The biggest fail for me is around offers, and I just don’t look at them before I would look what’s on Cheddard or Super, or Airtime Rewards.
There’s no compelling reason to check or to even go and find them, sort this area out, and it’ll be something worth using
Broadly I would just want a better interest rate, and one that updates with the market rather than remaining stagnant for long periods of time.
I wouldn’t want phone insurance (I have AppleCare) and I am picky about car recovery plans as a woman that often travels alone. I need it to cover everything not just what you get at the entry level tier.
Broadly services/insurance that I can buy myself I just buy for myself. So I would be attracted by things that feel special/unattainable on my own.
Really agree with both of those points. While I would also consider coming back to Monzo if they did something in the insurance space over what exists currently, compared to other premium accounts other of these areas really would benefit from a look over and revision.
One more from me, the main reason I pay for Plus is the Google export, but the more Monzo add, the worse it gets.
Virtual Card from a Pot = Great feature. Not included, balance then not correct
Interest on a Pot = Great feature. Not included, balance then not correct
Flex = Great feature. Complete mess on the sheet
Plus/Premium “merchant” name = Blank. Requires manual intervention each month
Some of these can be got around, the last one it’s a formula.
But my balance forever over-reads by £2.49 because of money I spent on my card. I “have” to pay my Apple subscription directly from my account because otherwise it’ll be wrong.
The interest on pots, I have money I want to earn interest on, but now I use Zopa instead. That is a better rate but I’m not overly worried about a few pence here and there, I’d have rather kept it with Monzo.
Maybe nobody cares about this, so it was tacked on as an easy win in the feature list and then forgotten about but it should work with all features.
So, unsurprisingly, I have thoughts.
There’s a fundamental question, though, of What is Premium for? Is it to increase revenue, as a profit generator or to create customer stickiness? Interrelated concepts, sure, but they can lead to different outcomes.
That aside, I’d like to see four things out of Premium: financial innovation, technology innovation, partnerships and bundled services. I’ll go through those below giving some suggestions of things I’d like to see. Caveat: they’re not all going to be affordable, certainly not all together. But think of them as stimulus material for the category and calibre of stuff that would make me wow.
To stop this post going on forever, I’ll split my thoughts over a post for each of these four categories. What I would say upfront, though, that I really want a compelling offer that preferably covers all four. Or at least financial innovation and bundled services.
Financial Innovation
As a paying user, I want to see my money working harder in Monzo. This means better rates and lower fees. The sort of thing I’d be interested in is:
Doing more on Flex. Repeat the 6 month interest free offer for Premium customers. Give me three things I can Flex for a longer period interest free a year.
An interest free buffer on my overdraft. It doesn’t have to be big. But even £100 is nice to have.
Give me an overdraft pot. That’s a normal pot that accrues interest when I’m not in my overdraft, but one that can act as an offset overdraft if i go overdrawn. e.g. I put £500 in my overdraft pot and I can be overdrawn by that amount, interest free.
Top up savings pots rates: Monzo gives me 2% [edit: it’s actually worse than I thought - it’s 1.5%
Seriously, Monzo!] interest. For Premium customers, I’d like Monzo to take a savings pot and add their own interest on top. So, if OakNorth are offering 3%, I’d like Monzo to match that and pay a market leading 6%. Affordable, especially as there’s still a spread of 1% for Monzo’s profit given today’s base rate announcement. £5k would be a competitive limit.
Work out a way to make savings pots instant access. Monzo can trust that the underlying bank will transfer the money - they just need to give us access to it earlier. If it’s really a risk, then limit it to Premium customers to limit exposure.
I have some pots that I have up for once a year purchases in. I’d like to have Monzo pots with a higher interest rate than the standard Premium offer that can be used for bills payments and a place to set aside money. This can be less than the base rate, but ideally I’d like to benefit from a decent rate and a higher limit than on Premium at the moment.
Launch a Regular Savings Account. £500 a month for 12 months at 5% interest might seem to cost Monzo £150, but in reality it’s only £60 (because the base rate is at 4% meaning they are only losing 1% on it). Given that a Premium subscription nets £180 in revenue, I think this is doable. If that’s too much, make it 4.5% (cost of £30).
Do a Chase and offer interest on roundups. Even 10% interest should be affordable given the Premium revenue. (Assume that £30 is the average roundup per user per month. that’s £360 a year, which would result in roughly £18 interest over the year. That’s only 10% of the cost of Premium. I think that’s affordable.
