This has backfired in the past with the whole road map (with deadlines) issue that was attempted, i’m surprised it would be done again, or at the very least not without something to actually offer.. Or! at the very least at a price which isnt (sorry) quite frankly insulting for what is essentially a public QA test.
I’m just.. baffled. Why would you charge for this?
But charging people to help you with market research is shameful.
No.
You’ve published 3 things I’d get for my money.
So as of now, £72 is shameful for a different colour card, a URL nobody will use and the ability to unlock some more paid for purchases in the future. Maybe.
If you pay me £1,000,000 right now, I’ll offer you a tin of baked beans and sometime in the future, a golden nugget… maybe. Or I might ask you for another £100 a month for that nugget.
Sounds fair? Right?
Your model is severely flawed. Maybe stop arguing with people and realise you have totally messed up.
Charging people to do QA is atrocious behaviour. You should be PAYING them at best, and selecting volunteers at worst. Just wow.
And there it is.
Unreal.
OK, I’m actually going home now. But before I do, I’d love people who are critical to take a read of this:
This was our blog post to launch the Monzo Alpha, all the way back in 2015. I’d highly recommend the " What’s an “Alpha”? What should I expect?" section.
I though id contribute in here as I can’t see any other post about Barclays, but I still use my Barclays account as my main account due to the rewards and perks and from what I am seeing won’t be changing anytime soon. I love Monzo and have been here since the prepaid card days and have been early adopter to many things even the short lived marketplace trial. I did sign up to Bulb using that!
With Barclays Blue Rewards I pay £3 per month but get £7 cash back in to my blue rewards wallet for having two direct debits £3.50 cash back for each each £1 cash back for having a loan with them. May not be a lot but £4 for actually doing nothing but banking with them.
I can then if I remember to use the Barclays app get varying different cash back for shopping through clicking the link in app say 4% by using iTunes , 8% for using Expedia to name but a few.
I am Barclays Premier customer too, no annual or monthly cost but you do need to pay a certain gross amount per year to the account with this I get free access to English Heritage site, free Annual membership to the Gourmet Society and Access to Picture House Cinemas upto 40% off annual membership and something I haven’t used upto 20% off using APH for Airport Parking & Hotel Packages.
Barclays Premier also gives me preferential access to the Bank and financial packages i.e better rate loans, ISAs etc and also have a customer account manager who calls every other month or so. I understand she is just selling Barclays products but has got me a better rate loan a couple of times.
I then pay £10.50 per month for additional package of Worldwide Travel Insurance, RAC Cover, Lounge Access and it has something else I can’t think for the life of me what it is.
I think everyone likes to feel they are getting something and I am perfectly happy with the rewards I am currently receiving from Barclays but always interested in what Monzo have to say.
£3 as an early adopter changing to £6 is a lot of money for very little at the moment and I understand its early days so ill keep watching.
I guess Monzo are technically paying the people who try the current version of Monzo Plus £3 per month, since the actual offering will be £6.
Also, Monzo need to know that the people providing feedback are the same people who are willing to pay for the service they are testing, so a fee makes sense.
As it stands, I’ll pass.
The features on offer aren’t there yet, and I don’t think they’re worth £3. My partner really likes the lighter blue — it’s basically his favourite colour — but I think both the blues look super conservative. I like that the Hot Coral card is rather striking — but either way, I use the physical card once every two months to take out cash for my haircut. I like that my monzo.me name is just my name. And swag is nice, but I worry I’d have to make a trip to an event or the main office to get it — and at the end of the day it’s probably something yous have around the office already.
For me to consider it, Plus needs to have an impact on the app and my account, rather than just being a few nice-to-haves for people who might want them.
You’d make me part with my cash if you offered a few of the following:
I could probably think of more if I gave it more time but these kinda feel like table stakes if the plan is to charge £72/year!
The time for asking people what they want and finding out what price they’d pay for it is not after the product/service has gone live, it’s before! As someone had mentioned earlier in the thread, you had the chance to collect thoughts on this already in another thread 2 months ago - Monzo Plus - Small Scale Trial.
Don’t get me wrong, you could easily change my perspective of Monzo Plus if you made it worthwhile down the line, but you shouldn’t be testing what works in a paid product after you’ve already asked people to pay for it.
But this isn’t relevant. People expect early iterations and the chance to contribute opinions, which is great. That article doesn’t mention being expected to pay for the privilege of being an early alpha tester!
I understand that some people have their concerns about Monzo Plus and probably think the £3 is steep because this is what will be offered throughout and forever, but like all products, they are slowly built upon over time. I think what @Feathers says here is pretty decently implied from the OP, no?
That’s all that I have to say that’s positive or hopeful though. £3/month for something like this is a fairly steep right now. Events are nice for people… If you live in London, otherwise it’s an expensive trip for those “up north” like me to come down, and it’s horribly expensive for the planet and the environment.
Under the base package I would love to see device and mobile phone insurance, considering that we use your product with our devices and phones - it’s a little bit funny that we’re not getting the offer of protection for our phones when we use the bank through them.
This is something I would very much want to see - something to give back to those who are paying for the premium product. I can imagine that Monzo will want to make some money with this, but at the same time, with £6 per month for everyone involved, it shouldn’t be too hard to make a deal with company that offers decent interest rates?
The minimalist in me smiles. I would love the idea of pretty much removing anything from the card that I can get away with feasibly, and getting the information through the app instead. Add custom designs to that (or at least a custom colour) and it would be even better.
Monzo replied to investors who were concerned about the cost to the business for receiving a new investor card, when they invested in the last crowdfunding round. They said that the cost to the business was “about £2.50” per card, so surely we can be offered more if we’re willing to be putting money in to having personalised cards? I am also all for ditching plastic and getting a (recycled) metal card, if possible. 
Found the post…
I’ve gone on too much here though, so… 
I currently pay £13.50 per month for mobile phone insurance, travel insurance, home emergency cover and a free £500 overdraft. It feels like reasonable value.
I’d be willing to switch to something comparable if offered by Monzo, who have so far led me to feel both loyalty and goodwill. However, the proposed Monzo Plus offer neither matches my expectations, nor lives up to that sense of loyalty I feel.
My expectation is that by buying such insurance services in bulk, Monzo ought to be able to come up with a compelling offer that offers value.
I’m still having issues accessing it
Works fine if you open it via slack
I want phone insurance and car breakdown cover
As I understand £3 later £6 is like subscription fee to access other benefits like travel insurance ?
For £6 a month increased abroad withdrawals should be included in my opinion
try this https://gadgick.dev/monzo.html
Seems like this has been released with no real incentives yet.
Think I’ll hold off until device insurance is available.
If there’s 247 comments and 2000 sign ups…
That’s the vocal minority.
I read the above as being a pretty clear guarantee of change.