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

I donā€™t mean to sound sarcastic, I really donā€™t, but ā€œcommon senseā€? Do people need budgeting to get control of their financial lives? Yes. Do people need a metal card? No.

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Support should never be tiered by how much you pay for it. Thatā€™s a massive line in the sand for me

Features that help people have better visibility over their finances (better money management etc) will help people with less money. It doesnā€™t seem right to charge people who might already be struggling

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I had a call from someone on the Savings team a while ago, asking why I chose to use Monzo savings pots. I had to have a bit of a think ā€” after all, I could get a better interest rate by going direct to one or more other savings account providers. In the end, I said that I had two main reasons: first, it was convenient; second, I trusted the services provided via Monzo to do exactly what they say they do.

For some of the other potential products mentioned in this thread, I think similar reasoning should apply. For example: I donā€™t have mobile phone insurance. My phone is usually at least a few years old, if it breaks Iā€™m not devastated and can afford to replace it. The main reason I donā€™t have insurance, though, is that I donā€™t want to be paying money for old rope: would I be covered in this or that circumstance? I certainly donā€™t have time to shop around, compare terms and conditions, read reviews, try to find out whether the policy really worked for other people. If Monzo offered access to one or more different policies, with simple summaries of what they do, then Iā€™d be likely to go for one: I wouldnā€™t have to put lots of effort into checking the small print for ā€œgotchasā€ because I trust Monzo not to offer something not worth having.

The same could apply to many other types of insurance, and other financial products.

Monzo: youā€™re a bank. The product you should be selling is being trustworthy.

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I agree with this, support should be the same for everyone.
Having a bank of financial advisers is something that would be great. I had no clue where to start with sorting out a mortgage and had to spend hours researching what to do. Having advice from someone in the know would be a great thing to have.

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I like what was mentioned earlier about having more pots if your Plus. Also
Metal cards/customisable cards
Interest
Insurance pick and mix
Cashback
The swag thing doesnā€™t bother me at all. its just novelty
Birthday treat
Priority access to new features instead of ā€œlimited random number of people chosenā€

How much would i honestly pay for all that? With metal/customisable card max Ā£18 and without the card features Ā£12

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This is a thing people want?

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Like the Queen, I now have 2 birthdays.

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no

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Just throwing it in the air? Could just be a free Starbucks or something

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I think there is a fine line between paying for support and good support for everyone - Amex for an example have good customer support across their cards (from my experience anyway). But the paid for cards in higher tiers have extra support (like a dedicated team on the platinum card which is paid for).

Id like it for Monzo to improve their current support (because it does need to be sped up and more consistent) and then consider a paid for tier for other types of personalised support (maybe - if it can be pulled off)

Thoughts?

I disagree.
Iā€™d rather the money from Plus/Pro go towards improving existing services, such as support.

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I agree but as monzo say they have to keep their doors open. What if 80% of people not on the forum wanted to pay for extra support.
Although we (on here) wouldnā€™t like it. The majority of monzo customers may do, thatā€™s something they have to find out.

After all surely there right thing to do is what the majority of monzo customers want?

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Spot on. Thatā€™s what weā€™re trying to work out. All doors, are open.

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Iā€™ve done the survey but another idea came to mind. Increase the fee free withdrawals abroad. I have a starling account for this one and only reason. Or use the revenue from Plus (or Pro whatever it is called) to reintroduce this across the board :joy::joy::joy:

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I donā€™t have any ā€œplusā€ package elsewhere and frankly nothing Iā€™ve read on this topic ā€“ or any prior pre-dumpster-fire Plus topic ā€“ has ever encouraged me to change that situation. Do you want to simply scoop up existing users of this kind of package from elsewhere, or persuade those who do not use it to do so?

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If you want to build something new for plus, I wouldnā€™t start from here.