Cashback, points or rewards would be nice but I’m not clamouring for them. If they are a thing, then I want it to work without having to activate anything or perform a certain incantation. I just want to accrue it automatically. If it’s points, I want to be able to spend them or use them as easily as possible. A good example was the Flux (RIP) Eat (RIP) coffee deal where you just used your Monzo card to buy coffee and the 9th time or whatever you just got an immediate refund for the last one. Slick.
The elephant in the corner here, though, is the interest rate on Premium. With rate rise after rate rise, I’ve become more and more offended that a product I’m paying for isn’t keeping pace. I would be happy with a compelling offer that didn’t include interest, but every rate rise with silence from Monzo feels insulting. It’s really not a good look and makes me a bit resentful to be honest. So either a better rate (on a bigger balance) that tracks the base rate, or an excellent offer that doesn’t need to rely on a pitiful crumb of interest.
More 
This is the elephant that is bigger than the room (and very well put)
As a monthly paying customer for the top-tier product, I would expect fast-changing and generous interest rates - beating what is available on other bank accounts (not mid/long-term savings accounts) - but at least equal to, or better than, the short-term/instant-withdrawal savings accounts.
This is why I don’t have premium. Compared to other premier accounts it’s really behind the curve.
I’m hoping we’ll see the relaunch of premium to be truly differential to other options. I think I added my thoughts before but:
No cost if you pay in a certain amount monthly/low cost otherwise.
I think this is one thing that would really attract other users. And if they get enough people putting higher amounts in they could make money off this I would think.
Premium phone line
I mean ideally there would be any phone line/live chat anyway. But in the absence of this having a phone line you can ring and deal with someone there and then has been a great feature I’ve used elsewhere.
Offers you can use
I definitely mentioned this one above but this really needs to happen
Remove the interest
Now that might sound strange. But it’s to me anyway disingenuous to charge someone £x and give them a seriously poor interest rate. And clearly giving someone a larger interest rate has a cost, so it should just be removed
In a wider context I think the above plus a iPad and web interface is the other probable thing I’d imagine might tempt customers from elsewhere.
Others have said better than I could ideas I agree with, which for me are:
Did I mention Joint Account support?
Doesn’t the interest rate sort of do this?
Which I guess is why Monzo can’t put it up too much or they’ll be paying us!
Yeah but people moan that interest rates don’t get updated frequently enough/at all.
Just having a flat reduction for meeting some criteria (eg how Club Lloyds work) would be fine by me. Edit - and possibly for Monzo too because it would increase deposit base etc.
I really don’t understand this business of paying monzo to pay you — knowing full well that they’ll never pay you as much as you’re paying them. 
Originally, monzo said that they needed paid for accounts to match offers from high street banks. We were told that people wouldn’t switch to monzo because they relied on their old banks for insurance, breakdown, etc. I’m sure they’re more than that now, though.
There are probably some easy wins here, like making sure premium customers have the chat button, and maybe routing them to more experienced COps in the first instance.
Offers and interest rates need to be updated, but this is more about polishing the product regularly, rather than any real value proposition. The perception of neglecting premium accounts is harmful.
It seems to me that the Plus offering is mostly a software package, so that needs to remain differentiated from the free product. Premium, on the other hand, is more about insurance products, so these simply need to remain competitive with other banks offerings. Beyond that, though, these revenue streams just tick over.
Everyone should have the chat button. And:
Non-Premium customers starting a chat should be routed immediately to the CS Team in-app, which provides general support
Premium customers starting a chat should be routed immediately to the Premium CS Team in-app, which specialises in Premium feature support in addition to general support
Like HSBC Premier, which offers additional support and financial advice…
Nobody with a brain pays for Plus/Premium just for the interest.
Absolutely this. If there’s one thing that really lets Monzo down, and would probably be the reason I would end up leaving, is the support.
Four simple things are needed but seem to be difficult for Monzo to reach:
An easily accessible chat button. I really can’t understand this one. If it was a money saving thing, the time is now to put it back. Treating customers unfairly and inconsistently by having a mysterious algorithm that keeps it for some people is not helping.
A timely response to messages. Every time. It seems like they’re always apologising because need for support is above average. That’s not how averages work.
Ability to read and engage. So many times I’ve messaged and support just hasn’t read what I’ve written.
One touch resolution. I don’t want to be bounced around. I want one person who can resolve 90% of queries.
