If we’re talking about setting a yard stick, then we should be benchmarking against American Express and other credit cards instead of current accounts.
Earning points on every transaction and then having a marketplace to exchange those points for airlines, hotels etc would be huge.
We should also look at the US market when it comes to value add accounts. Those products and benefits blow anything we have in the UK out of the water, and it’s those things that other banks don’t offer here that would add value and appeal to those that are holding back from switching.
Would an insurance bundle be better? So you would get travel insurance, mobile device insurance etc in a Monzo Plus bundle. I don’t know if the extra cash and emergency cash thing seems worth it and that makes it just a travel insurance purchase at £11 a month which seems expensive.
I ask because it is easy here on this forum and elsewhere to be a critic, but both harder and more constructive to suggest alternative, workable suggestions
In the spirit of that point, and because I have not added my thoughts to this thread yet, I am not sure any offer would attract me to this or any other add on package by a bank
I have never had mobile phone insurance, but have also never needed it across 20+ years of ownership
I paid such a paltry sum for my annual travel insurance recently through MSM that it would be hard to compete on that alone
I have contents insurance with my legacy bank that probably could be beaten on price, but by a package of things I do not use, maybe not
I think I am personally much more likely to be positively impacted by things like energy switching - I have been hopeless about finding the time to do that down the years
I’ve said most of them in other threads and I didn’t think people wanted to know again as I do go on about it.
The 50p a day overdraft fee is the first one that comes to mind.
As I just think that a bank that is interested in making your money work for you and all of that, wouldn’t be so expensive vs APR*. Yes it’s transparent I’ll give them that but it’s still really expensive. For people like me that use their overdraft it’s as easy as doing the maths, £2.50 or less then a pound# for 5 days using your overdraft?
*Other banks charge similar amounts nowadays as Monzo do for overdrafts but I happen to have a current account with a overdraft that charges APR.
#The above depends on how much you borrow from your overdraft and for how long. The more and the longer you stay in your overdraft is the more you’ll pay.
Another one is the paying in of money. Monzo charges to pay in money into your own account? So I’m paying Monzo for Monzo to keep my money less us not forget without interest. That’s another thing as where is the interest that should of been paid on everyone’s account going? Who’s eating the interest?
For me the 2nd added to the first one makes me think once again as great as Monzo is it’s gonna be hard for them to win over the unbanked, that will probably be using and paying in cash on a regular basis.
As it’s been said by Tom, Monzo will not be the bank for everyone and the more I look at it, it probably isn’t the bank for me and that’s fine. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. (That refers to the bank, not myself. )
The average salary (100 thousand +) paid in to Monzo is higher then mine so maybe the average full Monzo customer doesn’t have to worry about such trivial things as above.
Is there anything else that doesn’t align with what you’d want out of your “main bank”?
I only ask as the FCA are changing the way overdrafts work and so Monzo will have to, due to regulation change to an APR based overdraft fee.
And I think (please correct me if I am wrong) paying cash in will be changing soon also.
The only think left then being the paying of interest - which I would hope as Monzo begin to make more money per customer won’t be too far away.
In short, I think Monzo aren’t the best, but they are trying to change some of the things you have outlined - so is there any room for your mind to change?
If they change the overdraft and the paying in of money I’ll more then likely switch to them. As for paying interest the bank I am with at the moment doesn’t offer interest either. (Smile bank)
It was on a video presentation that Monzo did about something and Tom said that the average salary paid into monzo was the above. I was surprised as well.
Just playing devils advocate here so no offence intended, but why does Monzo have to change?
It can’t be healthy financially to continually go into your overdraft and be reliant on it? Does some change not need to happen at your end too? You could utilise all the budgeting features etc that Monzo provide to work out where you’re overspending and get back on top.
I understand that this is sometimes easier said than done obviously
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