Lock Pots to prevent impulse purchases

Education. From primary school through to the end of secondary school (and beyond if necessary).

Young persons bank accounts will go hand in hand with this, and encourage a far more mature attitude to money (in my opinion).

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I agree education would be a huge help, but it isn’t a catch-all like a built in feature would be though. For example people with bipolar disorder when on a high have massive impulse spending at night and may spend their entire months salary on food or a holiday - only to have enormous regret the next morning.

https://www.bipolar-lives.com/bipolar-excessive-spending.html

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Yeah, there will always be situations and scenarios for certain people where something like a “locked pot” would come in useful - Not disagreeing there.

Whether it’s enough for Monzo to build into the app? That’s a different question - Especially when there are already ways you could do this.

I think a different service is great - It creates more friction, and makes it harder to get the money.

I mean, come on - We can come up with a whole host of different things that would suit different people - Or we could use what already exists…

Or Monzo could integrate solutions into its product and help everyone who wants the product. Also your comment seems very against trying new solutions to a problem which could lead to the problem bring solved in a better way. Just because a solution exists doesn’t mean it’s the best solution.

I didn’t mean for it to sound that way.

I just think there are a lot of niche services that would slow down development time, and possibly make the app less pleasurable to use - I see this as one of those things.

If it was a massively requested feature, I’m sure Monzo would look to implement it - But the feedback from this thread suggests it’s not.

Monzo could try and implement a lot of solutions to a lot of problems - It doesn’t mean they should, especially when there is possibly a solution which already exists.

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Completely understand this point of view if you don’t think people would use them. Personally, I think they’d be super useful and help loads of people.

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An elegant example of two (@nickh & @awjdean) opposing viewpoints coming together, disagreeing, seeing the other side, then shaking hands (with a smile, I reckon).

Get these two on the Brexit negotiations, I say :grinning:

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I’m always smiling @Demmedelusive :smiley:

And for what it’s worth, I don’t mind the development programme including nifty little features to assist some to budget (such as hidden pots and the like).

I’d hope, though, that such ideas would not trump other known basic deficits being brought to fruition.

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Thanks for this suggestion @nathanthomson8! Although this feature isn’t on our main roadmap, this is something that the Vulnerable Customers team is looking into as a way of helping people protect their committed outgoings. We’d love to be able to offer this at some point in the future :blush:

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I wonder if you could get someone else to act as an authorisation for purchases? I could see Monzo offering a children’s account with big spends requiring authorisation?

I wonder if this could also apply to joint savings? Too many friends with horror stories of partner’s wiping out savings accounts and being overly enthusiastic a couple of days after pay day!

agreed, I see no reason to waste time and money talking to agents.
just allow a toggle switch for a 24hour timer. once applied it takes 24hr to dedicative once you toggle it off.

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I use another provider to save majority of my money, I only use pots for saving smaller amounts incase I need money straight away it’s there however with the provider am saving with it takes 24hrs to get the money which is enough for me not to withdraw it, there’s some saving account that you have to give 30 days notices to get your money that’s good if the 24hrs is not enough to deter you

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Could you please share the names of those apps (don’t worry that they’re ‘competitors’) so that other users can check them out?

The fact that they exist as standalone businesses suggests that this is quite a popular concept.

But this is a feature not a business for me, there’s no reason why the challenger’s can’t provide the same service & all the other benefits of their service in one place..

the saving account I use is ford money that you give 24hrs notice to get your money ( by 2pm) day before, and for anyone looking for longer notice accounts should check out moneysupermarket they have a whole list of notice accounts that range from 30 days up to 180 days whichever suits you hope that helps

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I agree to an extent with this; with services like Plum, Cleo, Yolt, and Emma, and no doubt countless others that do some form of automated budgeting/money squirrelling, I think we’re becoming a little reliant on an AI to understand our priorities.

And I think on the point about Monzo providing it for the betterment of their user base - it can very easily become a fragmented product - where would you stop? (And, how do all these features get funded?)

I used to have a number of different current accounts all used to slow down my spending or minimise my ability to impulse buy. And I’ve gone in and out of debt over a good number of years; but ultimately the thing that has helped me the most is “Zero Based Budgeting”, or envelope budgeting; and making a budget each month where every single £ in it has a job to do. That’s honestly been the best trick to reducing my impulse buy ability!

(Also, changing passwords to sites like Amazon, or cancelling free delivery options etc, helped too)

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I didn’t read the whole thread so apologies if this is repeating things. What about a drunk lock? We all know at the weekend we wake up and realise that we spent far too much! Maybe having to solve a quick maths question to allow access to one pot?

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That’s actually quite a popular idea!

Drunk Mode - Temporary Card Freeze

And it’s on the team’s list to deliver during their Monzo Time, although that doesn’t mean that it’s guaranteed to get built (more important stuff might get in the way).

Never noticed that post. Thanks for sharing!

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