Monzo Plus – you asked us to make it simpler, so we’ve created bundles

Monzo Chat Monzo Plus
#741

I like bundles, but I’m not aware of any bundle that offers any real benefit over going direct and buying from the provider yourself, maybe the first direct flex account and the barclays travel pack plus, but generally banks don’t offer any saving apart from ease of having it all in one place and there is a cost benefit to that.

No point pretending that bundles offer a real monetary value, as right now it is not factual for monzo, that may change over time.

The benefit of bundles is the ease of getting them and the services etc they offer, not the value. Of course banks play on the value but it’s strictly not true.

Monzo said it was going to be a game changer and be different, its now doing what every other high Street bank does, offer a bundle option with no flexibility. It decides what is in the bundles not you.

1 Like
#742

I didn’t particularly like those responses either, but you can’t call for more communication and then be rude when someone goes out of their way to give their own opinion.

Be angry with Monzo as a whole, not the individuals who would appear to be trying to help.

36 Likes
#743

I absolutely agree @nickh as much as we might disagree with the position Monzo have taken, its great to have the level of feedback they give us. If they get rude comments that might slow down or even stop.

5 Likes
#744

:wave: I generally agree with Monzo but on this occasion I find the responses lacking.

Anyway thanks for trying to unpack something no one is confident in.

Have a good weekend.

#745

I agree. but (in my view, at least), the particular responses I’m referring to crossed the line between trying to help and being malicious misinformation.

#746

A quick reminder of the code of conduct

It doesn’t matter if you agree with what staff are saying or not, please keep it civil

16 Likes
#747

Seeing as moving forwards these won’t be an option for the general customer/no option once the current period ends I’ll leave it as is

#748

I might have missed the response but what’s the plan now?

  • Have Monzo finished for the week or are they working to put things right?
  • Are they reevaluating?
  • Are they waiting for more people to comment on here?
  • Putting things on hold?
  • Continuing with their plan?
  • How long are we expected to wait before they decide what to do?
#749

As far as I know, it’s this. With the usual caveats of seeing how things go and iterating on that.

#750

Continue to comment but the plan is clear. They will move forward with bundles and see what the data tells them

1 Like
#751

TLDR: Bundles benefit buyers by giving them more at a lower combined price while giving the seller more overall revenue.

http://cdixon.org/2012/07/08/how-bundling-benefits-sellers-and-buyers/

#752

Disclaimer: apologise about the chart not being the nicest as I was working on it on the tube.
Ok here goes nothing (also know that you peeps at monzo won’t see this till Monday.) However - what do you all think about the bundles with semi customisable offers ?

What i mean by this is that Monzo keep the bundles for the potential majority who find those easier, but for people who want to be able to choose individual items - give them the ability to choose a curated item that will most likely be the most sort after service within the bundle then charge that individual item/service for a slightly higher price to accommodate the issue thats been mentioned about being costly/difficult to build full customisable offers.

e.g

  • Travel = Travel insurance; cost ~£6 a month(£4 was the original cost)
  • Home = Phone insurance: cost ~£7 a month (i don’t know how much it would have been :man_shrugging:t2:
  • Swag = No option because its fairly low cost for people who want to pay for it
  • The saver = Don’t know either till we see what is/if something is offered

Now in the mean time - the bundle will be here for a little bit i think (and i will sign up as it works well for me, i would still like some customisations as well like most of you - i’ve said this before)
But maybe it could be taken into consideration a Bundle + Part customisation offer?

Anyway, I have attached a graph (it has a key to make things easier if you get confused) to show the flow of things and what I mean :point_down:t2:

700D5D78-D8F6-4552-8F04-5A64065C8467
700D5D78-D8F6-4552-8F04-5A64065C8467.jpeg5906×3544 562 KB

1 Like
#753

Such a flawed blog post - read the comments. It’s also making the assumption that buyers put a value on every item in the bundle.

