Basically buying their own shares 
I don’t think I was that into it all way back when.
I think there are two things going on here. Is Monzo as exciting/responsive/transparent/innovative as it was in 2017-2019? No
Is Monzo still the best bank? Yes
It’s way ahead of other banks, but not a shadow on its former self.
One flash of brilliance was the neon cards, and giving them away to forum members. Very Monzo 2018, and much appreciated. More of that please (although is that a mass market strategy to build profit - of course not)
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That was rather spun out of proportion by certain areas of the press.
There were two separate, but related, issues:
1 - was it possible to use one’s overdraft as one saw fit?
2 - were people encouraged to use their overdraft to buy shares?
Logically, the answer to 1 is ‘yes’. Banks don’t generally put restrictions on what people can use their overdraft for - they either have one to use as they see fit, or they don’t.
Some aspects of the press took the simple, factual answer to 1 and made a huge leap to 2 - that Monzo were deliberately advertising the fact that one could use their overdraft to buy shares and encouraging this behaviour. This was never true.
tl;dr, Monzo were asked a question in bad faith, as the intent was to create a stick to beat Monzo with rather than there being a genuine spirit of enquiry.
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Want so bad.
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I don’t think they’ve lost their USP, just that it’s a very different market now than in 2016. The innovation gap is much smaller, and I think they’re heading in the right direction towards stability.
The reality is, a lot of what Monzo did in 2016 wouldn’t work now, e.g they launch flex, others copy it and within a month it’s no longer innovative. So I think they’re right to focus on things like social media visibility, stable service and slow steady innovation vs Big Bang “look at what we did”
Keep on truckin’ Monzo!
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I still really like Monzo but I do think the other banks have made significant inroads into some of the original features that made Monzo stand out.
For me, the UI needs to be improved and more innovative ideas or they risk being overtaken by others in the market.
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There’s always these generic “Monzo must innovate” posts everytime one of these threads comes around. What would you like them to do?
It’s taken years for the others to try and catch up, most aren’t there. But somehow they are going to overtake?
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Queue an onslaught of ideas where everyone has a different opinion…
- Credit cards
- Better interest rates
- More lending
- Joint account parity
- Give away lots of free things
- and so on…
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Exactly. None of those are innovative either.
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Monzo’s biggest USP, in my view, was that they made banking really simple, quick, and easy: instant notifications, no pending transactions, no fees, etc.
Now, everything they do adds complexity. That’s not necessarily a bad thing - clearly lots of people here like Flex and payments from pots - but I do think it takes something away from their original purpose and vision.
I’m not sure where they go from here. I guess the challenge is taking that original simplicity, and applying it to other financial products. The problem is that, where current accounts are widely regarded as free, people are much more cost sensitive when it comes to credit (and saving, for that matter) products, and I’m not sure that an “easy to use loan” is more attractive than a “cheap loan,” not least because we interact far less with our savings and loans accounts.
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I find Monzo really straightforward to use. I have a number of pots, I squirrel little money into each of them for there various purposes and leave them to to the job of budgeting for what they are for & use them when required. It took me a longtime to put money aside to be able to have the money to pay off next years bills when they come along in full, and without having to pay a premium on companies with direct debits, which have saved me more money in the long run. I started doing this with a high street bank, but it was more difficult to do and required opening more bank accounts to do it. I also have virtual cards linked to some pots & others I can have Direct Debit payments (for annual Utilities come out of). Meaning that because I budget the money into each, each time I am paid, there is always enough in there and the main part of my account is whatever is left, which isn’t much at the moment because of the rising cost of living. All I can say is that I although I am concerned about the cost of living increasing. I am in a better position than a lot of people because I do budget and I spent a long time putting by for next years bills before things have got out of hand. It took a lot of experience, restraint & growing up to understand the errors of my previous ways & make sure I have enough in the pot! It seems boring, but it is rewarding & all about challenging yourself & not giving in!
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The news never let the truth get in the way of a good story, amusing though…
I’m simply saying how I see things, obviously everyone here has a view but for me Monzo position is slipping back compared with other banks.
As for what they should do, surely that’s up to Monzo?
Any business that stands still will go backwards over time and be overtaken by competitors
It is. But for someone so sure Monzo are going backwards/being caught by others, I thought you might have some ideas.
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Just look at some of things Starling have launched, Kite Card, Connected Spending, HSBC Balance after Bills. To name a few
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“Balance after Bills” is what Monzo has been doing for years.
There’s a more comprehensive connected accounts with Trends with Monzo. Granted you have to pay to access the better bits.
Kids accounts would be a good addition. But it’s not innovative.
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What bank did you go to
None of these things are particularly new, balance after bills has been around for a long time as has connected spending. And Monzo has released features at the same time.
It doesn’t mean it’s lost it’s USP though, IMHO. Just that everyone is innovating, but the innovation is smaller and much more easily copied than it might have a few years back.
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I agree, none of these things are innovative at all.
It’s prioritisation not innovation.
Every single bank has things that other banks don’t have. They have different customer demographics, different team sizes and different priorities. In an ideal world they would all offer the same things but that would be unreasonable and a bit boring for us the consumer.
There are banking awards that try to assess all these things fairly. I think Monzo did pretty well this year and won in many categories so it’s good to see they’re on the right track at least.
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Yes, of course they do but many have features that overlap.
In terms of whether they’re innovative, maybe I should be more careful about referring to it as innovation, but rather to highlight that it’s felt like the competitors have moved forward and Monzo has stood rather still.
Anyway I’m sure others will disagree, it’s just a personal feeling.
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