Hello everyone,
Busy couple weeks for the Paid Monzo team! Here’s our update for you:
Principles on paywalling features
We’ve spent some time thinking through what we should and shouldn’t include in our paid accounts moving forward. We think about this in three ways, and would love your thoughts below on where we stand.
-
Core functionality: if it’s a core piece of functionality that everyone expects in a bank account, then we’ll include this in our free account. We know that ‘core’ is quite subjective, so we’ll always try to explain our rationale where we can. -
Power use features: if there is a feature that only a minority of our customer base really care about it, and it costs us time or money to build and maintain, then we’ll likely include these in a paid account. Without that revenue, it’s not something we’d be able to prioritise. -
Additional cost: for features like insurance, it’s not something we can offer for free. If it costs us to provide the service, we think it’s fair and transparent to charge for it.
We’re building towards becoming a sustainable business which means generating revenue where it makes sense for us and our customers. So while we’ll always push to have the best free bank account in the UK, we’ll also do our best to build revenue generating features and products for our customers who really need them.
Special Offers
Thanks for sending over your suggestions around partners you’d like us to work with. There were some super interesting suggestions like carbon offsetting and electric charging partners, and some of the more common media and food/drink partnerships that everyone loves. We’re looking at partners with broad relevance across the UK, so we won’t be picking niche coffee shops in London that most of our customers can’t use! If you have more ideas, keep them coming. Next we’ll begin negotiations with partners who we identify as fitting that description and explore how these partnerships would look and feel to our customers in the app.
Cards and Packaging
We’ve finalised, and ordered, the cards we’re going to use for both accounts. We’re going to keep these under wraps until we release, but we’re really excited about them. They’re both unique in their own way. They feel Monzo while also being something completely new for us. We’ve got some really good feedback from some user testing, so we think we’re on to something good here. Send in your guesses for what you think the card designs will be for each tier. We’d love to see your thoughts!
Packaging is also important. And we’ve made sure to only use materials that are sustainably sourced. We’re busy working on the design and copy of these so that from the moment you upgrade to your new account, you’ll notice it at every touch point. Got any cool ideas for us on packaging? Let us know.
