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
Will they have a competitive rate though is the question when this comes in.
Will still require a fee though, again behind the market on this that use the exact same service
If other banks start charging for it then fair enough ill reevalute but until then thats a big ex in the monzo column.
Its an odd one, the more ive been weighing it all up recently the thing that has kept me using primarily using monzo is that i pushed it so hard to my mates at the beginning and it has made bill splitting increadibly easy with these people which is its saving grace.
Even if they don’t, it isn’t really on Monzo to have a good overdraft rate, they are at the end of the day providing credit.
I know what you mean that it isn’t the 50p vs APR but the actual cost of the overdraft - but that is Monzo’s stance.
I know that other app-only banks provide a fee-free deposit service but that doesn’t mean Monzo has to. They are an app only bank - they’ve clearly weighed up the pros and cons of offering this and chosen against it. There is nothing stopping someone paying the cash into their old legacy and moving it over. If that isn’t something you want to do then I guess Monzo isn’t the right fit.
For me these things don’t impact my overall experience, I’m honestly of the opinion that you’ll be hard pressed to find a bank that does everything exactly how you’d want and have to deal with the things you don’t - but I understand that each customer is different and has different needs and wants.
See with these things I always think back to the reason I opened my Monzo account, back in the pre-paid days as a holiday card and it worked perfectly so I decided to see where it took me when the CA was launched and migrated over to.
Now I think of Monzo as a fully-fledged bank and the reason people open an account is because they think they do something better than their current bank? that a fair assumption to make? Not many people will open another bank account unless theres a primary reason.
The reason people open a specific bank account is because it beter suits their needs or they have a truly unique feature that makes you think wow that would work so well for me.
Will Monzo plus pull people into switching to Monzo?
Personally I dont think so. I do however think that as some people have pointed out it could be a good money earner for Monzo for those who are lazy and would rather pay mid-market prices for the ease of use.
I like this point, what are the things you find that monzo provides that youve found other banks dont add up to on?
I am the same - I was in pre-paid and just loved how Monzo worked - I’ve not seen anything from any other banks that would make me move over (apart from Dozens) but that isn’t a fully fledged bank yet and so may stay on the backburner as a “savings account”.
I think you’ve cracked the top runners here - but for me I don’t need a packaged account and I’ve been abroad 3/4 times since the £200 atm and I’ve been fine - I never take that much cash out as I always have cash with me anyways.
I don’t think personally that is what it is designed to do in the main - its to plug a gap where Monzo can make money - some people will take it up and that will bring some profitability to Monzo.
They’re in a bit of a weird period where they have to start trying to become profitable and that may mean some things are put to the back - which would be great for the user but not the company.
So for me,
My old legacy would take literal DAYS to tell me how much I actually had left in my account - it was like an episode of university challenge to work out if I had enough money to go out or not.
You had money in an account, that was it, no siphoning off, no intuitive savings possibilities, nothing. It sat there and accrued interest sure but that is all it did.
Monzo has pots, and they allow me to categorise off things and its all easy to see and easy to withdraw should I need to.
I know that other players do this and allow for IFTTT and Round-ups but I wouldn’t move to them because they have the same things Monzo have.
I like the look of Dozens and what they are trying to do with things atm and could be swayed over there once they are fully set-up.
It could be my demographic (recent graduate, not on big money yet) which makes me the sort of fit the slots in neatly with what Monzo offer, I’m not sure.
All in all, I’m more interested in where Monzo could go in the next 2-3 years than what they are doing right now - “rome wasn’t built in a day”.
I don’t have the figures unfortunately - just had a quick look to see if I could find anything.
I think that’s very unlikely to be true. Seems like there was a misunderstanding somewhere? I’ll try and do some digging.
My point was more if I was to have never heard of the two until just today Starling seems to do what Monzo does with a few more in the yes column in terms of lack of fees.
I’d like to see committed spending pots and locked pots take a higher priority. These are truly unique aspects and selling points as opposed to things like Monzo plus that will be offered but not beat the competition.
Also really like the idea of dozens and excited to see how they turn out, competition can only be a good thing among them all i suppose.
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