Monzo Plus - Weekly Update 3rd October 2019 šŸ“£

Theyā€™ll be exactly the same, letā€™s not kid ourselves

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I think the statement could still be said to be valid.

Want to set budgets/make pots/split your salary/get paid early etc? - Monzo core works for you

Want more in-depth analytical features to monitor and manage your money? - Monzo Plus works for you

Monzo will make money work for everyone based on their need. At least thatā€™s how I envision it - obviously I have no idea what the new Plus features would be :sweat_smile: But thatā€™s what I would expect.

I doubt every Monzo user wants or needs advanced features. Many would be happy splitting their money into pots, putting away their savings, and setting up their budgets. Then their might be data junkies like me who would appreciate as much analysis as possible.

Obviously this all depends on what those premium features are, but I think itā€™s unrealistic for users to keep expecting a load of amazing features whilst continuing not to pay even a little bit for it. As long as an app doesnā€™t take the mickey, Iā€™m willing to pay a subscription for features I like and find useful.

People in their hunger for more seem to forget all the amazing things the Monzo app can already do.

(btw Iā€™ve cancelled my Plus for now, as all the features that work for me are currently coming from the core app and not Plus)

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Dammit, you beat me to it!

A bit concerning that 2 out of those 3 have never shipped. Not a good omen!

Monzo Pointsā€¦ canned
Marketplaceā€¦ canned
Lendingā€¦ badly rolled out

Does this mean weā€™ll have to pay to finally get IFTTT on Joint Accounts?

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This is an account closer for meā€¦ you are a bank not an app. Its concerning enough that you are releasing ā€˜betaā€™ level product like plus. There are mutliple revenue streams open to a retail bank - you shouldnā€™t need a freemium service, the fact that you feel that you might makes me concerned about keeping my money with you.

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Those are features that will help those with less money the most, the kind of customer who cant afford to pay for Plus

Those kind of features could also be a great marketing opportunity and attract more customers to use monzo or go full monzo. And from there access the savings integrations, loans etc

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Exactly. I think itā€™s very short-sighted for them to be considering this.

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It absolutely depends on what the ā€˜in-depth featuresā€™ are. As I said in my original reply, full YNAB integration could be worth paying for.

But at the moment, there are many people for whom setting budgets doesnā€™t work 100% because the Monzo categories donā€™t fit. If category splitting were to be introduced only as a paid-for feature, thatā€™s why I would object to. To take a common example (that is to say, people have posted about it in other threads today), people would like to be able to separate the money they spend on alcohol (going to the pub, supermarket trips) from the rest of their spending (so distinct from having a meal out, or their supermarket spending on food).

If that were to end up being a Plus feature as opposed to a core feature, that would be where I would object to paywalling budgeting insights.

Hope that helps clarify the distinction as I see it.

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ā€œBefore you can make this transfer let us show you this 30-second ad. Or pay Ā£15.99 per month for the ad-free package coming :soon:ā„¢ (Disclaimer: existing Monzo account holders will not be able to upgrade to this package at first, but weā€™ll email you separately after launch)ā€œ

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Looks like you have got it spectacularly wrong for the third time running and ignored everything people told you about. Basically you want to be a freemium product. Good luck with that. You are a BANK, not a subscription based app. Putting insurance etc in a premium account is one thing, even considering charging for extra budgeting features smells of desperation. As soon as you launch the features will be copied and given for free in other banks.

You REALLY need to rethink this. There is one positive (from my point of view) in that you are only planning on offering two tiers. Much more simple. And also much more like what Curve, n26 and so on do. No innovation this time around.

Edit: On the plus side at least you are communicating with people this time.

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All this time and effort spent on plus I canā€™t help but feel it would be better spent getting the basics right,

  • Improved support times - having a live chat is something that set you apart from normal banks but no one wants to wait 10+ hours for a reply and get passed around to different agents.
  • Overdrafts for joint accounts - something which should be a fundamental feature.
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Donā€™t antagonise me, youā€™ll set me off on a rant again :laughing:

The post from Monzo ends with them stating that they donā€™t like people being critical, so even though I donā€™t feel that I have been excessive with mine I tried to sign off my involvement with Plus (and the topics) in a positive way.

For some reason Coral Crew (of all people) wanted to pick holes and turn the conversation negative again. Seems like I canā€™t win either way :man_shrugging:

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From i can see reading this thread and all the others it appears to me that Monzo are just going around in circles.

I starting to believe that Monzo Plus is beginning to look like a lost cause. Theyre not really paying attention to what people want and just want to stick behind tiered accounts which is completely against the pick your own things that was on the original plan. It looks like theyre not going to budge on this and are sticking to tiered because its what suits them.
I was going to become a plustomer but now ive lost faith and think will just keep things as they are.

Get your heads out of the sand Monzo, wake up and give people what they want. A choose your own package not restricting tiered accounts where you get stuff you dont want.

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Maybe next survey have options as to what people feel Monzo should focus on with Plus being one of those options. In the scheme of things where does Plus rank on peoples wish list when it comes to support times, joint accounts, loans, credit cards. Is plus really time well spent when it seems, and feels, like it causes more hassle than itā€™s worth at times.

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Ooh where to start.

