I was joking around with someone today about ways that Monzo could help prevent spending thatâs probably not a good idea (they suggested a cap on spending at the weekends).
I thought about sending a notification if you go to a certain merchantâs location & you spent a relatively large amount of money (compared to your usual spend), last time you were there, something along the lines of â last time you were here you spent this much, this might hurt tomorrowâ.
The alert could be made smarter by pointing out that spending what you last spent again, would change your targetâsstatus from green to orange or orange to redâŚ
Obviously you donât want Monzo to start nagging you about spending too much but having something to jolt the userâs memory & remind them that they need to pay attention to how much theyâre about to spend, might help avoid the need for a forget about last night button
What do you think?
Location Of The Alert
The location based alert wouldnât quite work because Monzo would have to track your location while youâre not using the app, burning through your battery.
So Iâm not sure exactly sure exactly how this should work but here are a few possibilitiesâŚ
a short note in the payment notification for your 1st transaction from the merchant
a note on the transaction entry, visible in your feed
a more detailed note in the transaction entry when you tap into it
The location based alert wouldnât quite work because Monzo would have to track your location while youâre not using the app, burning through your battery.
I donât know about you but from what Iâve seen, the majority of smartphones nowadays have great battery life. My iPhone 6 Plus usually lasts around 3-4 days between charging. Iâve optimised it for good battery life and can still be using it a lot throughout the day.
Itâs a great idea that I would make use of, especially around clothing and electronics retailers. If only we can get it to pre-empt an online purchase too. Amazon products are cheap but good and too easy to buy so I need a way of reigning it in a bit.
Possibly a reward system for spending less than the previous month or your average.
I actually started a thread with a similar idea of limiting your spending a while ago, but I suggested that the card is deactivated after youâve spent X in a night. However, we concluded that this wouldnât be great in emergency situations, and also drinks are normally paid for once poured so a blocked card would just mean somebody else has to pay.
However I really like this approach!
Perhaps a combination of the two could be that you get an alert once youve spent X amount in a night? Say you top yourself over ÂŁ30 and Monzo gives you an extra alert - maybe with a customisable message so you can personalise your reminder, the same way you can set alarms with messages?
What is great about Monzo is the transparency it provides to allow users to review their past spending and make better decisions in the future.
What I think you are suggesting is Monzo proactively informing you before you make the decision to spend any money. I would find this too much of an intrusion into my spending and kinda feels a bit mumsy.
However, if you visit strip clubs or casinos, then this may be perfectâŚon the other hand people normally have the intention of spending large amounts of money in these places.
I believe Monzo should hold a mirror up to users spending, but not actively shape it.
I agree you can lead a horse to water an all that - Monzo should be - this is what you are spending, its up to you if you want to try and financially control it - it should be great for students starting off with independent finances and learning what they are doing with their money. - and also the rest of us
I had to a fair bit tweaking in my settings e.g disabling most of the apps from using background app refresh and mobile data. Also enable auto brightness while having it turned down to about 25% whilst indoors is a good enough level for me and really helps. Turning off vibrate for the non essential notifications gives a big boost too. Also helps that I donât play games on it all day, but I donât know if you guys do that.
I donât play games but running two email apps, Skype and WhatsApp, regularly accessing various banking apps and OneDrive and OneNote etc. Like my screen as bright as possible outside as otherwise canât see it. So long for the days when I could unclip a flat battery and clip on a charged oneâŚthose were the days
I actually started a thread with a similar idea of limiting your spending a while ago, but I suggested that the card is deactivated after youâve spent X in a night. However, we concluded that this wouldnât be great in emergency situations, and also drinks are normally paid for once poured so a blocked card would just mean somebody else has to pay.
Coincidentally just this morning I was thinking of showing an alert when at a bar or club and your remaining balance is getting close to a calculated amount that equal for you to get public transport and/or a taxi home if not on holiday. Maybe something friendly but snappy like âLast drinks before heading home? Enjoy!â Could be quite easily done with an integration to the Google Transport API (I think thatâs the right one). The user would be able to dismiss it for whatever reason, perhaps theyâre not intended on going home or maybe theyâre the designated driver for the night anyway.
This might be another slight mumsy intrusion into spending around what @mj84 was suggesting, but it would promote safety around not driving under the influence, ensuring you get home safely instead of walking alone in the dark and even potentially create more work for taxi drivers.
last time you were here you spent this much, this might hurt tomorrowâ.
Last drinks before heading home? Enjoy!â Could be quite easily done with an integration to the Google Transport API (I think thatâs the right one). The user would be able to dismiss it for whatever reason, perhaps theyâre not intended on going home or maybe theyâre the designated driver for the night anyway.