After that, you’ll be signed up for a minimum of three months, costing £15
That’s not a bad minimum term as it goes. On the surface the value seems fair, and there’s a lot I like about the offering that adds value to me. I think £5 is a fair price for that value. I got two months free, so if it turns out not to be as good value to me as it looks on the surface, I’m not locked into an annual contract.
It’s clear a lot of hard work went into building this, and given that they’re not opposed to locking software features behind the account, means there is plenty of room for the product to evolve and improve over time, adding even greater value. This is a very solid foundation to launch with. Well done, Monzo.
9 Likes
Anarchist
(Press ‘Help’ search ‘Contact us’ or email help@monzo.com or call 0800 802 1281)
1778
That’s the one thing I’d potentially want. But it’s counterbalanced by the (admittedly tiny) possibility that if my Monzo account was ever to be compromised, access would be available to all my accounts. I have separate accounts partly so that all my eggs aren’t in one basket.
To accept that balance, Id save 10m per day and spend £60pa.
Completely agree with that. Other competitors’ equivalents (ie: N26 back in the day, or Revolut), would tie you in for a minimum of 12 months I believe
Monzo appears to be trying to go down the Banking-as-a-Service or the ‘freemium’ route, rather than making money in a more traditional way for a bank, by lending money.
I’m not saying that’s a bad thing either, but I’m just not sure how long I (or anyone else) will pay for a service and features that other digital banks already offer me, and often for free.
There are whisperings that all Monzo’s new features might be Monzo Plus-exclusives, or at least exclusive for a while, so maybe (hopefully) it’ll get a little better?
Anarchist
(Press ‘Help’ search ‘Contact us’ or email help@monzo.com or call 0800 802 1281)
1783
This has occurred to me. What would non Plus customers think if 90% of development effort went into Plus?
Most customers will have very little awareness of how much development time goes into the basic product vs the Plus tier and, might not even care if they were aware. (I own a Focus. Should I care how much time and resource Ford spent developing the Focus vs the Fiesta or the Mondeo?)
As with any product, Monzo need to make sure that their investment in Plus delivers returns. If it does, then the product will stand on its own two feet, and that’s all that matters.
(You could, perhaps, picture the opposite scenario, in which Plus subscriptions are so successful that they then end up subsidising and propping up the free/basic tier. In this example, you might wonder how sustainable the free tier was.)
What customers will judge, however, is whether Plus is worth the £5 price tag over the basic account, and whether Monzo (whether basic or Plus) offers more than other banks’ current accounts.
The older features need some love and polish to bring their experience up to par with plus. They should be for everyone, and personally are things I would like to see happen before they start pouring out new features for plus, because those fundamentals effect all of us.
So I’ve never been a fan of paywalling features. But if we get a trickle-down effect - where Plus features become free as others catch up - then I can see it as worthwhile.
The logic is that Monzo will at have a (profit) motive in making advances and providing good and innovative features - and moving older ones to the free tier to compete with others and to keep non fee-paying customers on board.
That’s the theory at least. Keen to see how it pans out.
I like the way Plex do it. Most new features, and ones that cost money to run/maintain are exclusive for a certain length of time (and sometimes indefinitely). These often then fall into the free tier. I think it provides a great way of providing cash to develop cool new features but also helps out in maintaining and reiterating the base, free features.
Prevents things from being developed solely because they’ll generate immediate profit.
I definitely see the Credit Tracker falling into the basic account. Perhaps a single virtual card, too, as a tease. Connect a couple of external accounts? But things like the extra fee-free ATM withdrawals and 1 free PayPoint deposit will likely stay Plus.
Budgeting will definitely be interesting. I imagine basic insights will be free and a solid budgeting experience that gets regular updates as part of Plus.
Obviously I’d expect the foundations of the app to receive regular love and development (think Payee Management, International Transfers etc) but I’ll have bigger expectations of regularity and polish for new things from Plus.
As a non-plus customer, I don’t think I’d mind as long as “core” app features are improved.
I have a feeling that most completely new features will be for Plus, especially in the near future. However, I see the following future changes being available for non-Plus customers:
“basic” banking features — international transfers, cheque imaging (if it ever happens) etc…
Improvements to current features — improvements to payee management, ability to edit scheduled pot transfers etc…
Basic versions of Plus features to try and tempt people into upgrading to Plus — I can even see some of the current Plus features being introduced to non-Plus with limits as the Plus offering improves (eg: non-Plus gets up to two custom categories).
Features that make money — stuff like bill switching, loans, credit cards, remortgaging.
UI improvements (eg: Dark Mode).
Features which cause network effects (ie: encourage your friends to get Monzo to use them with you) — shared pots, improvements to shared tabs etc…
I’m not so sure what will happen to future features which are built to encourage people to make Monzo their main account. For example, would Bills Pots or Get Paid Early be Plus only features if they were built now?
6 Likes
Anarchist
(Press ‘Help’ search ‘Contact us’ or email help@monzo.com or call 0800 802 1281)
1790
I’m not so sure about this one. It might tempt Plus customers to downgrade
I’d say that depends how stingy they are when giving standard users access to some plus features. N26 Only offering 2 spaces for example definitely would push me towards upgrading rather than downgrading.
I used to have it on but leave it off now but that’s only as I play the lottery online so top up that when I need to buy tickets, usually every 4 weeks as that’s longest set for life allows, Euro Millions is DD
Honestly, this is why I will never go Full monzo. It seems like it takes a story in the press to resolve these issues and I’ve read so many articles where monzo unitially said no to a reimbursement for fraud and it took the press getting involved to resolve it: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2020/jul/23/monzo-refund-cold-callers-bank-fraud
20 days and you would have enough for a non fat skinny latte, but with no choc chips on the top
