So you’re paying for something that can be done for free?
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I’m paying for something that isn’t done “well” for free. 
Edit: if privacy.com came to the UK for £5 / month, I’d sign up, if it was done well. If Barclays said I could add some banks to my app (they have) which is of no use to me, I wouldn’t.
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Proved my point perfectly. Thanks.
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If people find value in Monzo Plus; please sign up! It increases my investment. 
Otherwise, I hope Monzo is open to development.
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Natwest, TSB, RBS, all display an unpaid transaction fee in their T&Cs.
I don’t disagree they’re regulated, but in a different way. Retrieving your money would be an element of the insolvency process - there’s no guarantee on the length of time it’d take (whereas FSCS is 7 days for 90% of claims). For comparison, Flybe’s insolvency process is barely half way through.
To rewind to this, because (again) its important to discuss with facts and not hyperbole, Monzo charge 3% on withdrawals. Not transactions.
Maybe you could enlighten the discussion by giving us info on how you see value in this other account? Who is it and what do you get in return for paying in?
Regarding Monzo’s Facebook shenanigans, they used to have the Facebook SDK embedded in the app which would leak network & device information (can be used as a fingerprint for Facebook to track you across other apps & websites with high accuracy) as well as ping Facebook every time the app is brought into foreground (thus leaking your usage patterns; the timeframes at which you typically use your phone, etc - a lot of information can be inferred from this over time).
I don’t know what other info they might’ve be sending to them and how “anonymized” it was, but for me simply pinging Facebook every time I interact with the app is already too much and should’ve never been allowed to begin with.
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I have spare cash that I use for Plus from other income sources so it literally costs me nothing for new features…
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I might possibly pay a couple of quid for the data export features. But I agree with what others say about custom categories - that is a basic feature that should be free.
For me, Monzo helps me budget and cut down on wasted spending. Monzo Plus is one of those wasted spends that I’d cut out 
I see Monzo Plus as the kind of product that people who buy merch would pay for. It’s for Monzo superfans, which is great. A couple of years ago, I might’ve even paid for it.
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But we must give credit for them engaging with the community and addressing it.
I wonder how receptive Tesco Bank, Marcus and TSB Business would be when demanding they stop publishing my device info to Facebook when I’m using their online banking services (all of which have shared data on the date I last logged in to those respective accounts).
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They have said several times, in both their privacy policy as well as in response to a GDPR complaint that only the advertising ID was shared which is clearly false. Whether it’s incompetence or bad faith is up for debate, but either way it doesn’t look good to be honest. I’m also not sure anything would’ve been done if the thread didn’t get the attention of a vocal minority on the community.
To get back on topic, I don’t think the argument of “if you’re not paying you are the product” is universally true anymore. In most cases nowadays companies with paid products will still attempt to double-dip by both making you pay and then sharing your data around (either for explicit profit - ie selling the data - or to use a free service like Google’s or Facebook’s analytics, who then also use your data for their own interests).
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What I did find interesting about the Plus Launch thread was the few times the statement “Other banks make money by selling your [connected account] data” came up from Monzo staff.
I asked if they could point towards a Policy that say they won’t do that on Plus, and… silence…
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But to add my 2 cents to the original context - I justify it by hopefully seeing my finances improve enough to offset the cost of the features, in a way I couldn’t easily do under my own steam.
If I can use the features to track what I spend better, and have a clearer view of my financial goals, and therefore save more (hopefully significantly more) than the £5/m fee, then I am happy.
I do think the Features I am interested in aren’t as developed as I would like, to aid that goal. (Namely the budgeting side, which I think is a bit on the basic side). But I will review in 3 months and see where I sit.
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Natwest, TSB, RBS, Santander, HSBC, all display an unpaid transaction fee in their T&Cs. Infact only Lloyds and Barclays explicitly state there is no charge.
HSBC do not charge unpaid transaction fees
I don’t disagree they’re regulated, but in a different way. Retrieving your money would be an element of the insolvency process - there’s no guarantee on the length of time it’d take (whereas FSCS is 7 days for 90% of claims). For comparison, Flybe’s insolvency process is barely half way through.
You can’t compare Flybe to a financial institution, funds are ring fenced and depositors have priority over all other creditors
To rewind to this, because (again) its important to discuss with facts and not hyperbole, Monzo charge 3% on withdrawals. Not transactions.
It’s not a hyperbole they charge 3%, however it should have been made clearer that this is for cash withdrawals although I did mention the allowance so I assumed you would deduce that I was referring to cash withdrawals.
Maybe you could enlighten the discussion by giving us info on how you see value in this other account? Who is it and what do you get in return for paying in?
My charge card comes with the following perks which I value at (for the first year):
Priority Pass membership - £339
Travel insurance - £37
$200 credit each booking with one fine stay - $400 in credits I used in the last year - £312
Taxi Credit - £120.00
Introductory bonus 30k MR points valued at roughly 0.7p per point = £210 (if taken as a credit on your balance £135)
Amex offers - Saved £230 in the last 12 months
Refund protection: Saved £150 (Refused a refund on something amex covered this)
Total Value : £1,368
Annual Fee: £575
Net Value: £793 + flex value of a metal card - This is something that makes financial sense… Whilst I wouldn’t expect Monzo to offer something like this, I would expect something that has more value.
Very concerning
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Oh look, a thread set up to provoke an arguement 
I really don’t see the point in nonsense like this. Some people see (potential) value in Plus and pay for it, others don’t.
No one on either side is ever going to persuade the other of anything because personal choice is … ‘personal’ so the fact that it degenerated into ‘rebuttal’ posts so quickly is slightly sad (but wholly predictable).
The weakest argument is always the “should be free” one, of course. Based on what? Opinion? OK, so you’d like it to be free but that isn’t a business justification for providing it for free and neither is “because someone else does” because we just don’t know the financial details involved with either organisation.
FWIW I don’t have Plus.
Edit: Gah! I missed a trick. I should have said I have free Coral Crew Plus so it’s worth every penny. (It doesn’t exist).
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No one is arguing. This is a very amicable discussion about the value to different people of different features. And when some people say “x feature should be free” they’re clearly talking about the value they place on it.
I’m quite happy to be persuaded that some features are worth paying for.
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I don’t think so, or at least I assume not. If it were a comment that the features were worthless why would anyone want it, even for free? I’d want it removed if that were the case.
Exactly this.
And the bit said about how it should be free - these are features that do not offer much value back for what you are paying (in my opinion of course some are happy to pay for the convenience of not having to go out of the app where it is free). Touting features as “coming soon” and for all though and then charging for it, I would imagine can alienate some customers and is not the best practise for a bank that claims to be different and ethical etc…
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Things that you can get elsewhere: like unlimited ATM withdrawals or your credit report. Since I have access to them elsewhere, I don’t value spending money to get them inside the Monzo app.
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