So, let’s talk product!
What differences do we expect between Monzo Ireland and Monzo UK? Will every UK feature make its way over? What Ireland-exclusive features to we expect to see?
(My ambition is that every geography develops a few cool, new features - at least one of which can be applied to every market Monzo operates in).
If they get a credit card pot like the Americans got, I’m done 
Nice to see you posting again 
This is exactly what I mean! Credit card pots - and spending directly from pots with the debit card by linking merchants to specific pots - are ripe for the taking as they’ve been done in the US. As is automatic salary sorter.
Things like this need to be perfected and released globally. No sitting on laurels - remember what Tom used to say: skate to where the puck is going, not where it is now.
Wait, what! Americans have an auto-salary sorter? Completely missed that memo. You’re right, credit card pot could work globally. Dunno why they can’t release it wider.
Expand Move money via Monzo to any country Monzo are in.
Probably more AI coming for all countries. Stuff like real-time budgeting, super personalised savings plans, and investment advice. Also more AI on fraud prevention. Love to see more bank use via voice using e.g. Siri / Google.
@Peter_G we are lucky to have a wait list. I don’t know anyone with an actual monzo Ireland account yet 
I think UK (FCA) rules are changing in the new year, sitting between generic guidance and full personal recommendations so hopefully Monzo takes advantage of that.
For Ireland, fingers crossed the ECB does similar soon…
The credit card pot does make sense in the US as Credit Cards are the thing in that market. The thing is, you need to build to the market, think it was something else Tom said, that you have to understand the culture and the way money flows in that country to be good.
I don’t know what that means in Ireland, how different is it to the UK? What do you have to do to make cross border payments work for the whole Island where they aren’t a thing in GB
Agreed. But that’s an argument not to spend money developing that feature for the UK market - but now that it exists, it makes perfect sense to bring it to the UK. Paywall it, sure, but it would be a big selling point and its absence is inexplicable.
This is interesting - there’s certainly something about €/£ cross-border payments and enabling frictionless integration with GB and EU banking systems… And maybe something about Irish specifics like taxes on ATM withdrawals… But I worry a bit that we’ll get a UK copy/paste with an Irish IBAN. Spain looks like it’ll be Monzo’s big localised push - which is sensible, given the total addressable market there is so much bigger.
I was taking a look at some of the premium Monzo UK offerings - Greggs treat, Railcard, Breakdown Assistance.
We don’t have Greggs here (and I’m not sure what national chain here could do something similar), no Railcards in the same format (train travel doesn’t require a second mortgage here like the UK) and Breakdown Assistance is generally included in car insurance policies. Travel Insurance of course is a thing with paid accounts, but a bit boring 
For now it looks like Monzo will only be offering a free standard account, but presumably at some point they will want to introduce paid plans - so it will be interesting to see what the variances will be on those and what they may offer in terms of perks for the Irish market
If Monzo Ireland has a fully-featured Joint account which has parity with a Personal account (or doesn’t even need a Personal account), we’re moving.
I think the first point of call is assessing what (if any) differences there are between the British and Irish banking systems.
I know very little - only that all credit cards come with an annual fee?
Yes - stamp duty of €30 is applied annually to credit cards. There may be a bank annual fee on top of that.
Stamp Duty is also applied to debit cards of 12c per ATM withdrawal up to €2.50 per year if you only use the card at ATMs, or €5 per year if you use it in shops too.
Overdrafts are set up and expire annually and normally have a setup fee (I’ve never set one up but think that’s about €30 too per year).
Banks would then typically charge maintenance fees on top of that, €4 / month at a credit union and going up from there. But the fintechs are at least changing that.
Transactions at ATMs and in shops across the whole Eurozone are free or included in any limits.
Switching bonuses (in the way banks in 
do) are not a thing here. Likewise, premium packaged accounts not really a common thing either.
Other than that, pretty similar 
Blimey that’s so many fees and costs!
So there are no totally free banks? How do people on low incomes/no incomes cope?
For all the UK banking industry’s flaws, we do at least have legally guaranteed fully free banking for all.
I think EBS still do a free current account, albeit it very basic and I think they might be planning to discontinue it.
You can get a fee-free basic current account if eligible, I think that’s for 12 months until they charge.
You can see why Revolut cleaned up here now
Absolutely I can too.
Do they not have to charge the fees as above? Given they appear to be legally required stamp duties rather than just convention charges.
Yes they do - their debit and credit cards have the stamp duty charges, but if you’re on a Standard Account and only have a debit card which you use mainly for non-ATM transactions - then that significantly reduces the fees you pay over a year. Particularly if you are paying €4 - €6 monthly maintenance charge for a legacy bank current account.
I don’t think very many people use credit cards, you don’t see them about much. Sadly it means we lose out on decent credit card reward schemes too
So the first Irish exclusive seems to be… fees.
You can actually 100% avoid banking fees here using Revolut if:
You have a Standard Plan
Only have a Virtual card
Never use an ATM (which of course you can’t with a virtual card).
That was pretty much a first, and it looks like Monzo will be a first by offering a free account with free physical card (again, don’t use the ATMs)
Annually charged too - interesting:
The overdraft doesn’t mention any fees - government or otherwise - but does mention “Basic bank account” which they don’t do in the UK.
Basic users have no fees for withdrawals whereas standard users have free up to €300 a month after which a charge applies.
Sounds like Ireland’s outdated banking system is due to much smaller population? AFAIK, UK’s free retail banking is funded by consumer borrowing and business banking.
Low tax for Multinational Corporations and then charging its own citizens for everything feels so bizarre to me. Is it still mainly a cash based economy?
