That’s odd yeah, doesn’t exactly fit with the idea of tapping into the ‘buy something right now I can’t really afford’ market. If you have to pay 2/3rds of it in three weeks or so, it gets to feeling you almost might as well wait three weeks and buy outright.
1 Like
Yep the more I think about it the more disappointed I am. It’s not really splitting it into three payments if two of them come out in the same wage window.
Seems like a crappier option when compared to Tymit, Klarna or PayPal…
2 Likes
Move your pay date a week earlier and then you won’t have to pay it as it’s within 14 days of the first date.
It’ll skip it and go to the next one
1 Like
I changed my mind and decided to take up the offer, now in the flex club 
I’ll probably not use it much at all, but it’s there for an emergency.
2 Likes
On credit scores, by the way, there seems to be some ‘will this affect my credit score negatively’ and the obvious answer is, yes any credit you have affects other credit you can borrow. In particular, we don’t really know how various banks ‘feel’ about these ‘pay in three’ deals and what they are thinking that means in terms of your credit risk.
That said, what are credit scores for if not for borrowing? There’s no point in curating your credit score, and then not wanting to take any credit in case it impacts your score.
Obviously if you are applying for a mortgage next year you probably shouldn’t be piling up short term debt. But then again it’s not overly likely someone saving hardcore for a deposit is also out making impulse purchases they can’t afford to buy outright from savings.
Or wait one week and then it’ll be inside the window for the second payment being bumped to the next month.
1 Like
I still think it’s a weird way to do it though. Why mess about with these 14 day windows, changing payment days etc when it could just take first payment on the day you set.
Just seems overly complicated for a Monzo offering.
1 Like
If it just shows as a revolving credit account, like credit cards. Then no bank doing a search is going to know about what you’re doing with the credit, other than spending it and paying back
1 Like
Just looking at Klarna, seems to work similarly to me - it takes the first payment immediately and the second in 30 days (?). Not sure how others compare.
1 Like
My Klarna took the payments out on the 31st. Just checked. Bought something on the 7th of June and my Direct Debit came out on the 31st. No payment before then.
1 Like
I don’t think it will be that hard for them to spot, to be honest, it’s a certain limit with a particular pattern and only a few companies offer them. Monzo, Klarna and Tymit don’t offer any other revolving credit accounts as far as I know, for example.
If they wanted to look out for them - and I’m fairly sure they will - I can’t see it would be very difficult for them to parse them from the data on your report
Interesting, thanks. Just paid mine off and immediately Credit Karma (showing a “settled” mortgage account) is warning me that I should go and get a mortgage because it’s a sign of financial stability.
4 Likes
Take what they say with a pinch of salt, it’s a minor detail. I didn’t have a mortgage for 18 years before getting one, didn’t get in the way of been able to access credit products.
3 Likes
Mine’s actually a Virgin One current account. It’s like a current account with a massive overdraft to the value of your mortgage with them. I took it out 20 years ago and have paid it off with 5 years to spare, so it’s still open - just with a zero balance.
RBS said they will close it in 5 years time, so I expect that I’ll take a bit of a hit with the CRAs at that point as it’s my only long-standing account.
1 Like
Thanks both. I have sufficient savings/overdraft/credit facilities that I don’t need to apply for anything new, and have no intention of mortgaging anything to satisfy the whims of a CRA 
I was impressed/amused by the speed the message was generated, same day the account was reported as settled.
1 Like
Well, gotta keep people in debt right? 
1 Like
Yeah Credit Karma sent me a notification via the app to say Monzo had done a hard search, the second I pressed the button on Monzo Flex. They followed by an email saying have you applied for credit, as something’s gone through.
1 Like
I’ll do my best to give some context around taking the first payment instantly. There’s 3 main reasons:
- It makes the product economics significantly better. By taking the first payment instantly it means that the 3 month term, which is interest free, pays off the most compared to the 6 and 12 month terms. This means on aggregate, we hold lower interest free balances which is good from a capital and cost of lending perspective. Furthermore, in the event where a customer gets into financial difficulty, it reduces the losses from a customer not being able to pay back.
- It prevents some gaming where, if the customer wanted 6/ 12 months and we took the first payment 30 days later, then customers could always pick the 3 month option, get the first month interest free and only then switch to 6/ 12.
- From a budgeting point of view we want customers to consider whether they can afford the monthly payment amount for their purchase today rather than just delaying their purchases into the future and not actually considering their financial position today. You’re still paying over 3 months*, it’s just that the months are all shifted one month earlier and you’re actually considering that purchase in your budget today - after all you made the purchase today so you should start budgeting for it from today.
* Yes, there are some semantics around the 14 day thing but on average it’s 30 days until the 2nd payment (sometimes ~15, sometimes ~45). FWIW - this is similar to a credit card statement - where if you make a purchase just before your statement date then you get the credit for a shorter time than if you do it just after your statement date.
I feel like, if you’re optimising for how much free credit can you get then no, Flex probably isn’t the optimal way to get free credit. But, i’m afraid, we haven’t built the product to optimise for this
On changing repayment date - we haven’t built this functionality yet but will do soon. 
19 Likes
Not meaning to be picky but i personally find saying it’s a 3 month term a bit confusing e.g. if i bought something on 10th October with a 1st of the month payment date, my next payment would be 1st November, and the final one on 1st December. A total of 52 days - not even 2 months, never mind saying it’s a 3 month term. I personally prefer it being said as 3 installments or at worse, 3 monthly installments.
May just be how i read it but it does seem a bit wrong to me.
15 Likes