As someone else above said, I do believe there are some super powerful added value features you can genuinely put behind a paywall - but my belief is that all of these features need to be the type to enable me to save a significant amount beyond the fee.

For example, I currently pay about Ā£3.60 per month for YNAB. Over the years this has helped me saved THOUSANDS. Legitimately. This is the sort of thing I would be happy to pay for. There is a significant benefit to both user and to bank.

If you could genuinely build a ā€œzero sumā€ budgeting tool within YNAB, that was as flexible, complete and helped me budget for my entire budget (not just what is in Monzo) I would pay.

The type of thing that would be a disappointment to pay for:

  • insights based on current categorisations
  • premium ability to add custom categories.
  • insights that are equivalent to a pivot table in a spreadsheet.
  • insights based on other Monzo users spending.
  • ability to split transactions into
    Multiple categories
  • increase in total pots possible

I would absolutely not be against a ā€œintegrations marketplaceā€ - that could be super powerful, especially for 3rd party integrations.

But I do worry this is a dangerous path to go down.

Iā€™ve just signed up to Emma to see what they do for their Pro, and that seems an incredibly high monthly amount for what that Premiumisation actually is. Please donā€™t follow this route.

image

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Apologies, I was skim reading the thread at work. Absolutely agree

Also through skim reading managed to miss this:

Which should confirm that nothing existing is going behind a paywall, and that people would even be able to use pro features in some more basic way whilst still paying nothing.

Itā€™s possible that jumping into the discussion before digesting all the information is leading to a lot of the heated discussions that have taken place since the Plus launch/relaunch. Especially when you see things like this:

Which is just ridiculous. Monzo arenā€™t going to throw away everything as a growing bank to become Clash of Clans :roll_eyes:

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I genuinely donā€™t think you are trying to build the best thing for ā€˜usā€™. You are trying to build what is best for profitability. That is NOT a negative, but please be honest. We are intelligent people.

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Thankfully, as it turns out, I avoided the first iteration of Plus.

However, the following concerns me deeply as a shareholder - and as someone who has mentioned several times that I dislike Monzoā€™s approach to shipping a MVP and that this had to change as you got a larger customer base.

In that regard, I was pleasantly surprised to read recently that the new team working on Plus would take its time - and than I read your post and all that seems to be out of the window :slightly_frowning_face:

  1. The recent survey you did wasnā€™t designed well enough to gain the insights into how your customers think about premium accounts that you seem to have found.

  2. Neither has this team been working on Plus long enough to reach considered solutions - even if looking at past feedback to design a new product. As such, it appears you risk making several of the same mistakes that Monzo has made before by rushing into things. It was only 2(?) weeks ago, that the team were asking ā€œHow much would you pay?ā€ to random people on the forum when they were saying what they wanted in a package

  3. There is also the question of how much that feedback/research can be relied upon - did the previous team ignore it or is it unreliable?

  4. You seem to be moving very quickly to put together your dream plans bundles and deciding what you consider to be vfm at a sensible price point. Also, limiting it to two different ones at the moment is premature and a sign of not having done enough thinking - just copying an approach used elsewhere.

  5. You have only just shared these plans internally yet are already planning to do usability testing already and started work on the infrastructure??!!

  6. Your team simply hasnā€™t been in place long enough to design a good product - if it was that simple, Monzo would have done it in the first 3 goesā€¦

  7. The criteria should not be ā€œwhat you are happy to shipā€ but what works and adds value for potential customers - this can and probably is radically different - for reference, all you have to do is look at the concern your proposals to potentially move some features behind a paywall has caused.

Please slow down, do some (lots!) more proper research and take your time deciding what the offer might be before starting on usability testing and building infrastructureā€¦

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Only point I would make on that is that maybe usability testing is worthwhile research and having infrastructure in place may assist. I mean I see people not able to operate train doors when the button lights up and buzzes loudly, so probably should not overestimate how ready the market is for this!

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Iā€™m not saying usability testing or infrastructure are not needed - of course they are - but first Monzo need to have a good idea of what they want to offerā€¦ and then build/test it.

At the moment, it seems they are almost trying to build/test something without knowing what the product will look like or if it matches what their customers want (while still being profitable for Monzo to launch)

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Iā€™ve got to be completely honest here on 2 points:

The 1st - I was so excited to hear Monzo Plus would allow a ā€œpick ā€˜nā€™ mixā€ style of packaged account so could have what I want/need, but again, I feel like itā€™s going down the dictation route (as in you pay for an account with a bunch of products you donā€™t need just to get a couple of what you do) so I donā€™t think Iā€™ll be signing up to Plus again now Iā€™ve cancelled if thatā€™s the case.

The 2nd - I understand itā€™d be future budgeting tools that may become payable, however the whole reason why I went ā€œfull Monzoā€ was because I adored the budgeting features and what would be offered to help the people manage their finances better, as I felt Monzo stood out from the crowd as a bank. Now I feel like itā€™s becoming something that we see day in day out from legacy banks, and dare I say from political parties too?

I really do appreciate all the updates and sharing the directions Monzo is moving in so we can all be involved. I just genuinely feel that we, the community (and ultimately the people that keep Monzo going), are being listened to less and less.

This is just my opinion and Iā€™ll hold my hands up if Iā€™m wrongā€¦ I really want Monzo to succeed which is why itā€™s even more frustrating!

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