Hi all, I thought I’d quickly jump in with a little bit of context. I’m one of the people who’s been working on this and I have been pushing both for the current pricing, as well as the early release strategy.
I would like to share some thoughts on the vision we have for Monzo Plus, and clarify a few smaller points that were raised in this thread, too.
Vision for Monzo Plus
I really really love an iterative approach to product development. Those of you who were around at the time will remember our very first prepaid card launch events. You had to physically come to our office to get a card. The first thing we told you was the 10 things that were broken about it. You gave us your feedback, we acted on it and over time developed an amazing app together.
This process is what has made Monzo successful. But it only works when we share the vision of where we are going and get everyone onboard with that first. You may have been testing a cobbled together app prototype, but you knew where it was going. Our website showed that narrative very clearly and was already almost the same as it is now. Monzo would help you feel in control of your money. It would take the stress out of it.
I think this is where we’ve fallen short with this announcement. We said “Sorry, this is not finished - please give feedback”, but we didn’t paint a picture of what Monzo Plus is going to be like in the “good future” (The “good future” is a narrative device we use a lot at Monzo to avoid getting into arguments about when exactly something can be done by)
In the good future, Monzo Plus is going to be all about customisation and convenience and it will definitely compete on price with the best bundled accounts in the market.
A lot of people on this thread mentioned bundled accounts from other banks. Now imagine how much better it would be if you could take away the one feature you don’t use from those bundled accounts (e.g. travel insurance from Nationwide FlexPlus because I already have travel insurance) and pay a reduced monthly fee as a result? Or conversely, imagine if your needs changed - perhaps you bought a car or a property or started a family. With Monzo Plus, you can quickly add a couple of relevant services such as insurance or roadside assistance to subscription. You won’t need to worry about whether the vendors are any good or whether you have all the information required to sign up at hand. You will effortlessly sign up for everything with a few simple taps.
The Monzo plus base subscription will have enough benefits to be worth it, but the real power will come from the optional extras. Right now there are two paid extras. in the future there will be dozens. They will be priced competitively with off-the-shelf solutions but you get added convenience and peace of mind accessing them through Monzo. We also know there is demand for different styles and kinds of cards, too. We’re experimenting with more high end finishes and even metal cards. This won’t be important to everyone, but for those who care, they will have the option to get such a card, too.
That is what we will be building over the next 12 months. I have no doubt that in the end we will have an incredibly competitive offering. I would not be surprised if in a few years time customers (and perhaps the regulator, too) started demanding this kind of customisation from other banks’ bundled accounts.
I’m super excited to go on that journey with you to see once again what we can build together. But it is also totally fine for some of you to say that you’ll sit this one out and wait until next year before becoming a plustomer. There will also be many of you who will never use this feature and that is totally fine, too. Even the most popular bundled accounts in the industry are used by less than 10% of account holders.
Smaller clarifications
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We will add benefits to the Monzo Plus subscription that will justify the price. We debated whether or not to publish what those are and when they will be released but decided against it, because it isn’t certain when we might be able to add what. For example, I hope that we can offer increased deposit interest rates and some form of rewards soon, but I’m not sure what we can commit to, yet. In retrospect, we may have been too cautious about this. We are current reevaluating this and may come back next week with a 2019 plan for Monzo Plus
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A lot of you are shareholders and have shown a keen interest in our finances in the past, so I thought I’d share a quick note on pricing. Pricing new products is always hard. After we’ve rolled out additional benefits and extras throughout 2019, we’ll definitely check in on the pricing. It may turn out that it was too high. In that case we can always adjust it down - that is much easier than increasing pricing.
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It’s super hard to compare pricing for bundled accounts so I’d be a bit careful with that. For example, the pricing of many legacy banks bundled accounts relies on extremely low usage rates of the benefits. This is something the FCA in particular has currently taking a close look at. Some fintechs (e.g. Revolut) might charge for things that are free with Monzo (24/7 service or card orders, etc). Some banks offer “free ATM withdrawals”, but add a secret spread to the exchange rate, etc… For better or for worse, we have decided that we’ll always be clear on what exactly you are and aren’t getting and will allow customers to choose only the things they need
Last but not least
Thank you so much for your feedback. I don’t comment on the forums much, but I read a lot of it and I am incredibly humbled by the amazing support, constructive challenge and enthusiasm we’ve seen through the years. Please never change 
Feel free to ask me follow-up questions and I’ll do my best to answer them - I probably won’t get around to it until Friday evening, though.
