Happy New Year!
I am considering whether or not to cancel Plus. I use the virtual cards and advanced round ups as well as the credit score report, however now that Starling is offering virtual cards for free I’m at the dilemma of whether to cancel or not.
Plus needs a little bitmore IMO maybe some cash back but at the moment seems a pretty poor offering from Monzo. Any thoughts?
Only you can decide.
If you can’t, read the other dozen threads asking the same thing.
So I finally decided to try it [because I’ve been highly critical of it and thought I should test the experience] - my answer is no - I don’t think it’s worth the money.
Here’s what I think the paradox is - it’s the poorest customers who want to spend their time scratching around categorizing buying a packet of Doritos.
If like me, you are financially settled that sort of scratching is too much effort for too little benefit and the same for trends and the like (Which don’t work properly anyway for a range of reasons). I know how much I have to spend in a month because it’s a set amount after bills and investments. I don’t care if I hit zero each month on my discretionary spend.
I’m not sure that’s true. I don’t know your circumstances, but I’d say that I’m financially settled but I really enjoy all the analytics.
I think there’s a lot of things that can be done to improve the experience, but I’m not sure that they don’t work properly. On the whole, they’re an excellent addition to the app (in my view, at least).
Then it’s worth you paying for - but the core feature of analytics is unused by me and thus the value I assign to it is zero.
Oh totally.
I was more replying to the suggestion that it doesn’t work properly and that it doesn’t benefit anyone financially settled, which I think reasonable people can disagree about.
i think ‘poor’ people worry more in this day in age about utility costs rather than dorietos , the use of virtual cards is a benefit i use freqently so to me plus is worth it
I am well settled and could easily pay £20 - £50 /month for an account I need 
But, I still wouldn’t dare to say:
Totally agree 
wouldnt be of much use analysing no spending through the account anyway… except for the odd packet of Doritos 
I need it for the connected accounts. Worth it? Not anymore.
I wouldn’t make the mistake of buying into now to get hooked on one thing that keeps you paying even when it’s no longer worth it. They way they do virtual cards are another lock in mechanism folks have mentioned in the past. Premium users especially who had to keep paying the premium price to keep their cards, as moving to plus would mean losing them.
For me, flex sort of replaced virtual card. I guess starling can be usable too.
Advanced roundups - imho is a gymmick, just save regularly or with a standing order.
Credit report functionality - you can get for free via credit karma app, clear score app, and moneysavingexpert credit club beta.
Imho, if you don’t use extensive use of anything else (i.e. connect accounts with trends) then you should cancel.
If you miss things, you will be able to come back and even unarchive virtual cards.
Ahh this debate….feels like there hasn’t been one of these for a while 
The answer, of course, is subjective. Is it worth it for you
For me, no. The one thing that I still think “plus” does exceptionally well is connected accounts and linked analysis/budgeting.
Here’s where I think there should be a difference though. Do I consider £5 a month a good “app upgrade”. It’s comparable, and you do get some nice features.
Do I consider it a value for money paid bank account. Not really, no.
But that’s me, others will obviously have other opinions. So it’s a bit of a circular debate in the end.
Still would love to know what Monzo’s paid team think should happen next even if it’s just “looking at plus and revisiting what could happen next regularly”
It’s hard to say, as each person has individual needs and use-cases that are important to them. I would also stick religiously to Monzo because I believe they are genuinely trying to do something different, and their success is important to me.
If you regularly scope out what’s different with the challenger banks, then by all means keep switching banks… but I for one, will not listen to anyone on here talk about Starling, as I think it’s a one-woman (with a huge chip on her shoulder) fight to beat Monzo, by any means necessary… and I just don’t sign up for that s**t.
when i heard starling were doing virtual cards for free i thought oh right have a look , but from the screen shots of the app on google play i feel monzo has the edge , and all right its £5 a month for my virtual cards but as far as im concerned untill some thing comes along that can beat the socks off monzo then im quite happy
Agreed. The one thing I would appreciate is the ability to log into my iPhone and iPad without being forced out of the other login. And a dedicated iPad app would be nice too 
Unfortunately I don’t see the value in it, I’d genuinely love to move over to full Monzo but until they can beat the nationwide flex deal with family phone/travel insurance, and breakdown cover it’s not happening.
Having said that (and not wanting to beat the same old drum), if having plus was a requirement to get a joint account we’d both do it as we currently use Starling and we both hate it, we both find the UI cumbersome and complicated compared to Monzo.
Given the small amount of interest you earn on the monthly payment, it’s valuable to me at £3.50 a month to get Virtual Cards, more of my accounts in Monzo, and higher withdrawal amounts when travelling. But the main benefit to me is so I can contribute to a business that I believe in, that I want to stick around.
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