Improving Monzo Plus - If you were Monzo

Both excellent posts.

Out of interest, was there a more efficient to get to the virtual cards without using the plus tab?

It was the only thing I used that tab for besides seeing how my interest was accruing so far. It took quite a few taps to actually get to the information I wanted, so given that it’s the feature I was engaging with in the app most often it would be nice to get at those details with greater haste and efficiency.

Can I just test this? It seems to me that a lot of the issues would go away if it worked (almost) exactly the same way as bill pots. Namely:

  • Money comes out of the main account
  • An immediate pot transfer to cover the value

No feed needed for pots, no regulatory changes about pots being payment accounts, no overdraft issues.

The only problem I can see is if you run a low or zero balance in the main account. In which case I wonder if you could extend a dynamic overdraft to cover the value of the pot you choose to pay with, knowing that it’ll only be overdrawn for microseconds?

I get at them from the accounts screen (pull down on the card). They’re listed there.

(I do think that this accounts page needs to be a separate tab - and would have much more utility than the Plus tab. But that’s another conversation).

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I agree, this is how I would want them to work most

So we can decline transactions that will take you below 0, but sometimes due to things like exchange rates changing between auth and presentment we can’t always completely stop you from going negative on the pot, just as we sometimes can’t stop your main account going negative even if you don’t have a overdraft

Our key concern here is burning through our entire PAN ranges very quickly, but we’ve not ruled it out at all

Great post btw :+1:

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And just to add even more to this. Hey I’m on a roll now…

When you create a new category, it takes you to a random icon in the list (so I never really know where I am in relation to the icons)

And from what I can tell, there’s no structure to the order of Icons - there’s little sets of groups, like 3 or 4 ‘food’ related together, but there’s more food stuff elsehwere. Similar with what you might call “Sport” icons. (So I have to scroll for longer to find one suited).

It sounds really minor but it’s just one of those areas where a simple flow would increase my use of the feature, but instead it makes creating a custom category frustating, and knowing I have at least 20 I want… Not sure I want to repeat this process 20 times.

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Ooh, I didn’t know you could pull down. I’m reaching all the way over to my tiny profile icon like some fool. TIL.

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This is a genuine option, but you don’t get the separation of money benefits because have £10 in your virtual card pot doesn’t stop you spending £15 on it, as it will just come out of your main balance

It would be way quicker to build as you say, but we’re not sure it actually solves the problem that most people have

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Thanks for the feedback on this, I will share it with the rest of the team

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Thanks, Adam. I think I’d prefer the main option, too, but was looking for something that might work for the majority and be quicker. But hopefully you can work through the other option soon! :crossed_fingers:

(Edit: although I suppose the same critique could be made of Bill Pots - and folk seem to love those).

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Where have you been?!

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Fair, hadn’t considered those types of transactions.

I guess it brings you back to the “What is a Pot” debate, in the Grand Account Heirarchy discussion of past. Should it be it’s own distinct account and work as one (i.e. account number but no card). Or should it be a complete “sub component” of the Main Account.

It sounds like the more Virtual Card features people would want to implement, the more you have to treat said Pot like it’s own account…

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The same critique can be made for bills pots for sure, although in my mind having a direct debit fail to pay because you didn’t have enough in your pot is much worse than a card transaction declining, so having it fail over to your whole balance is quite nice. In the future it would be nice to support both options, so people could budget in a way that works best for them

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I reeeeallly don’t want to discourage Monzo staff and it’s great that you’re replying to us now, taking feedback (not saying you haven’t previously) but why has it taken 3 months for any sign that Monzo cares?

The cynic in me says because it’s cancellation date for a lot of people.

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Both options would be nice I agree. Bills pots is one of these things that just seem redundant and pointless to me because of the way it works. Might as well just leave the funds in the Mai account, when left to spend indicates how much of my balance I can actually spend anyway.

I would probably prefer it, and use it more, if the money was actually segregated. Or maybe I’m just completely misunderstanding it.

This thread has been interesting to watch this morning, and thank you for engaging in it.

My key takeaway though, is that none of the hinted possible plus improvements will be possible any time soon, so I feel more sound in my decision to cancel now. Hopefully the features and improvements do eventually come so that it actually becomes worth paying for in the future.

I do think though, at times, Monzo has a tendency to overthink problems and deem solutions improbable or too much hassle, and then a competitor comes along and does it.

Completely agree with @Revels too. This level of engagement would have been nice much earlier into Plus, and not at the end of the minimum term, it likely would have made a difference in my willingness to continue paying for it too, even if no new features are coming any time soon.

Out of interest, how many avaiable card numbers exist per PAN range? From what I gather the virtual cards have a BIN of 8 digits? So 7 digits + 1 checksum left? (Or perhaps a 6 digit bin, not sure)

On paper that’s 10 million values - but I imagine the checksum part rules out a good proportion of the potential values.

Can card numbers be recycled, since they are paired with a unique CVV?

(Thanks for the thread engagement btw, it’s great to get some feedback on our feedback).

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I’m the opposite with this. I find left to spend terribly inaccurate and I’m much happier knowing that I have enough in my bills pot to cover everything. But horses for courses.

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:point_up:

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For those interested in the ‘how should payments from pots’ debate, there’s now (the inevitable) poll:

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It makes me sad to read things like this. I am disappointed if it seems like we haven’t cared, we really do, and I am sorry if you don’t think we’ve engaged with our community or any group of users enough.

To be completely honest our team has been exhausted. Due to the pandemic, not being able to see each other, having Plus launch delayed, working non stop to try and make a product that fit in a locked down world, not being able to stop and celebrate after launching plus. We love engaging with you all, and getting your feedback, but if you are emotionally drained it can be hard.

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Thanks for sharing that, Adam. And I’m really sorry if you felt like you had to justify yourself - you really shouldn’t have to.

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