Monzo Plus: a fresh start with some fresh faces šŸ‘‡

Great post and well said.

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I think this really needs to be addressed, and something I flagged in the last thread. If Monzo are ā€˜starting from the beginningā€™, then surely early adopters like myself and many others should be reimbursed for the months where weā€™ve received little to nothing as Plus customers? Granted itā€™s not a lot of money, but itā€™s still money we paid on the basis of receiving things which never happened, and possibly wonā€™t happen at all.

This new approach is definitely the right way forward in my view. Only thing left is to wipe the slate clean by paying back customers, pausing payments, and then starting them up again when the first iteration of this new Plus/whatever it will be called is ready to go.

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I guess if youā€™re a really early adopter, your effectively getting paid for the account with the interest outweighing the Ā£3 fee. Provided you have the max amount in your account

I wish you luck but you really burnt some of us with the Plus ride so far. Youā€™ve already had some good feedback on Plus in multiple past threads and whilst itā€™s good to start fresh, you wonā€™t get different answers here from the same voices.

I just donā€™t see the incentive to provide more feedback to help shape this.

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Bravo for owning up to mistakes of the past and moving on! Appreciate you involving the community more and going in-depth with weekly updates - good to have a finger on the pulse. My wants with a Plus subscription:

  • Metal card
  • Interest/Cashback
  • Swagā€™s cool as a loyalty incentive
  • Various insurance tiers
  • Pick and Mix/customisation
  • Monzo Points!
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Whatā€™s the point?

Make people use Monzo as their main account? Then try to copy the likes of Santander 123 and offer rewards for paying in salary and having direct debits.

Want to offer packages so people donā€™t feel tied to their legacy banks? Then simply copy the packages they offer and try to match them

Want to make money by cross selling? Then look towards the market place model and start offering flexible, stand alone add ons. Thereā€™s no need for one size fits all - not everyone wants winter sports cover, not everyone wants EU breakdown cover, not everyone looks for 5* cover, etc. Offer a range of products and partnerships.

Want to attract young customers? Then look at offering free railcards, cinema tickets, etc with your young persons account

I write all this as someone whoā€™s never used a premium account so perhaps Iā€™m the wrong person but Iā€™ve definitely been tempted to abandon monzo for Santanderā€™s cashback offers.

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Cinema tickets that are offered by perk schemes are popular. My friends and I are always using them as you canā€™t moan at Ā£5-Ā£6 a ticket (including Odeon Luxe too)

Cinema tickets tend to be quite region specific tho

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Itā€™s typically split into inside the M25 or outside, or with Cineworld itā€™s whether itā€™s West End or not. Otherwise it seems pretty standard.

anyone do IMC because thats the cinema chain in my town

Definitely agreed with this, especially the ā€œdonā€™t chargeā€ section.

My bank shouldnā€™t have ā€œDLCā€. If you started introducing that sort of thing even as an avid Monzo supporter Iā€™d definitely be tempted to switch to somewhere else, it feels cheap and nasty. Especially as those sort of functions are basically hidden behind an if(user.isPaid) statement.

I really like the marketplace idea you guys invisioned. A dashboard of financial products that I can add to my account as and when needed. If I need travel insurance for example, I can load up the app and ā€˜addā€™ it to my account with a few taps with the same interface I know and love.

I like the rewards idea you guys have in the books but I can get that for free through my Amex card or through a Nectar card etc. That should be free-for-all too.

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Simply cannot be done any more. That existed as an artefact of a broken system - where card companies were abusing interchange to give out freebies. Interchange is now strictly capped for consumer cards and itā€™s no longer possible to introduce these kinds of incentives.

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Iā€™m so happy there is a fresh team for this. It was needed for sure as the old mindset was never going to change (as many of us saw). And to people who say that is harsh - this is a bank with three million customers, not a small family run business. The corporate world has to be ruthless. It HAS to generate income, or the bank fails. It is really simple.

I filled out the survey. I really hope everyone else does.

Personally, the day ANY business charges for premium support is the day that I leave it.

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I get loads of discounts and stuff with my employer anyway. And i know most employers have some reward gateway. Also a simple google will yield similar results

And i rarely used them. You could find better discount codes through a google search or sites like hotukdeals. My opinion anyway. I donā€™t think Monzo could offer anything more than that or anything exclusive than what is already out there

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Honestly I think the most obvious issue is that Monzo should stop chasing monthly recurring subscription and just offer products people want to buy with a reasonable commission.

Make it more literally Monzo plus other products. No all-in-one anything. No base subscription, no ā€œcoreā€ thing. ā€œPlusā€ does not need to be a proper noun.

Allow me to get Monzo + travel cover + higher cash withdrawal allowance.

Or Monzo + contents cover + phone cover.

Or Monzo + investment advice + a mortgage.

Just make it a highly bespoke behind-the-scenes-marketplace with the same sales experience Plus has today.

They donā€™t even need to be charged as a single payment. They definitely shouldnā€™t be set up together - you need to enable a proper individual customisable sales process for each product.

Also, please ditch the ā€œspend money to get some money backā€ stuff. Paying to get interest with a cap is absolutely ridiculous - it solely has the effect of reducing the net cost of Plus, in a way which benefits those with more money in their accounts. The only possible outcome is that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer - I canā€™t see why on earth people seem to think this makes sense.

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Maybe you have failed before you even start. You are just copying legacy banks instead of innovating. You already did that two or three times already.

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Hey gang @tomdavies etc.

So yeah, Plus is a car crash isnā€™t it? Iā€™m paying a tenner a month for interest, a blue card that looks like itā€™s been through the washer and traveller insurance thatā€™s not dreadful but I could have bought cheaper. More fool me.

That said, I donā€™t hate the bundle idea, I think Barclays made a decent job of ā€˜packsā€™ tech, home, etc.

At this stage I think a refund of plus fees is warranted, given that even monzo donā€™t know what it is.

Its Itā€™s important not to load up on garbage offerings, lounge passes are my pet hate, have you ever tried to get into a biz lounge with a lounge pass? No room at the inn.

What do monzo want from plus? Revenue clearly, but where do I see the value, not through a pact coffee discount or a hello fresh offer! Itā€™s actually impossible to pay full price for hello fresh you know. If plus is Monzoā€™s way of helping me out then Iā€™m great thanks.

Iā€™d love:

A decent travel insurance product
An interest rate that isnā€™t basically you guys laughing in my face
A card that stays in one piece
Good value phone insurance that I can add/manage/claim in app
Ditto cycle insurance

Also metal card = :bell:end Just sayinā€™

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100% agree on support. Monzo support (dreadful as it currently is) should be the same for every customer.

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They changed the offer a few times, and Iā€™ve not been with them for years but although not stellar value, they certainly passed the price vs. effort of looking for a better deal test for me, and claiming was a smooth process.