Monzo Plus - Small Scale Trial

I’m fine with the research element but as people are locked in for 6 or 12 months to be guinea pigs/beta testers and are paying for the privilege, it just doesn’t sit right with me.

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No one has said that they will be? When Monzo releases the full offerings they made be able switch / cancel it all together?

It’d be good to get clarification on that though.

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I’d imagine they can’t do that because then it’s not a fair test.

I’m struggling to work out what you’re so upset about?

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I’m sorry I must have missed that.

Did Monzo say that this will be Monzo Plus Beta? That things might not work correctly etc?

Or are you conflating that Monzo are trialing whether people will purchase this and a fictitious idea of them selling a beta product?

Because if people willingly choose a none-beta product, clearly reading that it’s a 6 month contract and happily hand over their money, then using the phrase ‘locked in to be a guinea pig’ sounds really disingenuous of you. (I have a sneaking suspicion you might know that)

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I think it fully depends on what data Monzo are hoping to gain from this which we don’t have sight of, unfortunately.

As someone else mentioned above, if you accept the offering knowing it’s a six month contract and you’re happy with the terms then it’s all good. I don’t understand why that doesn’t sit right with people? No one is forcing anyone to sign up to something they don’t want to…

edit: the blog post does explain the data they are looking to gain from it, and doesn’t mention what will happen to the trial users if they change the offerings in the near future, so we’re all just guessing. Making Monzo: An update on Monzo Plus

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You’re completely wrong. My post is in response to all those saying that “this is just a trial” or it’s “user research”. If that is the case, then it seems wrong to lock people in to a six or twelve month contract. If it’s user research and “the final packages may be completely different” (to paraphrase many other posts), then I don’t think it’s right, at least on a moral level.

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I wonder if @luba could clear this up? Are the trial users 100% locked in or will they be given the option to downgrade / upgrade as the trial / rollout progresses?

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@danbeddows this post confirms that Monzo are carrying out A/B testing. It also strongly suggests that the packages/deals are likely to change. If people sign up for something that ties them into a monthly subscription for six or twelve months when Monzo already know that the packages are going to be improved, it seems unfair.

The reason for Monzo doing this is, as confirmed by Simon, A/B testing. That is why I asserted that people would be “locked in to be a guinea pig” and I stand by my comment. Nothing disingenuous about it at all.

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Transparency is great but a line has to be roughly drawn somewhere. So much goes on everyday at monzo, I’m sure it’s hard enough for the staff to know everything that’s going on let alone have the time to publicly post everything.
They share highlights answers when things require it, which to me is a lot better than most companies :slight_smile: .

Imo I don’t see why this matters, the user is agreeing to pay x amount for x months for x service. If they are happy at the time then that’s fine and their choice.
Monzo haven’t ruled out the ability to upgrade people onto a newer offer if released, or the option to terminate it early if there was a better option announced. They may not do this but we don’t know that yet.

A lot of companies do this at times, you don’t often hear about it.
I believe they wouldn’t get the right data they need if they don’t run it live. In a lab environment people would respond differently and may say they’d be interested in signing up. But you can’t prove they ever would unless you run a trial.

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I think one of the main issues people are having with the current Monzo Plus option is the branding.

In its current form of Monzo Plus, Monzo seem to want you to buy a subscription to a tiered Monzo account which offers the benefits of a different card and travel insurance.

If Monzo had offered the ability to purchase annual travel insurance from within the app, and maybe threw in the higher free foreign atm withdrawal limit as a little extra for booking through Monzo, I don’t think people would be having as much of a problem with it*.

I also think people wouldn’t mind if Monzo offered a monthly subscription or one off fee for a different coloured card.

Basically people would prefer the ability to buy separate products for separate fees from within the app. Monzo could even have all the insurance product offers and different card options in a section of the app called “Monzo Plus”.

*Some people would still have had issues with the price & quality of the insurance on offer.

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Because you don’t generally get a true impression of what customers actually want from products until they have an offering in front of them.

Where I work, we have frequent discussions with our customers and work with them to make detailed designs about how the product will look and work. However, we don’t know whether they will actually like it until they get their hands on it and can try it for real.

They quite frequently come back after we have provided what was discussed with alternative ideas for how they would like the product to be changed. Because seeing and/or hearing about what could be offered is very different from actually getting offered the product and can provide very different data.

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Similar to what some others have said…

They don’t just want feedback and opinions. That information has its limitations, in particular it does not necessarily translate to behaviour.

They want to know how manipulating their offerings affects behaviour. This is more costly and time consuming to obtain than survey information, but ultimately more robust.

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What’s interesting now is that all of the majority discussion is around whether the bank should be allowed to trial anything at all with a bit of ‘interpreting Monzo’s values for them’ thrown in. It has even moved away from whether the products on offer are actually any good!

Personally, in the other thread, I’ve already said I don’t see a place for Plus accounts in banking. I don’t have one and never have. The components they’re constructed of are things I don’t buy and I am strongly against the tiered concept. So, as I have no interest in the content on offer or the idea, I wouldn’t consider this for a moment.

But I don’t translate that into not allowing Monzo to offer this to other people, even though I don’t agree with the idea. That’s where I fall of the train that others are debating.

Should Monzo not be looking to attract the ‘packaged account brigade’? Is that the arguement being made? To pick up a point made earlier on the whole ‘making money work for everyone’ concept. If some of the ‘everyone’ only want packaged accounts are they now excluded from having their money made to work for them?

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Possibly true. Let’s look forward to an improved round two if that’s the case that’s demonstrated (still not for me though).

I’d be more interested to learn, what research lead to these offerings?

That just comes across as rude to me. Why is it necessary? If people want to pay because they like the offer, why belittle them?

:man_shrugging:

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Except they aren’t paying for nothing… they’re paying for a product that you don’t see the value in.

Just because you don’t see the value in it, doesn’t mean that all other also won’t.

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That’s not wholly a surprise! :wink:

So, are you suggesting that the people this is being offered too aren’t clever enough to value it correctly?

We three are all clear that we wouldn’t pay for it so if that carries across those who actually have the opportunity then Monzo have their answer and move on to (hopefully) better things.

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Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this the place to state your opinion without needing to justify it, or constantly answer other people “suggesting” you’ve said something else?

Don’t get me wrong, nothing new has been said for days now, and it’s grown very tiresome.

It feels like the only reason this thread has gone the way it has, is because people are trying to argue an opinion, or justify a decision that Monzo has taken when it doesn’t need justifying (Monzo can do whatever they like as they will always have more info than us mere mortals have).

Perhaps others aren’t participating in the thread because they’d be questioned about their own opinions and asking to justify them?

I’m happy with plus accounts, although the current Monzo ones seem to have missed the mark (certainly for me anyway).

Very happy to see them developed into something that challenges the status quo and can be market leading though.

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