I know Monzo is big on wellbeing, and Iāve spoken to Monzo support, and theyāve confirmed this isnāt possible with current locked pots, so Iām sharing it here!
Just being a bit free-spirited, or you had one too many pints with your friends
The current pots do have great features. We can lock away a lump sum with the fixed-term pots and lock a regular pot to a specific date. However, they donāt effectively address the issue of impulse spending. Timed locked pots looked promising, but they can be closed and accessed anytime!
With this feature, you can create a pot and set a notice period between 1 and 90 days. This flexibility allows you to choose a duration that gives you ample time to consider your purchase, yet is short enough to not hinder urgent payments.
You can deposit money into this pot at any time.
When you decide to withdraw from this pot, the process is straightforward. You make a request, and the funds are released to you after the notice period youāve set.
You can cancel this withdrawal request at any time.
This pot cannot be closed like a time-locked pot (that would defeat the purpose). If this proves an issue, a fail-safe could be implemented where you require a custom 4-digit PIN number you specify at creation. Your trusted family member or friend could set this for you.
Thanks for taking the time to read my suggestion, and any feedback would be appreciated!
Locked pots used to exist and Monzo support spent so much time unlocking them for everyone, it was a completely waste of time for everyone. They wonāt be coming back.
Thereās lots of locked pots threads if you have a search.
Those tools can be improved/changed to meet the desires/need of different people. That is how progress is made. We wouldnāt be where we are today by saying āWe have xyz so there is no need to ever think about any changes or improvements to xyzā.
Itās a great suggestion and has so much potential to help people. As mentioned by others, we had time based locked pots before but unfortunately it was abused, put too much strain on customer services and was ultimately scrapped.
To give an example. People would put their whole salary into a lockable pot, set the time for several years in the future, then at the weekend request an emergency unlock from customer services when they wanted a bit of spending money. They did this over and over.
We tried to save them by thinking up of all sorts of options, such as some of the ones you mentioned, but ultimately they were all vulnerable to the same abuse. Unless Monzo took a hard stance and refused, but you can guess what the headlines of the newspapers would be if they did this.
We believe this is why they never can, or will, come back.
I completely get why Monzo stopped doing this - and I donāt blame them.
Where I think the next iteration of self locking/unlocking is a level of additional friction, if thatās via a timed delay such as even 2 minutes, it might help prevent overspending.
I suffered with impulse spending for years and Iām grateful Monzo helped me stop doing that.
To the point around self-controlling made up-thread, that individual clearly hasnāt experienced ADHD impulse spending.
Itās not āOh I want a nice fancy item, I should have self control LOLā. Itās my brain loudly telling me I REALLY need that item, and everything else in the shop - For a while would have to physically leave the shop for 30 seconds and force myself to really think about if I wanted it but Iāve got better over time.
So there does need to be a balance of support vs self responsibility etc
I agree, just a tiny nudge to not. The Safety Net pot gives you another screen before you can withdraw. I think the difficulty is one persons 2 minutes is enough to stop the need to scratch that itch, for others 2 minutes isnāt anywhere near long enough.
Make it 5/10/15 and suddenly youāre in the āzOMG I was in ALDI and I couldnāt buy my foodā territory.
Itās funny when neurotypicals make brash statements like that.
Society has only gotten harder for neurodivergents over the years, not better. Tools like this help to mitigate part of the problems weāve invented and make them slightly better.
There was a comment I came across on Reddit recently that really made such a great example of this that I went ahead and bookmarked it.
I thought youād be more logical than to believe a comment like that, that ignores that most of that has happened for years and that in many many cases, booking using an app is much easier than how it used to be!
Iām not believing it. Iām living it. Thats my life too (only without the kids part and in different contexts) and itās spot on. What might be better and easier for you isnāt for everyone.
No doubt thereās more life-admin now for some things, but lots of what that person listed pining for yesteryear still existed then, they make out like a generation ago you could just chill with the dinosaurs!
I thought you of all people would be happy about apps for dealing with people!
It depends heavily on the context! It makes communication easier, but that life admin is exponential and often feels insurmountable. For every benefit thereās 100 (made up number but thatās how it can feel some days) downsides.
As my thoughts in the AI hardware thread with respect to humane shows, Iām very interested in escaping the smart phone tether. I often shut it off and stuff it in a draw because of the overstimulation. I complained about Monzo moving away from SMS and exclusively requiring the app for authentication because of it.
I ran the numbers a while ago, and I need an additional 2.5 hours in the day just to get through the same day to day tasks I did a decade ago. Even though itās supposed to be easier and more efficient now. Thatās not been the result for me. Iām just grateful for Apple, because itās worse on the other platforms by quite some. But this is the cost of adapting and keeping up with society, and my love for tech.