#754

What a roller coaster this thread has been

I hope Monzo begin to rethink their user research approaches for paid features.

I work in food and drinks - the place I work for once had a product that we all thought would do well, it offered customers something it seemed like they wanted from our research.

We went through rounds and rounds of product testing, consumer facing feedback, sampling vs our competitors in a similar space using a not insignificant sample size. All results seemed favourable - “I would buy this product”.

The problem was when it actually launched we put zero budget behind actually marketing it to people, and had made no real attempt at explaining what was different and why it was different to our consumers.

We eventually stopped making the product with the view that “consumers don’t want it”.

I guess a big part of the problem if you’re trying to get a shift from the status quo is adequately explaining to the people why they should be on board.

If the sign up flow was confusing, or the pricing structure not clear, I suspect the first place to focus is on how Monzo market it, not the product itself.

3 Likes
#755

very disappointing, wanted a simple mobile phone/gadget insurance not full blown home contents insurance at a very high price by a relatively unknown insurance provider. Come on Monzo get a grip on this, looks like I will not be renewing my Plus when it runs out. And agree, who are Monzo talking to, as they certainly have not asked me. Perhaps other Monzo customers can confirm they have advised Monzo on their needs so we can have a poll.

#756

This thread is the tops. People logging in for the first time for a year just to stick the boot in. Going to be hard to best it

7 Likes
#757

Which is completely wrong(against basic behavioural economics)

1 Like
#758

Doesn’t that show the strength of feeling though and how spectacularly wrong they’ve judged this? If people who don’t usually use the forum are logging in to voice their dissatisfaction, then it isn’t just the “tiny minority” who use the forum regularly who are upset.

1 Like
#759

I rather suspect that the reason Bundles work while Customised Bolt-Ons don’t is because while Monzo may be able to arrange for the combination of A, B, C to be cheap, that arrangement doesn’t stand up when it’s A, B, X; A, Y, C; Z, B, C - or any other combination thereof.

I’m also reminded of the once hugely popular Humble Bundle software packs, where the majority of developers providing software were probably counting on people: (a) paying the default amount, (b) leaving the default split; and therefore probably hated people like me who would assess the bundle, figure out how much I was comfortable paying, and then carefully moving all the sliders to make sure the money went to where I wanted it to go - which also meant moving plenty of sliders to zero for the items I either couldn’t use (no OS version), didn’t want (am old enough to know what game genres I never want to play), or already own (I’ve already given them money, but they can’t see that).

Replace ‘Humble Bundle’ with ‘Monzo’ and the games with the bolt-on features, and it’s easier to see why - from a commercial perspective, it may not necessarily stack up. And also considering why a company would rather be included in a mandatory bundle (where they have a defined and regular income) than a fully bolt-on solution (where they may never see an appropriate return on any investment they’ve made if not enough people pick them to bolt on).

It’s a complicated subject, I think I may be drifting slightly now and losing track of the general point I’m trying to make among all the detail.

tl;dr, it’s very easy to understand that commercial considerations favour one approach over the other. It’s difficult, though, to stomach being told that decisions made for commercial reasons are, allegedly, customer-driven decisions. We’re all grown-ups here, aren’t we? I’d be more OK with Monzo saying “We tried to disrupt the sector but it didn’t add up, so we’re aligning closer to the sector now (as the alternative is to dump it entirely)” than I am with “We believe this is best for the customer (really) and this is the only reason we’re changing it (honestly).”

7 Likes
#760

It mainly is the “tiny minority” today though isn’t it? A lot of names keep popping up. I get they are upset, but there is anger and persistence as well. I blow far more than £3 a month on stuff far more inane than my nice red badge, so I am chill about this right now

Anyhow there’s not going to be anyone from Monzo around this thread till Monday, so I am going to mute it for the weekend and hope it all blows itself out

Have a great weekend all and don’t let Plus ruin it for you :slight_smile:

3 Likes