Help us improve CASS switching

Feedback & Ideas
1

Hi everyone :wave: are you well?

I’m hoping you can help me with something. Myself and the New Customer team are starting to think about how we can improve the switching experience, and we’d like your input :smirk:

I expect most of you know this already but we, like other banks, use the Current Account Switch Service (CASS) to move customers over to us from their old bank.

This is something we’ve offered for a while, and people do use it, but it could be better. To be honest, I don’t think we’ve touched the in-app experience since we introduced it.

Naturally, we want to speak to you first

A quick search shows CASS has been spoken about a fair bit in the community over the years. And my guess is that between you, you have experience of using it to switch to all kinds of different banks.

What do we want feedback on? Anything, really. Areas for improvement with our experience. Things you wish you’d known. Common misconceptions you’re aware of from conversations with friends and family. The benefits to switching.

It’s all helpful to us, so go wild.

Thanks all :heart:

@AlanDoe tells me you were waiting on a juicier update this afternoon. Sorry this isn’t it.

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2

Hey @maxwhite :wave:

Having used this a good few times (both switching into Monzo and at one point the other way :eyes: ) I’ve always found the Monzo experience to be really good. Case in point - to switch Natwest into Natwest you have to fill out a web-form and submit it and you don’t really get many updates.

The only thing I could offer as an improvement is when it hasn’t quite gone to plan “There was a problem with your switch” vs "The sort code is wrong " etc as an error message might be cool.

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3

I did a partial switch to Virgin Money some months ago and Monzo didn’t move all the payments across :slightly_frowning_face: didn’t follow this up either side but I did receive a notification to say I was switching.

Is that something that needs to be resolved with Monzo, or do I nudge virgin?

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5

I used the CASS switching to move my direct debits etc from Natwest to Monzo.

I didn’t realise is how easy it would be. I don’t think the flow in-app is bad (it’s been a while since I did it) but for me, I think more info upfront about how easy it is.

I purposely left it to just after my direct debits had gone out to give it best part of a month to move and time to fix if anything did go wrong but it was all very simple and very smooth.

Salary I did myself with my employer and to my knowledge I’ve not had any payments come to that account and forwarded on since, but that’s definitely a reassuring part to play on.

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6

I CASS’d from First Direct back in 2018. I thought the process was really smooth. Loved the messages in the feed telling me the process and when it was complete.

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7

I did a partial CASS to Monzo in the early days when that was still a thing. Worked really well - might be good to bring it back to let folk test the water so to speak?

Slightly outside of CASS, but as part of the journey, it would be super useful to be able to connect your old account via open banking and bring over all your transaction history to help populate Trends etc. Or even have an option to upload it through CSV or QIF files. That would be lovely, especially if you didn’t have to be a Plus member to keep previous history information.

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If by partial switch, you mean it wasn’t a full CASS whereby your old account is closed on day seven, then partial switches are basically saying “ask the intern to get a list of all my direct debits, standing orders etc. from the work experience person at my old bank, and then spend a few days manually setting everything up for me”. There are no guarantees to this type of switch, so no incentive for either bank to get it right but every risk that the customer will end up missing payments. There is absolutely no way I’d trust anyone other than myself to do a ‘partial’ switch.

As Monzo doesn’t support incoming partial switches, I doubt this is within the scope of the question here.

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9

I’ll raise it with Virgin being the incoming bank and see what they say.

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I didn’t realise is how easy it would be. I don’t think the flow in-app is bad (it’s been a while since I did it) but for me, I think more info upfront about how easy it is.

I think you’re absolutely right.

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11

So it’s been so so long since I CASSed, I thought I’d take a quick look at the flow (at least as much as I could). Some thoughts:

  • Discoverabilty is poor. I went to the card tab then manage. Not there. Bit flummoxed. Went to the swipe down all accounts/pots list (this needs a name). Missed it. Went and looked in settings. Not there. Rinse and repeat. Spotted it second time round. (To be fair, I think there’s a much bigger issue with where Monzo keeps account and other settings, but this was a real life example of me getting confused trying to find a thing). I compared this to Starling: opened the app, wondered which of the bottom tabs it’d be under, then saw the top right settings icon. Tapped it. Boom, immediately there.

  • The screens haven’t been updated for dark mode I know, this isn’t the biggest problem here.

  • It looks a bit old and tired Again not a major issue, but looks a lot like Monzo v1. Text is smaller than it could be. But simple and easy to follow. Made me remember that it was super straightforward. Much more so than with other banks.

  • Can you scan the old card? Bit of gloss maybe, but if you could reuse the old code you had to scan a debit card for top ups and pick up the number automagically that would be nice.

Some tentative conclusions:

  • I’m not sure there’s anything wrong with the flow per se
  • Discoverability might be the biggest problem
  • Anecdotally, folk still think/talk about Monzo as a card not an account. The card carousel metaphor probably doesn’t help. Too many people see Monzo as a companion to their bank account not a substitute. Things like the “Add Money” function under the card reinforce this metaphor. (At least it’s not “Top Up” any more).

No easy fixes, I think, unless you can find a way to make the switch option more discoverable. The design seems to be working against you here. :disappointed:

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12

I like this idea. Other than that, Starling has a page where each switch is updated throughout the seven days, and then sits as a reference for the accounts you’ve switched in.

I’ve never switched to Monzo, but about to switch an account into Halifax for the bribe, so I’ll see how that goes.

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13

I should add that I’ve switched a whole bunch of times for incentives. No-one has come close to Monzo. My favourite bit is when banks send you a letter to say that a switch has been initiated and to get in touch if it wasn’t you. They usually arrive after the switch has completed.

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14

I’m currently eligible for Nationwide £125, Halifax £150 and the new Santander £160. Need to plan a strategy for my £435 windfall.

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15

Community drinks! :beers:

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16

All those credit checks though :flushed:

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On topic, but not - I’ve never CASS’d, only manually moved things across.

I prefer this flexibility but acknowledge that it could be a faff compared to a proper CASS
Not the greatest response to the OP, but a scenario that exists for at least one user (me)

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18

A great UI or visual would be nice. It would be good if we can check back on it in the app. It would also be good if you showed the incoming payees and direct debits due to be added to the account before the switch ends too.

Oh and when the switch is complete a nice push notification and confetti please

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19

No credit checks. They’re all available to existing customers.

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20

This sounds good. I’ve CASSed a few (I think) into Monzo. Be good to have a place to see them (and be able to tap into them to see the DDs transferred etc).