If they ever have £25k limits then they will need to change the concept of paying it back. Traditional credit cards can carry a large balance over several years and Flex only maxes at 12 months.
Theoretically a £25k limit could see a £2k monthly payment which is insane, and Monzo would be fools to let customers get into that situation.
With £6k you’re maxing out at £500 monthly which is already pretty high for most people.
Excellent point.
Wow. That’s a lot. Just worked out how much my monthly would be if I maxed it out and… wow. Glad I don’t go crazy.
They really should allow you to have longer than 12 months, especially if you make a large purchase.
they do …its called a loan 
Surely that depends on the customer. There are people who can comfortably pay off £2k per month or even a £25k full balance.
I have a relatively high Flex limit, but Monzo won’t let me have a loan at all. 
There are. But if you earn a lot and can easily afford to pay off your £25k balance in a year, what happens if you lose your job? You pay the minimum and then you start to accrue interest. You can pay it back over the next 20 years. That’s not possible with Flex.
Of course. Though if you have £2k spare a month you’re unlikely to be spreading payments over 12 months.
But it’s about risk. Monzo would be stupid IMO to even risk having a few people be unable to afford a monthly payment like that.
It’s why charge cards are basically gone now. It’s a huge risk, and very very likely a big part of responsible lending. Banks can’t just give whatever they like out to whoever they like, they have to be seen to take reasonable precautions.
I would very much argue that any credit card with a possible £2,000 minimum monthly payment would be cutting it very fine with regards to responsible lending.
There’s an argument that they’re lower risk because the customer knows they’re going to have to pay the full balance. When I worked in France in the 1980s that was the only way to settle a “credit” card with a bank. It’s one reason I became an Amex customer when I was in my mid 20s, I much prefer it and have no interest in converting my Amex charge card to a credit card until I’m forced to do so.
For most people perhaps, and Monzo will certainly have a different customer base to, say, Coutts. But not for some people.
But if the situation is that drastic, whether you have Flex or something else it’s likely you’re going to need to talk to your creditors to come to an arrangement.
They are definitely not lower risk.
You may be very good at repayment. You may be able to go “actually I have to repay this in full and I won’t be able to”.
But I’m sorry to say that the evidence of the number of folk in real debt, who spend far more than they can afford, who see credit as “their money” suggests not everyone can do this. Unfortunately a bank has to legally account for this in their lending policies.
I don’t think anyone is saying that there are no people who can afford that. But it’s a risk for Monzo and they just won’t do it. No credit cards require full payment within a year so limits can be higher.
Risk is done generally and then per customer. Broadly speaking though risk has to make sense with your general market first.
If there are 100 Monzo customers in a room and 2 can afford such high payments it doesn’t make it low risk, it’s high risk for Monzo, low risk for the 2% of customers who can afford it.
If there are 100 Coutts customers in a room it’s likely that should the worst happen almost all 100 could afford to make that kind of repayment still. It’s low risk for Coutts.
Amex used to be far more exclusive and they gave out charge cards with next to no limits. They ensured only certain people could become customers. Low risk.
They have in recent years opened up a lot more, dropping a lot of requirements and thus opening risk of defaults or being unable to repay. Charge cards are now dying. People are getting fairly low limits. Risk is higher.
Regardless, Flex is not like a credit card. It isn’t designed to carry large balances. If you have the ability to potentially have £2,000 after bills to just play with each month you’re one of the few in society because you have far more disposable income than most. I would highly suggest you probably don’t need to spread payments over a year and can just save for a short while.
I’m not going to get into a circular argument as we’re obviously not going to agree. But - genuine question…
…fact, or opinion?
Personally, I’ve never spent money on a charge card that I couldn’t guarantee being able to pay off immediately, precisely because of the consequences if I could not pay. I have, in the past, spent money I didn’t have with a credit card.
Edit - written while you were editing your post.
Oh I mean of course it’s opinion, but it’s no more so than your anecdotal evidence based on your own personal experience.
Though I do point out that BNPL has started to be clamped down on, and regulated after people went into deep debts over them. They were freely given out and now they are preventing people getting them, having lower limits, and fees for late payments.
I actually think evidence suggest when given free reign over large balances a lot of people do not see the consequences of their actions (whether frivolous or in dire need) so I would possibly argue there is more evidence to my argument.
BUT I think going back to the initial point: Monzo are conservative with their lending. I doubt they will ever allow a £25k limit with the current Flex model.
I think you’re probably right, they won’t. I do use Flex occasionally and I like the product, particularly now that there’s a default plan option. But several times already the current limit has been insufficient for my needs.
I’m sure I’m not the only Monzo customer experiencing this. Hopefully the product will develop further but it’s an occasional use card for me as things stand (for the reason of insufficient credit limit, but also the statements being unfit for purpose).
Honesty time. This used to be me. As soon as I was old enough to get credit, I did, and rinsed it. I then took out loans to pay the cards/credit accounts, but didn’t learn and just did it again so had to take another loan to pay the old loan AND the new credit. I was such a stupid person back then.
Finally learnt from my mistake after several years and got my act together, but it took YEARS to pay everything back and get myself into financial stability.
There are people who will NEVER learn this lesson though.
At least you know Nigel won’t be in there, gurning away and being a xenophobe.
Flex was not accepted at Tesco Pay at Pump for me today - got the same message - ‘Card type not supported for pay at pump, please use a different card or pay at cashier.’ Frustrating!
I got an odd error buying from the Asics outlet online with flex. The transaction went through (I confirmed with their support) but the web page errored with ‘not a valid credit card’.
@TheoGibson @TomMills Any timeframe for when bill splitting will appear for Flex? Not being able to do this is literally making the app so much more difficult to use now that I am taking full advantage of Flex.
Don’t know if it’s just me but I keep trying to press where this circle is to the left of the date instead of the Pay £xxx now.
Monzo Flex still not accepted at Tesco Pay at Pump - tried again today.