Monthly subscriptions and some sort of double subscription to get things is where you started before and dictates the fundamentals youā€™re going to build and drastically limits your market. I canā€™t see that a new team or new name will change that. Iā€™d pay a monthly subscription for products offered by Monzo that I choose (insurance, mortgage, credit card etc). I wouldnā€™t personally pay just to be a ā€˜supporterā€™ or to join some plus club with more features, or so that I could then choose to pay you more for something else ?!?

It seems youā€™re starting with the assumption you need a monthly sub to monetise these 3 million users, but do you really? Is this really the best way to try to get people to pay you steady amounts? Canā€™t you instead launch more products like savings, or a packaged S&S ISA, or home insurance, or a branded credit card with tight integration (great test case for other credit cards in the app)? There are many options involving concrete products people want, that donā€™t have to live in a packaged premium account to work.

Perhaps the right direction is to ditch plus for now, and focus on delivering some small paid products which could eventually become part of a bigger plus if you want, once they are established in their own right. At present you donā€™t have offerings for a plus, and what you donā€™t want to do IMO is try to roll out a packaged account again that doesnā€™t really have much other than promises inside the packages.

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Let me ask a different question then.

How much can you charge for instant notifications? Or in-app card freezing? Or to be able to use Pots at all?

You are already making decisions about what to charge forā€¦ Continue in that themeā€¦?

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Appreciate this is probably something almost said in passing but this seems like a bit of a departure from the ā€œwe wouldnā€™t want anything that made things worse for regular usersā€ position when a discussion was had around investor perks (granted the sums/reality are/is different in having someone pay x per month for a service vs investing, but the outcome is the same: prioritising one user group can very easily make things worse for others)

I donā€™t think anyone expects to pay for functional support. If there was going to be some additional service layers on top like concierge type services or whatever, then, great, provided the baseline support is not adversely affected.

I donā€™t think Iā€™ve posted in a plus thread yet, so for my 2p, - for me it is rare that packaged bank accounts add enough value to justify the cost and there is quite a lot of regulatory obligation around recording whether clients could actually claim on each of the products, annual reviews, etc. that make it seem like a less than obvious slam-dunk as far as making money is concerned.

What happened to Monzo as introducer/retailer, ie the marketplace, as a means to drive revenue? Customers can then adjust individual products to exactly suit their needs and Monzo makes their commission.

There appears to have become a heavy focus on a bundled approach (with a naturally constrained offering in terms of what you can get in your bundled product(s)) and if youā€™re having to bundle external services together rather than bundling multiple products done in house where there will be more total margin to play with, I have yet to be convinced that itā€™s possible to make a compelling enough case to people who know how to use google.

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Thatā€™s not what the phrase means to me as a customer. For everyone implies free with your basic account, because not everyone has money to spend on premium accounts at every point in their life. As to what to charge for, IMO:

Donā€™t charge for things that make money work for everyone (categories, spending, saving advice etc). Your aim should be to be the best bank, especially for a basic account. I donā€™t really want my bank to have in-app purchases for features.

Charge (either commission or white-label) for discrete products where your value-add is trust (simple vetted terms), convenience (financial control centre) and simple signup (ideally single click) -

  • Savings (you already do)
  • Loans (you already do)
  • Simple investment
  • Insurance (Phone, Home, Travel etc)
  • Mortgages
  • etc

You donā€™t have to build those products (though eventually I think Monzo could do such a good job of that), but you could make the experience radically better for your customers with careful choices and better signup, and theyā€™d happily pay a premium for that.

Just to pick one example of what you could do thatā€™s a little different:

  • A monzo credit card which ties in seamlessly with your monzo accounts, categorises transactions in your feed, is paid off from a pot every month and charges reasonable interest. Maybe a metal option too. The sort of thing that other banks canā€™t do as they typically completely outsource it.

Personally Iā€™d build these products separately and start making money from them now, and then launch Plus if you wish when you have enough to offer meaningful bundles.

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Well said, @kennygrant

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