Again, huge thanks for sharing such detail it’s super helpful for us!
You’re absolutely right about getting to retailers via POS companies, we are very actively doing this right now. We’ve spoken to eposNOW and will be adding them in the very near future
Yes, they have been epic!
Wow! This is not a use case we had thought of and it’s super cool 
Splitting the bill by tapping an item would be a great user experience. You’re right about it being a bit tricky with the current API, however, we’ll see what we can do Big thanks for the suggestion!
Thanks for the responses. Looking forward to trying this out with eposnow and glad you had successes with them. Please keep us updated with your progress…
Since posting that idea, I’ve come across someone else who had the idea a while back, @pavel:
A super nice to have feature would be that of taking a snap and reading the bill, then I highlight different items with my finger (as Google Translate does when you translate from pictures), and it automatically calculates totals and assigns to friends to pay.
Bonus: @tom thought it was an “awesome idea”, so thats cool! Sounds like something could definitely be figured out between yourselves and Monzo 
Would be such a slick user experience!
eposnow - 
Not a fan? 
I am pretty interested in this, looks like a good system.
Not necessarily additional info, but for work trips probably require the need to print these receipts with some ease, via the app or web browser based interface. Whether my work would accept that is another issue.
As others have said removing various loyalty cards from my wallet would be great!
I am against suggestions or offers. I would just assume that it is advertising revenue for yourselves and not of benefit to me. If there is something I need/want I am happy to seek it myself.
Again something @anon44204028 mentioned: complainant companies would need to honour warranty claims/competitions etc. for these ereceipts. However, if I could declutter receipts and warranties, on which the ink sometimes fades, from folders at home that would be good. Bringing this back to question 1, warranty and returns information could be linked to the receipts.
One worry is how much of the information needs to be stored on my device. I have no knowledge of software engineering but if an accumulation of receipts results in a large cache of stored data on my phone, that would be very off-putting for me.
It’s the bane of my life. Replacing with Zonal.