Firstly, I have been a Monzo account holder since beta/founding member. Embarrassingly, I didn’t even know about this forum! So, please do treat me as a ‘novice’/‘noob’ because I’m just finding my feet!
Now that caveat is out the way, please do also correct me if I’m wrong with this suggestion.
So, Monzo isn’t my main account but I am seriously wanting it to be! My main reason is because of my Mortgage elsewhere and I have a credit card with £10,000 on there (Credit - nil Balance) that I think Nationwide would remove if I moved my main account from them.
Monzo has come along leaps and bounds and, in my opinion, is probably the most advanced for features and its intuitiveness. So many really useful features and leaves other financial institutions yearning!
The one thing I think is missing is an automatic ‘reserve’. What I mean by this is similar to ‘Plum’. Plum, linked to an external account, will automatically work out how much to reserve. I think maybe weekly? And you can set whether you want to be adventurous or minimal. Basically, I don’t look at it until I think I might need a top up - typically towards the end of the month. I’m delighted when I see £200-£300 in there to transfer back to my main account!
Is this a ‘thing’? I know Monzo have roundups and whilst this is good, it’s not the sort of sums I want them to reserve for me. Unless I am missing something?
They don’t do it automatically as such, but if you set all your direct debits to be paid from a pot (and have the base perk to allow paying debit payments from a pot as well) then it can estimate your ‘reserve’ that you then add in automatically. it’ll also notifiy you if it looks like it wo’n’t have enough to cover the month.
My use case for this is what I currently have. So, for example, I use Nationwide as my main account (my bills/DDs are in a different account). What is is my main Nationwide account I know I have to spend. However, in the background, ‘Plum’ takes various amounts per week depending on what I’ve spent/got left (I think?) and I forget about it.
So, towards the end of the month prior to pay day and I want to go somewhere, I think “oh, I can’t afford it” and then suddenly remember I’ve got a pot elsewhere! Usually a few hundred sitting in there!
I guess what you suggest could work here and I could have various pots for bills, and the other expenses per month I might estimate I’d need. But then I’d have to check to make sure. I think? And that’s something I’d want done ‘intelligently’ so I don’t see it. If that makes sense.