Monzo should provide the customer what they are asking for. If people want to see their Amex then do it. When customers are happy, involved and trusting then they’ll use Monzo’s income generating products/services more. There is also the principle of “the adjacent possible” (or “one thing leads to another”) - opportunities that you can’t always see straight away open up when you move adjacent to them. Of course where it falls on the prioritised backlog is a different matter but I would not like to see Monzo actively avoid providing something customers are crying out for because there is no immediate income stream.
I wonder whether you’ll be able to see individual transactions as well, split those individual transactions, and also have Amex in Summary?
God, a Monzo-ite can dream.
I’m still beating the drum for a hot coral Centurion. That sort of partnership between Monzo and Amex could be incredible, and the MC debit could steal a move from the Curve playbook. Making Monzo debit a good companion (with fewer points earned) to the hot coral Amex where acceptance may be lower.
It leave Amex to do the majority of the heavy lifting in terms of points in the loyalty/rewards space they already do so well, and Monzo could leverage this to build a seemless UX.
There could be a fee split between the two institutions on interchange, and fee split on annual fees for the Amex card. This would help further build the Monzo business case, validating their model and would open up Amex to new customers, whom they might not have previously been able to reach.
Totally agree with @CTE - Amex and Monzo could do a co-brand so to speak. Monzo gets a small cut in interchange and Amex issues a Monzo themed card. You could have a baseline version with cashback and a more flexible rewards version with an annual fee (in line with Amex gold or platinum in terms of functionality).
I’d go for it, but if we assume that Monzo wants to be the home for all of your finances, then would a deal like this alternate other providers?
And would it start Monzo down the road of white labelling?
Worth noting that the recent interchange fees cap makes these types of “co-branded” cards much less attractive for Amex. Standard Amex cards aren’t affected by the cap because the transactions involve three parties, but co-branded cards (like their BA card, for example) are, because they have four (and the cap was targeted at Visa and Mastercard, where transactions typically involve four parties).
Good point. However there may be ways around that - for instance just issue an Amex card in Coral and call it a Monzo card etc. The main issue from an interchange perspective was that so called 4 party schemes were regulated in line with wider interchange caps and as you say once you co-brand it becomes a 4 party scheme as opposed to Amex alone which is a 3 Party and not regulated in the same way at the moment.
From what I’ve read about the whole Curve + Amex debacle, Amex aren’t keen on sharing interchange fees with other companies and they also dislike anything which reduces their brand visibility. Unfortunately, I doubt a joint card would happen in the near or medium term for those reasons.
In a marketplace model it might just make other providers sharpen their pencils that little bit further, which from a customer perspective is where we want to be.
The Curve debacle is really an entirely different proposition altogether. They were not seeking a commercial partnership at all with Amex in the sense I am describing, quite the opposite, and Curve have very clearly stated this, which only makes their response to Amex even sillier.
I think what they really dislike is a proposition that undermines their core business model. Amex have been very ingenious with their past partnerships with (red) and Harrods - google image these for a flavour of what I’m talking about.
The Monzo x Amex card branding I’d propose would be a simple hot coral treatment to the regular Amex charge card design. If anything it would likely drive brand awareness, as we know Monzo’s cards have become big talking points.
This, so much I already have a Pot called American Express to set aside the funds to cover my Bill. Auto-moving the funds would be awesome.
Not sure that’s where we’re going at the moment. One day, maybe.
So is this just gonna be a way to see your balance? Ngl, I really love that they’re doing work on Amex integration, but not sure how this is any easier than just opening the Amex app.
The problem I’m facing with Amex at the moment is that my wife doesn’t know the current balance on my account or have a way to track spending with Amex as she is just an additional card holder. Would this information Amex account be made available for both joint account users in Monzo? I can’t see that being allowed, so I’m considering get rid of the Amex just because I need my wife to have full control of our finances not just be a participant in spending
Why don’t you just get a supplementary card for her with Amex?
I’m not sure how additional card holders work, but if she doesn’t get access to the app why not install a dedicated account aggregator on your wife’s phone and connect it to your Amex account? I’d suggest Emma
Sorry, yes she has one and can see her spending but not our combined spending or current balance. I’ve only ever had 1 card in the past so I’ve not had this problem before. Monzo was a big step forward when it came to control over our spending and Amex feels like a big step backwards but I really want the rewards…
Ah gotcha.
To be fair, my wife uses the card, and I just use ApplePay.
I’ve been caught out a few times when the spend goes over £30 and they don’t cover it, but it’s very rare.
Has this been launched yet?
Not yet