Does Monzo have any choice in the cheque discussion? It seems to be something of a red line for US customers.
Itās not a red line for everyone, but unfortunately there are many many places out there that still insist on being paid by check and not card or bank transfer (or sometimes not even cash). Itās at the point where there is an industry of companies (Plastiq is the biggest) that will write the check for you for a fee.
Monzo can try and go without offering checks, and they wouldnāt be the only fintech in the US to do so. They wouldnāt even be the only bank to do so- some major banks here are prohibiting checks from being issued for their basic current accounts (Citibank and KeyBank are two that I know of) as well.
At the end of the day, it depends on if they want to have the broadest possible appeal from the word āgoā or if theyāre willing and able to take it slow in pursuit of their idea of what banking should be. Having check deposit and checkbooks available would make them more palatable as a banking option and even for the next decade or so, is going to be important if they want to convince people to go full Monzo, but checks arenāt a red line to so many that it would completely doom their efforts in the US (otherwise we should be writing off N26ās US expansion as well- they donāt have checkbooks or check deposit either and I donāt really see them even considering it).
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I was thinking more about redline for individuals - does the absence of cheque facilities make it a no-starter?
In the UK the advent of challenger banks - mobile banks (would they be ācell-banksā in the US? 
) itās common for folk to have multiple bank apps in their phones. I wonder if thatās a thing in the States?
If it is, then of course having a non-cheque bank wonāt be a big deal - itāll just sit alongside one that is.
You should be able to use your Monzo UK account to transfer money into your US Monzo account easily as they use transferwise. For the cheque, I suggest what the other poster suggested that you physically go to the bank that the cheque is written from. You can get cash that way, unfortunately doesnāt fully help getting cash into your account. If you have a friend or family that you trust, you could always deposit to their account and do an ACH transfer to your account also, but obviously up to how much the cheque if for and how much you trust this personā¦ Good luck!
Having neither deposit nor issuance, yes. And part of this is because of the second part:
At least not in the part Iām from itās not. In my entire social circle I think there are two or three people with more than one bank account, and one of them only because he churns them (some banks in the US offer cash bonuses for opening an account and receiving a certain amount of direct deposits into that account, and some people will sign up, get the bonus, leave for another bank, get that bankās bonus, and on and on again). Iām certainly the only one with more than three. Basically, the people I know here donāt like splitting their banking across multiple accounts because they think itās inconvenient- if they leave their current bank the replacement has to be able to do everything they want it to.
That said, Iām in a relatively rural part of the US (less than 100k people, and our townās biggest employer is the local university). People in bigger cities may be more open to having multiple bank accounts and using each for its strengths as I do (so for example, I currently fiddle around with Monzo for some of my day to day spending but rely on Fidelity and SoFi for international cash access, use an account at a local credit union for cash deposits and relatively low-interest loans, Discover for most of my day to day banking, bill payments, checks, etc,)
Thatās definitely popular in the UK market. Itās not unusual for members here (and on other fintech forums) to boast of anything up to ten or more accounts.
Thatāll be a mixture of so-called high-street or legacy banks (Barclays, Nat West, Lloyds etc) and a clutch of the upstarts (Monzo, Starling and a few euro based accounts such as Monese & Bung, and Revolut of course.
Some of that number will be for differential use such as yours - the rest is probably about collecting cards! (Itās so easy to open these accounts - 10 minutes is common 
).
Much is prompted in support of travel spending and the need for fee-free FX and access to ATMās worldwide. A healthy market.
Looks like the US market will increasingly benefit from new banks from abroad. I fear the same wonāt be the case for the UK market 
.
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Yeah, I think one of the best things they can do is either partner with another company that offers check writing or offer their own!
If itās one of them, Iād wager itāll be that.