Help us test spending from Pots! 🍯💸

Happy Friday everyone :wave:

Another one of our most requested features is currently in progress! And we need your help to test it :test_tube:

Expense Pots, spend from Pots, pay from Pots… however you want to call it. You no longer have to move money from your Pot back into your main account in order to spend that money — you can spend it directly from the Pot.

You assign merchants and/or categories (even custom ones) to a Pot, and any transactions matching your preferences will be automatically debited from the Pot. You can set up multiple Pots, each with their own merchants or categories selected. :potted_plant:

If you’re interested in helping us beta test, you can join the waitlist here.

You’ll get an app notification when you’ve been invited into the beta, so be sure to keep an eye out :eyes:

As always, we want to hear what you think! Things that work well, things that didn’t work as you expected, any questions you have, or anything that wasn’t easy to understand :speech_balloon: We want this to be built with you in mind, in a way that makes sense to you.
 


 
What is a Pot and why does this matter? :honey_pot:

Pots make sure you have enough money set aside for the things that matter most to you, like groceries, bills, vacation, etc. Spending directly from your Pots helps you stay organized and on track with money coming in and out for specific reasons, like paying your phone bill or buying treats for your four-legged friends. :dog::cat:

 
How do I spend from a Pot? :moneybag:

You can use an existing Pot you already created, or create a new one. Note: this will only be available once you’re accepted into the beta.

  1. In the “Manage” tab of the Pot you want to set up, tap “Spend from this Pot”.
  2. Choose what kind of transactions (by category or merchant) should be made from the Pot. Any transactions matching your selections will automatically be withdrawn from that Pot.

You can have both categories and merchants assigned to the same Pot. Merchants will also take priority over spending categories.

For example: you have a custom category called “Fast Food” and those transactions come from your “Eating Out” Pot. But you also have another Pot called “Happy Meals” and it’s just for McDonald’s transactions. Even if McDonald’s transactions are categorized as Fast Food, they’ll still come out of your Happy Meals Pot. :hamburger:

 
What if I don’t have enough money in the Pot? :money_with_wings:

“Auto-cover” is on by default so if there isn’t enough money in the Pot, we’ll use money from your main account balance instead. You can turn this off at any time and payments will decline instead if there isn’t enough money in the Pot.

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Cries in England

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What a feature :sunglasses:

Now flip that :uk: switch please :pray:

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:hot_face::hot_pepper::fire::heart_on_fire:

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It’s like that time with the joint accounts all over again. I’m emigrating.

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Why so far behind uk :frowning:

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It’s nice to start afresh. You make a lot quicker progress when you don’t have to wade through years of necessary, but exigent and sub-optimal, decisions. I am sure, both for better and worse, that they will settle down too in time

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My guess and it’s just this is that the US App is being built up ready for accusation by a much larger partner over there.

That or the user base is so small it’s easier to test and fix before bringing back to the UK.

Still a cool feature and one I would definitely want to see. It used to really bug me at bills time when it messed up the feed like it did.

I’m struggling to follow the logic here. Can you explain your thought process?

Maybe I’m being overly simplistic, but either Monzo invests in features that it thinks will help them grow in the US market, or they pack it in and either close or sell the US customers. It feels very much like the former.

But keen to understand where you’re coming from!

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I have two (well three) working theories. And I must say I have absolutely no evidence for either. Pure conjecture.

Theory 1 (Most Likely). Monzo USA having built from scratch with light elements of the UK have the ability to innovate at scale and are smashing it out of the park.

Theory 2 - The USA is a tricky market to break into and Monzo know that acquisition by a larger well established firm who would take them for the tech stack is the path forward.

Theory 3 - They are still trying to break the entrance into the market and it’s being done via innovation.

This is what I just don’t get. If this is what they think why would they invest in the product, especially as (if I’m reading it right) you’re saying they’d effectively sell their tech stack and keep the UK operation?

Well I could be and probably am completely wrong here. Who actually knows what Monzos plans are but they do seem to be innovating quite well, not to say we don’t get some of this from the UK because we absolutely do.

But the innovation seems better at times.

This isn’t as strange as it sounds by the way, building up to sell. If it gets a better sale price then the return on investment is worth it.

Trying to sign up for the waitlist. But the link takes me to the monzo.com home page. I don’t see any option to sign up for this feature.

It’s best to do it on the device you’ve got Monzo installed on. It should open Monzo or ask to open it.

If that doesn’t work, it should link to here from where you should be able to scan the QR code to make things work:

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Thanks @Peter_G It works now.

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I think this is the key.

The US Dev Team are focussing on functionality that is useful in both regions, while UK Teams focus on and expand out the offering for paid tools, or partnerships specific to region (Fled, Investments, Cashback), and also look at dealing with some regulatory things that may be spinning away in the background that need tackling.

Finally, I think there’s a small amount of dev resource in the UK focussing on wholesale migration of Joint Accounts UK to the USA Joint Accounts framework that’s been created, unlocking various new functionality, and prepping for a relaunch in the next month or so.

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I hope you get it soon. We remain very jealous this side of this Atlantic!

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oh. Hope Monzo will expand this feature to other markets.
Monzo is taking a completely different approach in comparison to other fintechs such as Revolut. They try to customize the models already available in other markets.
Monzo will gain more penetration and loyal customers in US by building the specific features ground up.
Monzo already lost the headstart during the COVID. Hope they can catch up pretty quickly.

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The Monzo US team does seem to be smashing it right now. I have every confidence!

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