What confuses me currently (and I’ve felt like this for the last six months) is that I no longer really understand Monzo’s decision making.
I’m Monzo user 585 so I’ve seen a lot of changes over Monzo’s history and the vision at the beginning was a compelling and simple one; build a modern bank on the latest infrastructure that is scalable which in turn would allow Monzo to do things that existing high street banks couldn’t do - pursue a hub and spoke model (Monzo marketplace) connecting with other companies and charge commision.
At the time when I went full Monzo there were several competitors on the market offering a roughly similar proposition. I chose Monzo because of their ethical stance and how much they valued the community. It seems like the value that Monzo places on their community has waned recently with either the following happening;
a) We are told that our views may not be representative of the wider Monzo user base
b) Updates on big projects seem to fall off and the community is left in the dark despite being told otherwise.
Covid-19 is clearly challenging for the global economy. Unfortunately people are getting sick and dying and health of employees should be the number one focus for any company in a time like this. That being said, the impact that Covid-19 has had on the economy was coming in one form or another; pandemic, bubble being popped or any other black swan event that was inevitable with the stock market having been at lofty valuations for a long time now so Monzo must have had plans in place for something like this.
I completely understand Monzo’s decision to not roll out the more holiday centric version of Plus. But the version for budgeting - to not roll this out when at a time like this people’s finances might be squeezed and when Monzo’s revenue is under pressure due to less interchange fees, doesn’t make much sense to me. In my view, during a crisis like this is when people at other banks need Monzo. Other banks who will cream them on overdraft charges or savings rates or any other way they can and it’s in this time when people are at home that I’d be trying to pick up as many customers as I can and certainly not inhibiting people’s ability to access customer support at a time when it might dearly be needed.
I just want Monzo to get back on track to what made them such a compelling proposition. Logging in and seeing my balance sheet in the app due to integrations with Stock Brokers, Mortgage Lenders, Savings Accounts, Student Loans, Credit Cards etc and then to give me valuable insights into what I should be doing to maximise my financial position. “James you have £10 left this month, click this button and we will put it in a savings account/use it to pay off high interest debt” or whatever it might be.
The people at Monzo are phenomenal, the company you have all built is phenomenal, but in my opinion your competitors are sneaking ahead of you in their overall proposition. At the moment it’s Loyalty and faith that you get back on track that’s keeping me a #fullmonzo user.