Like a lot of you, I was extremely happy to say I had gone #FullMonzo, and seeing my salary coming into my account this month was really exciting (I even screencapped the notification and sent it to my coworkers!).
However, the problem I am having is with my bills. I used to have a separate account that all my bills would come out of, which was great, and just figured that having a Monzo pot named “bills” would do the same thing for me. This has not been the case. I now have to set multiple transactions to withdraw the bills money on the exact day for each specific transaction, which for those with varying dates makes it very complicated.
If there was a way to specify that payments should come out of a specific pot my problem would be entirely solved, but at the minute I might need to go and re-open my old bills account so as to make sure everything is properly paid - though I’ll surely need to transfer all my direct debits back manually this time…
Does anyone have any solutions for me other than doing this, and has anyone else faced similar challenges?
A lot of us do this by using the summary ‘Left to spend’ amount as an actual view on the amount you have available, instead of the main total. This excludes the committed spending you are talking about, it just requires you to change how you think to only allow the left to spend amount to be spent and the rest will pay off your bills.
if you know what your bills are and the dates they will be collected you could set up multiple IFTTT triggers to transfer the money from your bills pot back to your account in time to pay them ???
This feature almost got me full Monzo but I’m wary of those wonderful weekend dates when banks seem to forget that the rest of us may need something to happen… Also, why do I have to put in all that effort!
Until I can put X into one place and point all my bills at it (a second account or Pot, I don’t care which) then I will remain #AlmostFullMonzo
@shannon this is exactly why I’m not yet full Monzo. That and that my ‘salary’ comes from my own business account as a Faster Payment so it isn’t recognised as ‘salary’ by Monzo automatically.
Personally I use neither I just switched all my direct debits to come out on the 1st of each month (or close as) which is the same date that I get paid.
I just don’t make any big purchases within the first few days of the month until all my direct debits have come out, then I know whatever remains is to do with as I please
Ugh, that’s more work for ME to do, contact all those places… sheesh, why can’t things just work the exact way I want them to, it must be EASY, right?!
#extractingtheMichael
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tbutz
(🏳️🌈 Producer of "low value commentary")
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If Monzo is so special, why can’t it read my mind, eh? I shouldn’t have to do anything but think at the phone! #asteptoofar
I had it this way with my legacy bank because it was the only way to properly manage my money. As a result I’ve forgotten how painful it was to switch all the dates
I’m sure you can probably do most of it online nowadays in a few clicks?
Yeah I could.
But my current ‘separate account for bills’ has been working for… 12 years or so (I still have two accounts with Bank of Scotland, only the ‘cash’ one is mostly empty as that’s where Monzo comes in).
Things should be easy with banking, hence why we’re all with Monzo rather than a legacy bank. It was easy when I did my 7 day bank switch, it was easy with my old system of having a separate bills account, so for things to be more complicated with Monzo is really frustrating.
That would be a fabulous solution, but as I have discussed in another post of mine I have ADHD, which unfortunately means the way I think is already very different to neurotical folk. Monzo have been great at chatting to me about how best things can work for people like me, and I know a full separation of money is one of those things.
I have gone “Full Monzo” and I can appreciate the issues OP is having. I’m working around them by having scheduled payments coming in/out of pots each month. It’s not ideal though as some of my payments come out quarterly (which i can’t schedule within iOS) and some of the payment amounts vary too from month to month.
However, Monzo have been quite clear that they want this feature to be implemented. They recently discussed on the Monzo Plus Q&A about having virtual cards and even potentially attaching them to specific pots too which would obviously solve your issue. In the meantime, your options are either going back to using another account for your bills or start scheduling your pots.
Things are more complicated for the exact reasons I outlined in my original post. Having to manually schedule all of my direct debits to come out of ,my bills pot every month is more of a faff as I now need to check every single bill before they’re due to see the exact payment date (as some vary) to make sure I will be able to cover it in my main spending pot.
With my old system I could set and forget.
Yes, it was me that made this switch, but it’s still an issue with Monzo’s way of working, as they don’t allow you to have two accounts (or for DDs to come out of your pots) unlike other banks. I did not know before I made the switch that it would be such a problem.
This was also my reservation around going full Monzo.
Previously I had a “Big account” for my salary, any bills & saving. Then Monzo for weekly budget, where I would put enough in to cover it and stop me from overspending. My concern is that I would struggle to do this in Monzo Land
I don’t regret doing it, and perhaps what I do works for you?
Where possible get direct debits to come out on the same day.
When paid leave enough in for them, and transfer the rest into a pot
Keep the bulk of money there and each week transfer in a weekly spend amount. I use the notifications to ensure that no direct debits go out when there’s not enough money, and dont setup loads of different rules.
My advice is to simplify it, and you’ll do alright.
You’ve already had a few alternative options, and given Monzo doesn’t appear to have any intention of allowing a second account for people, and the committed spending pots seems to have been indefinitely postponed, I think the options are…
Move all DD’s and bills to one date (start of the month if you get paid at the end of the month) - This works well in my experience assuming you only get paid once, and that salary is enough to cover all the bills.
Use scheduled withdrawals to move money from pots, back to your account at certain times of the month - I personally don’t like this as I find it looks messy, and I’d be constantly checking to make sure it’s worked properly.
Don’t use Monzo for your salary and bills - I think this is probably the best way to go for you right now (given what you’ve said) - Ultimately it depends on what are the big benefits of Monzo to you - If you thought it was going to be much easier, and you are less fussed with the budgeting stuff… I’d move back to a stable legacy account (or 2 accounts if that works for you).
People on this forum are going to be heavily in favour of Monzo for most things, but that doesn’t mean it’ll work in the way you want, and there is very little point in causing yourself more grief, just to say you use Monzo.
If my needs were any more complex than they are (they are very basic), I probably wouldn’t be using Monzo at all.
Does Summary not do exactly as you’ve described? I keep all my bills money in my main account and let Summary figure out how much I can actually spend. Yes, it requires a level of self control to not spend over the amount Summary is safe - but by checking the app daily it’s not hard to keep on top of.
I just switched all my direct debits to come out on the 1st of each month (or close as) which is the same date that I get paid.
