Monzo Metal Card

I’d much prefer this approach too. If they take a more modern approach with their physical cards, and ditch the numbers, similar to Apple Card, a single metal card could potentially last a life time (or at least until the chip fails).

I’m not sure about recycling plastic cards, but biodegradable cards are possible, and cheap to make.

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Not that I’m bothered about a metal card, but what if you keep your card in your phone wallet?
Could the metal card potentially damage your screen?

I assume this would largely depend on your phone manufacturer and the type of screen they’re using, but my N26 card never scratched my iPhone. It’s worth noting the reverse side isn’t usually metal and that’s the side I would have facing my phone screen.

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Broadly speaking, it is very difficult to justify selling anything at “cost price” when you are not a profitable company. Additionally - what determines cost price? Does it account for the salaries / office space / etc of the team that have been working hard on a project for an extended period of time?

Part of the reason this company exists is to show that there are better models than nickel-and-diming people for unjustifiable reasons - for example my cousin’s partner was just telling me a few days ago how his bank charged him for a failed Direct Debit and that’s just unacceptable in my view. Likewise the large fx fees that many banks still charge.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t or shouldn’t charge for anything - we’re not a charity, we’re a modern bank that has to become profitable to survive. We calculate pricing of anything that we charge for based on what we feel is fair, justifiable, and that customers would feel is a fair price for the service.

This is particularly important for things that are wants rather than needs, which something like a metal card would definitely fall into. We have to create sustainable revenue.

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Nailed it. :raised_hands:

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Understandable. I think it may be worth looking at how some companies outside of banking approach transparent and fair pricing. Saturo for example have a chart on their website that details their costs to make the product and run the company, and how much is profit. Could that not be an avenue Monzo could consider taking in respect of offering something akin to a metal card?

I like Saturo and have ordered their stuff several times, but anecdotally most of their products are out of stock at the moment and they recently had a kind of fire sale where they offered different price points and allowed the customer to choose - that doesn’t fill me with confidence about their current status.

But that kind of chart isn’t too different from an annual report, which would contain much of the data you’ve mentioned.

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I love Saturo! I did receive an email explaining they had no stock for my subscription this month, but I think Huel have had similar issues over the Christmas period with their RTD too and sent me the ones manufactured in Europe which have a horrid taste to them. I hope Saturo stick around though because they are tastiest option with Yfood being a close second.

The thing with the chart isn’t so much the data, but rather the availability of the information and the ease of which ordinary people can understand it. Quite a few other companies take that approach too, particularly in the fashion industry, and its one I admire. If Monzo are to charge a one-time fee for a metal card, I think they could earn a lot of good will if they take that approach.

Our focus is very much on subscription-based products - I think it’s very unlikely you will see us launch anything with a one-time fee.

One reason for this is that in order to take that approach, it would have to be demonstrable that such an offering would be inherently both better for the customer and not meaningfully worse for the business, as the needs of both need to be balanced in a way that works for both.

So, for example, if the takeup of a product would be considerably less on a subscription model compared to a one-time fee, that would be a justification for considering it. Right now, I don’t personally believe that that’s the case.

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That makes sense but couldn’t an option be for one that doesn’t force users to choose the environmentally detrimental option instead of metal which can be recycled? And as you say how do you calculate cost price, how about the price which doesn’t tie the user to a monthly fee?

If Monzo wants to keep this premium fair enough but can you offer biodegradable cards then?

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I have absolutely no experience with metal cards, but am curious.
Are any of the currently available metal cards just metal, or are they all bonded to a plastic back???

Apple Card, maybe a few other credit cards too. They don’t work with contactless though.

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Extracting raw titanium does yes, but it can be fully recycled and repurposed. Apple already have a recycling program in place for them, and given their past actions I fully expect their custom alloy will evolve to eventually include 100% recycled titanium. That’s fantastic for the environment in the longer term. They probably could have used recycled aluminium, but I suspect they chose titanium for its durability.

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That’s why there’s Apple Pay. (Or google pay if you have another fully metal card).

Again, mobile wallet means that you don’t need contactless on the card - plus I’d image it’s easier to recycle fully titanium into other items, so I’d worry about other things more than my bank card at the moment.

There are a few other banks that have fully metal cards, though most are overseas.

JP Morgan if I’m not mistaken still does their metal cards as fully metal with your signature being etched into the card by laser.

Chase has their card as fully metal.

American Express Centurion (the fully black one) is only metal and has been since launch I’m pretty sure (though some markets have a metal/plastic variant for contactless)

American Express Platinum is fully metal in other markets (UK got the metal one in 2019, however it’s metal and plastic to allow contactless. Some other markets like New Zealand or Asian markets still get them as fully metal if I’m not mistaken).

Long story short - I wouldn’t mind (if anything I’d prefer) I’d the Monzo metal is fully metal because mobile wallets such as Apple Pay or Google Pay is more convenient and secure, so I’d only need to use the metal card in store that don’t take contactless as a whole (because if a shop does take contactless, they can take mobile wallets).

Either way, I’m eager to see what benefits metal brings (in terms of account add on wise).

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No no I get you, wasn’t saying that there’s an issue - just pointing it out as the previous posts didn’t mention it :blush:

Analysis elsewhere on the forum previously demonstrated that the full lifecycle impact of a metal card was something significantly greater than that of a plastic card which (I guess) doesn’t need mining and refining. We need to be careful about broad-brush assumptions on which is ‘better’ environmentally.

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Could you point us in the direction of these analyses? I’ve had a brief search and with the exception of one user who had a well researched argument most were just broad-brush assumptions, which doesn’t demonstrate anything at all.

Mining, manufacturing, and shipping a non-recycled metal card has a greater environmental impact than manufacturing and shipping a plastic card, there is no denying that. But:

  • Metal cards can be recycled and repurposed.
  • Metals cards are far more durable and will last significantly longer.
  • Using recycled metals eliminates the need for mining, removing that process from future environmental impact.
  • Titanium is a very light metal, much lighter than steel, and twice as durable.

The impact of shipping titanium cards is less than the heavier steel cards that plastic vs metal comparisons on this forum have been comparing in the past. In the longer term, metal cards will almost always have less of an environmental impact than plastic ones do.

AMEX is banging haha

Is there any information on how much impact cards make comparison to other areas of waste. Could one take the toll of a card and make a significant change elsewhere to justify it.

For instance, if I started buying from Sainsbury counters with my own packaging rather than getting plastic wraps, I believe I could make the justification.

On the flip side, you could say that if you really cared about waste then you should be doing this regardless?

(not having a go or anything, just saying :smiley: )

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