Its Good, but others are catching up - we need incentives/benefits

(Sion Williams) #1

I’ve been a user for a while, but the features that drew me to Monzo are becoming less exclusive. Being “digital first” was a great move, but other banks are catching up.

While splitting the bill, pots, emojis and all those other things are fun - what I really want from my bank is great rewards, interest rates and benefits. There are none. I give you my money, but I get nothing in return. When the novelty of Monzo wore off I had the harsh realisation this bank isn’t here to help my pot of money grow - I might as well keep my money under my mattress.

Has anyone else reached this point with Monzo? Whats in the pipeline to improve this?

#2

Yep

I’m at the same point as you are

It’s fun ( like playing on an X box) but not very productive

:nerd_face:

(Leonard) #3

I don’t think Monzo have set out to help you “make more money” per se, but rather put you in greater control of the money you already have and helping you save money (with the help of Marketplace). I believe Monzo feel that saving you money and putting you in greater control of your money is “the incentive”.

Tom (Monzo CEO) posted this on the forum mid last year and that’s pretty much always been the consensus since I’ve know about Monzo.

…of course, things may change in the future as the company grows and matures.

#4

At the moment I think he’s on cokoo land

(Simon) #5

I disagree. For an aweful lot of people managing money is a huge challenge and Monzo are doing great things to make this easier for people.
I know lots of people who have never changed energy provider because of the „hassle“.
I think it’s these people who Monzo will be able to help the most

#6

Sorry I disagree

Maybe because I’m not being sucked into the Monzo hype

It’s all in somebody’s head and not reality

#7

But it’s also those people whom Monzo are taking advantage of by hugely expensive overdrafts, no interest, etc.

(Sion Williams) #8

I hear you, but I refer to my original point that other banks are catching up. I can get pretty graphs showing how I spend my money from other banks, and their digital support is continually improving. The gap between Monzo and competitors is getting smaller - for me, what I’m looking for is some value (in the form of monies) for staying with Monzo.

For me its a clear decision who wins between Bank A who offers 3% on monies, versus Bank B who offers 0%.

(Jack Donovan) #9

I do think it’s scary that if any legacy bank released instant notifications tomorrow, then they have already caught up… (so far)

I honestly don’t think Monzo is for you, and I mean that in the nicest way possible

(Kenny Grant) #10

I agree paying interest is going to be important long term - pots are not good for people financially if they don’t pay some sort of interest, because the value of savings will decline rapidly in real terms. This will become more important as interest rates normalise. You probably shouldn’t expect this sort of financial incentive from Monzo though, it’s just not their focus, and they’re a long way from offering it.

The hurdles for Monzo to start paying interest seem to me pretty steep since they are building a bank from scratch - they’d have to invest the money, hedge the risk that involves, this might affect their Capital requirements and risk assessment too? They’d probably also have to convert pots to real accounts if offering interest there (though I think personally that’s inevitable in the long term). Seems to me they are focussed not on offering financial products but on offering a gateway to lots of products from other people.

So it may take a while for Monzo to get to the point where they offer financial products like this, and in a way I’m not unhappy if they can expand their marketplace first to include good savings accounts (ISAS, S&S ISAS), and show you the savings total in the app, that could replace pots for most uses (except short term savings of small amounts of money). I suspect we might see that well before we see any sort of interest bearing accounts from Monzo itself.

I’d love to see in the long term though a fintech bank truly rethinking products like savings accounts, mortgages, insurance from the ground up, and offering customers a much clearer view into the pricing of those sorts of products and the tradeoffs involved. They couldn’t magically change the way say mortgages work, but they could offer a much fairer, clearer approach to them. We won’t see that for some time though, the focus for now is on offering a UI and a gateway, not traditional banking products.

(Sion Williams) #11

I’m hopeful Monzo will pick up on this, but I am in agreement with you. Currently, Monzo is not productive for me

(Jack Donovan) #12

Maybe it’s my age, I don’t know… But to me, Pots are alot more convenient than having a savings account. Interest or not. I’ve saved more already using pots than I ever have in my life with a savings account

(Kenny Grant) #13

No reason the UI for pots could not be offered on a real savings account. I don’t find them very different than a savings account in the barclays app say - same experience of moving money back and forth. Of course if they offered rules for transferring money or other fancy new tricks that’d be different.

I do think they are a bad product for long term saving if they don’t offer interest - your money will lose a few % of value a year at present, which quickly compounds, of course for saving over a few months, that doesn’t matter.

(Jack Donovan) #14

I really hope they do, but sadly, I expect any reply that comes from a Monzo employee will not directly tackle your concerns

#15

The thing is when interest rates begin to climb this may become quite an important issue

Monzo will no longer be able to sit back when other current accounts start to offer 3% interest on their deposits

(Jack Donovan) #16

When? Or if :wink:

(Simon) #17

I’m not convinced of this. There are many people getting ripped off by their bank with excessive charges for declined payments/ unarranged overdrafts etc

In a lot of cases this would be cheaper and more predictable with Monzo. I think these advantages will be well worth the couple of £ extra it might cost for a large number of users.

Obviously this won’t be for everyone, especially people who are very savvy and might change account as soon as something slightly better is available. For the majority it could save much more money than it costs

#18

This is what I find fascinating! Obviously that’s the same for many people. And obviously this is what Monzo is ultimately banking on. But I really really don’t get it. I find “savings accounts” (in “” since most current accounts pay better rates than savings accounts, so I use current accounts for savings) just as convenient: Using my banks’ apps I can move money around very easily and conveniently. (And: I get a card for each “pot”, can even pay DD straight from my “pots” if I wish :stuck_out_tongue: ) And you just get a raw deal without interest.

Each to their own I guess, but I’m genuinely fascinated every time someone brings that up, as I simply don’t see this at all.

#19

This was exactly my point. The savvy ones will switch / use better options. Those who aren’t savvy won’t.

(Jack Donovan) #20

I understand your point, but I think it’s simply because savings rates are so low nowerdays, even if you have £5000 in a savings account you aren’t going to get much back at all, unless you tie it up. And most people my age, if they have £5k it’s generally for a short term purpose.

If you are like me, and earn about £1.50 a year on your instant savings, what’s the point?