Mondo is now 'front of wallet' for me (plus changing money habits)

(james_e_bell) #1

Hey just wanted to feedback on how I’m using Mondo at the moment (and how it has been changing my spending habits). Would be interested to see how others are using it!

Basically I have now shifted all of my discretionary salary and spend onto Mondo and am using the Mondo balance to track how my spending is going in the month (I calculated discretionary spend by salary -bills -saving). Surprised how quickly I have come to trust a startup with my salary!

At the moment it seems like Mondo being separate from my main account is actually a benefit so will be interesting to see how that changes when it stops being prepaid -
Mondo balance being separate from my bills means I never have to consider whether there is a bill coming out - Mondo balance is the balance I can spend and I know that my regular bills are already accounted for.

Admittedly I could have done this before with a traditional credit card or other prepaid card but Mondo does make it much easier to review what has really been spent due to its use of auth rather than settlement plus the easy of use of the app. I used to have my spending and bills in the same account so I have a lot more clarity on my spending now.

Using Mondo in this way, there are some things that would be nice to have, for example:

  • Weekly spend target (that I can set) and being able to see target against this

Other than this, I am finding the expenses tagging to be very helpful - we are meant to use a work expenses card and not our personal card but that isnt always possible so its useful to be able to easily tag and track these transactions.

Anyway, thats all I can think of now!

Thanks, James

(Pavel Kirjanas) #2

I just got a Number26 card, and I can confirm that Mondo is immensely better! :strawberry:

(james_e_bell) #3

Bit of an update on how I use mondo now:

  1. Budget control - my primary usecase is still as a monthly/weekly budget tracker - ive found it useful both for setting/tracking a budget and using the timeline to review spending from the previous mont
  2. Travel card - I use mondo when abroad as I know it gives the best interest rates
  3. (some) expense tracking - I really like the expense tracking in mondo so use it when i can - we are mandated to use a work AMEX for expenses so I can only use Mondo when the amex is not usable

When i dont use mondo:
Interestingly since the first update I’ve found some times when i consciously have decided not to use mondo:

  1. 0% spending - I have a wedding coming up so needed some extra cash (hello 0% card) - obviously mondo was not appropriate for use here so I shifted all my spending off mondo for over a month to ‘suck’ all the money out of the 0% card using it to absorb all my normal spending
  2. Rewards spending for big purchases - Also with the wedding I was making some big purchases that I could use AMEX for - I did these on AMEX for rewards rather than on Mondo
  3. Vending machine and tube - its much more convenient to use my applepay on the tube and at the work drinks machine - I just dont use mondo here (even though vending machine spending should definitely be something I track!). Would do this on Mondo if it supported applepay

Anyway would be interested to see whether other people’s long term behaviour with mondo has changed? I am primarily just using for regular budgeting now