Monzo - All bills by direct debits and anything I can’t easily pay on credit card
AMEX - Everyday spending
Lloyds Credit Card - Only for places that don’t accept AMEX.
Amsterdam food shops? Cry as they only accept Maestro 
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Surprising how many list Amex at the top of their list.
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AMEX - all daily spend to get points/flight voucher
Monzo - daily where amex isnt accepted/bills
Danske - dealing with cash/cheques
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For all the Amex folk can you let us know why? What are we missing out on?
For me, and probably the majority, it’s the rewards.
I don’t think there’s much that offers a better option
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Morning all 
picking up from Layla here.
A ton of interesting responses already, thanks. A couple of follow-up questions from me.
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People who do their everyday spending with something other than Monzo or a credit card – why do you use the card/account that you do?
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For folks who spend to earn points of some kind, are there particular things you earn points for? And if so, what are they?
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What factors influence you to pay bills or regular payments from a certain card or account?
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Tesco Clubcard points are free money.
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I use Monzo Premium card for day to day spend.
I used to use Chase for the cashback and roundups. I’d transfer the exact value from Monzo to Chase so I’m keeping track of my spending. I’ve given up on this because of the poor app reliability on Android and dubious support experiences.
I use a credit card if I have a large purchase I want protection for, if I want to defer payment for a month or so, or if there’s likely to be a large hold on my account (hotels, I’m looking at you). Since Flex I don’t use it so much for the second use case. I used to use Nationwide by default but I’ve since moved to a different provider that plays better with open banking in Monzo.
If I’m spending a lot of money (e.g. work on the home) I take out a 0% card then pay out off over the life of 0%
If I’m buying anything online, I’ll use a Monzo virtual card.
For recurring card paid bills, I’ll use different Monzo virtual cards hooked to the relevant bills pot.
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When I was flirting with Chase it was solely because of free money.
I don’t do this right now, but I might be tempted if I were a frequent traveler (for example) and air miles were easily converted into cash (or can be used easily for leisure purposes at an attractive rate). I’d probably only do this, though, if I could see it in Monzo.
I’m totally Monzo for these. I use different virtual cards because that’s how Monzo works with pots. If there were a way of assigning a transaction to a pot on the basis of merchant, category, whatever the MasterCard categorisation thing is, then I’d probably be here for it.
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Cheeky 
Really good question, and I don’t fully know! Main reasons currently that I use First Direct over Monzo are:
- Simplicity, the app shows and does exactly what I need. What I have, where it’s gone, a level of budget that works for me and a nice UI/UX. The new overview has too many different bits of info presented in different areas, which I find hard to follow.
- They have better instant access cash ISA’s available
- Their support in honesty for the small times I need it is impeccable, it’s truly live chat and 24/7
- Perhaps I’ve got over (sad times) the whole fintech scene and realised I don’t really need much of what Monzo and others offer me anymore.
- I can choose to use either web, iPad or mobile. This is a big one for me, I don’t like only having one device I can do my banking on. (An iPad app would probably tempt me back
)
It’s a hard one because I still have, and like Monzo! So who knows, maybe one day I’ll be back
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I have about 5-6 cards in my physical wallet normally, maybe 3-4 (mostly different ones) when on holiday abroad. I have most of my cards on Google Wallet as well.
I use whatever makes most sense at the time, so my usage patterns change.
I used to use my Nationwide Credit Card for everything, small or big, when they had the cashback. Then switched to Barclaycard Avios. Then run the numbers and realised I will never get as much use out of Avios as out of other things, so switched personal spend to Chase and joint spend to Tesco Clubcard Credit Card for the extra points (much more to gain from using Boost to triple points for holidays).
I also have a couple of backup cards on me just in case the usual ones don’t work.
On holiday, I swap for the holiday cards - Monzo stays put, but out comes HSBC Global Money and Starling, to cover all the possibilities (HSBC for Visa rates which can at times be better, Monzo/Starling for no weekend fees, etc).
Also, whatever the card of the day is, I always pay for >£100 purchases with a credit card to get S75 protection.
