Oh… that’s a point of difference of course. Even with a virtual flex card… not exactly a credit card with that limit.
Will be interesting to see how things develop.
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Question for @TheoGibson - although this might be too early: do you know if the Flex virtual card will run on the MasterCard credit or debit rails? Or is there no practical difference?
(I ask because this will, I think, affect Monzo’s interchange but also will affect what customers can do with it).
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Credit - but there’s no practical difference.
The 0.1% additional interchange we get isn’t that relevant compared to the interest we earn on the 6/ 12 month balances. (Take what you want from this comment 
)
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But a credit card with a 20 month 0% purchase offer isn’t BNPL, it’s just a credit card. Monzo is just extending a line of credit (like a card) and shifting the ‘usual’ terms of repayment, which have traditionally been “pay in full every month if you want to pay no interest”.
The genius of Klarna is the equivalent of being able to open a Monzo account at the POS.
And obviously when I say “genius” I mean the product design, not the social consequences.
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I’ve never been one of the “pay it all off every month” people because I’m not strict enough with it, so I use my debit card and forgo any bonus/cashback etc.
I’ve had a new credit card purely to buy something big and like you say, pay it off over 20 months or whatever and that’s worked well.
What I like about this new offering is that it will give me the bonus of 0% but not for long. I’ve been eyeing up a new office chair, a Sonos bar, those sorts of £300/£400 purchases that ideally I don’t want to/can’t afford/justify in one pay packet. But instead of the faff of signing up to a new card to pay it off in 3 months, I can pay 1/3 this month, then next and next and done!
Easily to see what I owe, what I’m paying off and not getting carried away.
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Oh absolutely. I wasn’t questioning the product’s innovation, just agreeing with 11:FS that Flex isn’t really proper BNPL.
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Oh I agree. I think my point got lost, which was consultant is unable to conceptualise Flex outside of standard buckets: it’s not BNPL, it’s not a credit card, how do it classify it? 
- and therefore not being able to talk about it in a particularly insightful way.
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When do we talk about merging this / aligning more closely with overdrafts? 
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You still have to pay for the item in the first place, before you shift the debt afterwards.
Soon, there’ll be an actual ‘card’ to pay directly.
It’s a credit card.
When you can buy something on Flex when you don’t have enough money in your current account.
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But I can’t put everything on it (no <£30 transactions) and I don’t get 30/40/50 days interest free…
I see where you’re coming from (and it seems to be where Theo is coming from) but it’s not quite a standard credit card offering.
Although with the virtual (credit) card coming, I suppose you could argue that it is, in fact, q credit card.
Whatever we call it, I’m just chuffed that it’s a thought through and innovative product, rather than a me too credit card / BNPL play.
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That’s what the virtual card will do, I think.
I’m talking a bit more expansively: give me £3k credit, let me use it for either overdraft or Flex. And harmonise the rates while you’re at it!
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I agree. And like I said above, this scenario is probably better for someone like me. But someone who pays for everything on a credit card, juices the points and pays it all off, probably not so much.
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Gwera (from 11FS, who gave that quote) used to work at Monzo and she’s great! I don’t know where that quote was pulled from but she’s definitely capable of being insightful about the product.
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Is this going to be world or world elite Mastercard like the debit cards to get a higher interchange outside the UK
Not sure - our cards team will set it up as whatever they think is best.
And as I mentioned above - I’m not that bothered about the interchange rate -it is what it is.
@Revels - music to our ears - you’re exactly who we built Flex for! 
You don’t just have a credit card with a big ball of debt where you pay some off each month. But you have visibility of your individual purchases and have a “real relationship” with paying off that “new office chair” or “Sonos bar”. You then have the satisfaction when you pay of that individual purchase that you worked hard to purchase.
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I’m intrigued by this aspect of BNPL (and I say that as someone who basically thinks monzo flex is a clever, well designed, and well executed product). How strong is this real relationship? Is it helpful? Does it matter if it breaks down?
Ultimately, the customer may well have a big ball of debt, but there does seem to be a desire for BNPL products, which give this “real relationship” between their debt and assets. But I can easily imagine it breaking down when the monthly payments are a bit too high and the customer needs to extend the term of one (or more) of their purchases, but maybe doesn’t care which loans they extend at that stage, because it has just become a big ball of debt… or the flip side, when you’re cash strapped at the end of the month, and you pick a purchase - any purchase - to flex just so you get some money back in the account.
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Perhaps but I think the relationship comes from seeing on an ongoing basis which purchases are contributing to the “big ball”. Thus it allows them to ask themselves on an ongoing basis are these types of purchases worth it.
If the answer is yes then alright, but they could be able to identify some spending habits they’d like to break.
Who knows, that’s how I’d be looking at it anyway if I was using Flex (or any credit product) with a big ball that’s been rolling for a while.
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Some more real life feedback!
I had an eligible transaction yesterday, so eagerly tapped on it to see if I could Flex it. Nothing showing, which made me sad. A few minutes later, though, I could tap through. I chose three months interest free.
The flow was excellent and, unlike @N26throwaway, I got the refund transaction first which made a lot of sense.
A few bits of feedback:
- Because I did it quickly, the Flex transaction is next to my originating transaction on my feed, which helps me identify what it’s for. If I did it at a different time, though, I think I’d like a bit more detail:
e.g. here I’d love for the text under the transaction to refer to the merchant I’d Flexed.
- Similarly, the Flex transaction screen feels a bit bare:
It’d be amazing if this could include a link to the original transaction - and the Flex screen where I can see and manage repayments. Similarly, for the first repayment, it’d be excellent to have a bit more than 1/3 - amount remaining, interest payable etc would be great.
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Like @N26throwaway I wasn’t sure about how the transaction is shown on the Flex card: I’d much rather see how much is outstanding, rather than how much I’ve paid. It’s okay while I just have one transaction, but when the top figure changes because there are multiple transactions that won’t be quite so easy.
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On the Flex feed, would it be useful to show the originating account? There’s probably no need while it’s just transactions from your main account, but when it includes the virtual card I’d kinda like a way to distinguish the two of them.
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I love
the manage tab! Particularly the pay off extra option which is simple, elegant and excellent! -
One thing that did confuse me a bit was the take first payment immediately thing. I knew about it (having read about it all on here) but still in my mind I had it as a three month thing, when it’s effectively two months interest free. More an observation than anything (but…)
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I agree again with @N26throwaway about potential perks for Plus/Premium customers. An extra month of interest free would be amazing (if the financials stacked up). But also the ability to (for a fee?) order a physical Flex card, or - and I think this might be popular - Flex non Monzo transactions if they’re linked via open banking.
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I alluded to it up-thread, but I wonder if aligning my overdraft would be helpful? If feels odd to have two credit lines at different rates to do different things. This could either simplify or complicate, but I’d quite like one limit and one rate that I could split between the two.
I hope that’s been constructive feedback: let me be clear that I think Flex is excellent - it’s really a very well designed and implemented product. I’d love to see how it progresses from here!
Kudos to @TheoGibson and all of the team. 
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Given Monzo’s strict credit issuance I would strongly imagine that anyone offered Flex is unlikely to be in this position.
Though broadly I understand your point.
Not sure if I should be giving spoilers or you want the flexcitement of seeing it. But the Flex transaction won’t change if the settlement amount is different to the auth amount - it’ll stay as whatever the amount was when you Flexed the transaction (£192.55 in this case). We may be making this more “glamorous” during the virtual card build where we’ll need to directly solve this.
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