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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
That’s fine, you are absolutely entitled to your view, and if it’s important for you, the only way to “vote” as such would be to take your business elsewhere.
But in my opinion () we cant be worried about what might happen in the future. We can only evaluate what we see right now.
So much has changed in 2 years for all the FinTechs that it’s very hard to predict the future.
It’s the same on all forums. I was unhappy about “FreeTrade”, and it turned out that it’s more for investors and not for traders. But hey ho, got shot down pretty much everywhere. Each forum you go to is pretty much filled with people who start off as “Wee, I am an early adopter, I must be something special”, and bury their head in sand. Only positive comments are approved. Negative comments are met with snide remarks, derision and general “talk to customer service, we do not want to know” response. So I have mostly switched to “read-only” mode these days and let the frequent posters carry on. I was spending too much time posting anyway, when I have work to do!
I believe this is a temporary suspension of the offering until another partner is lined up - due to the popularity of these accounts.
I’ve not had one of these since Sep 2017 but when I did, it didn’t come across as ‘spam’. It was worded in such a way that I might be able to save money. This is subjective, though, and may not be to everybody’s taste.
Completely untrue and subjective. I think we’ve already come to the conclusion that packaged accounts and certain elements of these accounts don’t suit everyone but they may suit someone.
Do you have a source?
Waiting times have decreased massively since hired more COps. The new starters will be getting up to speed and I know there are people on the sidelines ready to start and get those waiting times down even further (I’m one of them).
The overdraft charge doesn’t suit everyone but have said, on numerous occasions, that this will be “constantly reevaluated”.
It’s disappointing that you won’t be staying with Monzo to see what comes out of this trial but I wish you the best of luck in finding an alternative that suits you.
Thanks for the article, very interesting. Think it’s also great to see that Tom was invited to that inquiry along with executives from the high street banks.
In the same committee hearing, the banking director of the Post Office Martin Kearsley told MPs that it was in discussion with UK banks to renegotiate the service it offers them, revealing it lost money on it.
Perhaps we’ve reached a point where banks will have to start charging for these services before they’re no longer viable and available to nobody, regardless of bank.
I don’t know if and how Monzo can defend charging for Post Office cash deposits.
If I remember correctly, the argument about the £1 fee for PayPoint was that PayPoint charge Monzo a fee and Monzo opted for Paypoint because the current set of cards aren’t compatible with Post Office POS machines. But… that if they had gone for Post Office (hypothetically), like Starling etc, that there would not have been a fee.
Charging for cash deposits when it’s not necessary (which is my understanding with the Post Office) seems like a cash grab.
Let’s try and keep this on topic! Some pointers for other places to talk about stuff:
For Post Office deposits, let’s chat here
For PayPoint deposits, press 2, it’s here
On overdraft fees, please say “my name is my password clearly after the beep” jump over here (with a little more regulation background here if you’re so inclined).
And - just a suggestion - where we have different opinions on things, let’s accept that and move on. Otherwise the thread will continue with a ‘my opinion is better than your opinion’ exchange for a bit before getting locked - that would make me sad.
To counter that point though, all these services cost money. Post Office will have a charge, PayPoint have a charge, all the “free” things associated with many banks come have a charge in there somewhere - and the banks need to make that money back to be viable businesses.
I think to the Monzo message of “Make money work for everyone” - that doesn’t mean making all these services free.
Traditional banks tend to make money out of their charging infrastructure; unarranged overdraft fees, etc. Basically the worse at managing your money you are, the more profitable to a bank you will be. To me, it sounds like Monzo isn’t doing this approach, and so has to think about how to maintain revenue in other ways.
hired more COps. The new starters will be getting up to speed and I know there are people on the sidelines ready to start and get those waiting times down even further (I’m one of them).
- that would make me sad.