I have a Monzo account that my salary goes into and that I use for day-to-day spending. Personally, I am Full Monzo. Once my bills money gets transferred to the joint account, this is my money to spend. It’s usually my fun money: going out, buying things for me, any subscriptions I use for me, not my family, etc.
My wife and I have a Barclays joint account for household bills. We get cashback for having insurance products through this card—a loyalty reward—I think it works out to £7 a month. Our mortgage comes out of here, insurance, food shopping, house improvements, etc.
We do have a Monzo joint account. We usually use this for money when we go away. We don’t use this day-to-day because we have a Barclays account. We use it occasionally because we only have one Barclays card and a Monzo Joint card each, but we often need to remember to top it up. Now I can see Barclays in the Monzo app, and it’s in my Apple Wallet, making it easier than Monzo right now. I would love it if I could get the same perks as Barclays and go full Monzo for my joint account too.
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I use my Amex for points and increased interest on my current account. Even at a low value, I would rather earn some points on my spending than none, and some interest on my salary in the meantime. Separately, there are frequent useful small offers, and the occasional larger one (periodic Shop Small £5, twice-monthly £5 Deliveroo on my Gold card, near-constant discounts on LNER and Gett, £100 off my Dell laptop last year).
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Re spending points, it’s a bit of a mix. The most frequent use is probably flights or Amex travel redemption (got return flights to LA for £250 a year ago). I also converted a ton of points to Avios and then to Nectar earlier this year and now have circa £400 of Nectar points to spend at Sains/Argos/eBay.
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Bills and regular payments are all out of Monzo for highest level of visibility and control.
So, it would take a lot for me to move my daily spend because I absolutely make money on it every year for very little effort.
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I’m keeping my AmEx alive for a while as long as I’m getting the cash back. The likelihood is that I’ll revert to Nationwide at some stage, though.
I pay bills from Santander for the cash back and interest. It amounts to about £30 most months after the fee.
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Point 2 is to earn rewards and discount on groceries.
Point 3 is because nationwide offer a great paid account.
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I use monzo for every thing , having plus is a big advantage as i can shove my bills money in a pot and forget about it , where as before monzo i could have got into such difficulties by spending it
the credit card is mainly used for fuel and emergencies
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Generally something like:
AMEX
- all my work spending for expenses management.
- most biggish things - for that glorious S75.
- online shopping for bigger things.
Monzo.
- All the day to day spending.
- direct debits, and recurring monthly bills.
- pots for saving / E fund.
Monzo Joint
- all the Joint day to day spending.
Another Joint
- all the recurring joint bills
Keep talking about combining the joint accounts but Ms Library doesn’t seem to use Monzo like I do so we never have.
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AMEX, because BA Points / companion voucher. Generally Credit Card to both buffer big spends from my account balance, and in the case of work expenses - never have to worry about the impact of work spending.
But only use it for the bigger stuff.
Only the BA companion voucher. Seems the best thing out there, and by and large my work expense get me a lot of the way there.
At the moment size of payment, really. I put my gym payment on my CC, daily travel and most other recurring things on my Monzo tho.
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We use Monzo joint purely for bill payments. Other household spend, such as groceries, is done via Starling. The separation of funds in separate accounts gives assurance that bills will be paid and makes budgeting much easier. The visibility and firewalling that using separate accounts is important to us. There is no possibility of overspending or spending bill money on groceries and vice versa. With respect to bills / groceries, whether we use Monzo, Starling, or any other bank is not that important to us; what is more important is that we use multiple, separate, joint accounts.
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Monzo joint - pretty much all discretionary spending
Monzo personal - pretty much all regular spending (i.e. direct debits, subscriptions, bills) from a committed spending pot and Flex for big purchases when I forget about or cannot use the virtual card
Monzo Flex - anything big on a website that does not do PayPal Pay In 3
PayPal Pay In 3 - anything big that is eligible
MBNA credit card - things like deposits, though it seems to fail as much as it works and then I end up using Monzo
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