It’s not the use of technology I’m averse to. It’s the idea that more money entitles someone to better healthcare.
I have no problem with it as some people just don’t have time to go to the GP with their inflexible opening hours.
Exactly right.
There won’t be any difference in terms of quality (e.g. all qualified GPs) and if people pay for Babylon, they’re opting out of the NHS’ GP service, arguably making it more accessible for everyone else (less pressure on services).
Demonising private healthcare really isn’t the way to fix the NHS.
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I do understand the paying for convenience argument, and I hadn’t intended to start a healthcare debate. Clearly there are strong views on either side that won’t be settled here.
Perhaps I should reframe. Is anyone put off Monzo Plus because of the Babylon Health deal?
No
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No.
I believe the idea is that the offers in there will swap and change over time so there is something for everyone. If you don’t like a particular service, simply don’t use the offer.
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Not personally finding much value in the Plus offers.
I think maybe teaming up with some software subscriptions might be worth looking into.
For example, Amex are currently offering a year subscription to the self-care/meditation app “Calm” for free which I think is a great deal. And after that year, the second year is 50% off also.
Must be some apps out there willing to offer up free subs in exchange for getting their services in front of so many more eyes.
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I’m on the gold charge card (no longer on offer) and am not seeing this Calm one in my available offers section.
So, am I missing how to access this, or are the offers not the same across cards etc?
Just had a look for it myself. Its not in the offers section, but if you google “Calm American Express” it’ll show you Calm’s website. Fill in your account details (or sign up) and then write up your Amex card number, etc and you’re good to go. Here’s the link: https://www.calm.com/americanexpress
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For me the offers package is underwhelming not so much for the offers available (hopefully that will grow) but because I had hoped Monzo would bring innovation to the way retailer offers via a bank/card is done.
At the moment the offers are just provided through a list on an offers page which the customer is expected to periodically check, just like other banks/cards. The problem with such lists is I forget about them and end up missing offers.
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I’m pretty sure it was in the offers section for me, so perhaps they do differ between cards, but hopefully the direct link posted above works too.
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I’d love Monzo to do this, I’m thinking things like Headspace/Calm maybe even Apple Music or Spotify, offers I would actually use.
Currently, unless the offers improve or grow, I’m going to cancel plus when the “trial” runs out as the offers for me are the only reason to even bother keeping it.
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Spotify give trials/deals away with all sorts of things.
“Free 6 months when you sign up with Plus” would be a great addition and far more popular than a lot of the current ones.
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I don’t know why monzo doesn’t integrate a cashback service into monzo plus. To make moneyback off purchases from certain suppliers. It would need it’s own page on monzo app to see how much cashback. A missed opportunity.
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Very much agree with this.
On my Amex I can just save an offer to my card and it will automatically give me the cash back when I pay with my card.
I actually also think Amex is nothing special with offers.
The range of offers is ok (due to the scale of the company) but it’s still just a list of offers that customer has to periodically check to activate, same as other banks/cards.
I’d like to see something innovative in the offers mechanism from someone. For example let’s say I am about to purchase something online and Monzo has an offer available from a competing retailer. It would be good if when going through SCA Monzo could alert me that there is an offer from a competing retailer which I might want to check out before completing the purchase.
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Bingo, monzo needs to work harder on these offers.
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Fair enough actually. That would all be very sick.
I still think it’s a step up in terms of ease but agree not anything innovative.
There was literally nothing that even peaked my interest in Monzo plus offers.
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For every few crappy offers, there is always one very good offer.
Amex website says that I’ve now saved £576 on both of my cards (Gold & Amex). None of it was through any luxury, unafforadble brands.
Some examples:
- I’ve used the £100 off £400 spend on Microsoft twice, once on my Xbox and second time on my Surface Pro.
- Multiple Tesco/Waitrose/Sainsbury’s/Morrison’s offers, they saved me around £50 in total.
- Got £75 off my iPad from Apple
- Got £50 off of a stay at Hilton and another £30 off stay at Marriott
- Got £25 off Garmin Edge at Halfords
- Got £100 off of Nest cameras on Google Store to re-sell them
- £10 off BP
- Also got some smaller offers like currently ongoing 5% off Five Guys or points offers, especially for BA.
To be clear, those are things that I was planning to buy at some point. Offers usually sped up the purchase, but except for Nest which I have re-sold, everything else is still giving me a lot of use. I currently have £100 off £700 purchase at Dell. I may buy something to re-sell as I don’t need anything from Dell at the moment.
I know majority of the offers are bad, but there are usually some good ones. I don’t expect Monzo to offer anything even remotely similar, but current offers feel like affiliate discounts more than anything else.