I think AI of ChatGPT quality is good enough to respond to queries now, tbh. It could respond in a bespoke way with common answers, pass on app issues or bugs to the right Slack channel or pass to the right second line team. But it has to be good AI. Not a rubbish chat bot.
Well no, but at one point it was a nice addition to “justify” paying for app features etc. So there was some logic, but I agree now paying just for that is a little silly really
Just to touch on this - This is one of the main reasons I did. I bank with FD (who are for me the gold standard for chat & phone) but also having to speak to HSBC premier I’ve found the premium support would be worth a cost per month alone. It’s great, little to no hold times, do what I need and get on with my day.
The first time you use FD it almost feels like you’ve misdialed.
“Please type 1 for…” Nope.
“If you’re call is about banking, please say…” Nope.
You just get a hello by an actual person. And quite quickly. It must be mind-bendingly expensive.
The same for chat too. It “tries” to offer self serve but almost immediately defers to a real human who is actually real time. And quite effective.
Had Plus since relaunch (was on old Plus too). Not upgraded to premium as the only thing would be the metal card but I use Google Pay for physical payments mostly.
I think some of the Plus features should be free to all (custom categories, other accounts, and Google Export [which needs improving to work with newer features]) but I do feel that some of the features are worth paying for. Virtual cards being one, especially since there is only a finite number of card numbers available. Credit score is a paid feature? I can get that for free via NatWest or via mulitple other sites. Connected accounts should also be free… I can see my Monzo account and transactions in the NatWest app, but not the other way round unless I pay.
I agree that the offers need to be refreshed, with better offers available for Premium. They should be refreshed on a semi-regular basis.
I don’t agree with those saying that interest should be free for all, since that’s what the savings accounts are for, but for those who have Plus or Premium, the interest needs to be increased and more in-line with the Bank of England rate. Possibly giving a small boost for Premium.
Cashback on purchases or Direct Debit payments (which I get with NatWest) would also be the icing on the cake.
I love Flex for those more expensive purchases and feel like it works in place of a credit card but maybe Plus/Premium should get better interest rates and/or longer repayment terms. Maybe even offer them the “6 months interest free” as standard that was offered during the run up to Christmas. You can still limit it to 2 transactions at a time. If you pay it early you get a 6 month interest free slot back.
My NatWest packaged account cost is £20 (but I get £5 back) and gives me breakdown cover, phone insurance, travel insurance and a tastecard (amongst other things that I don’t use). I imagine giving those to Plus members wouldn’t be viable but it would certainly make Premium more attractive. You could even off-set some of the cost of the metal card by charging a small “sign up” fee if people wanted the metal card aswell. (£10 on top of the first month).
I would happily close the NatWest account and pay £15-£20 for Monzo Premium if phone and travel insurance, plus breakdown cover was included, regardless of metal card (as long as the insurances and breakdown were decent offerings).
While I don’t have a joint account, I can imagine the frustration with having the current Plus perks for your personal account but not on your joint account. I dont think that having Plus on one of the personal accounts should automatically qualify the joint the account. While a little complicated this could work:
Okay, I’m on to Tech Innovation. Which, in hindsight, feels like a rather overblown title for software features. But I digress.
The way I’ve looked at these is that they are either significant investments that need the Premium/Plus revenue to pump prime, or smaller nice-to-haves that there wouldn’t be a business case for in the free product. In that context, I’d see Premium as an incubator for them: keep them in the paid tier for a year or two, then assess moving them to the free account. Then build a bunch more.
As before, I know that these are not all affordable, certainly not all together.
Deep breath. Go:
Save bank statements to Google Docs. I save mine to Google Docs. It’d be excellent to have them exported automatically.
Rehabilitate the Google Sheets export. It needs to cover Pots, Flex and main account. And throw in connected accounts. Basically make it robust and keep it updated. When you’re offering a premium product it’s important to make sure it just all works. A bit like the poor interest levels it really needs to be killed (don’t do this) or cured (do this).
Upload old accounts data so you can see it in Monzo / Terms. QIF is a common format. Specify a CSV one, too.
Here’s a biggie: Rules and Money Routing. On a trigger (like salary in) carry out certain actions (like moving money to pots, external accounts etc). But also other actions, like automatically adding tags to certain transactions, making notes etc. Basically, I’d like https://flowyour.money/. I would pay for Plus just for this.
Arguably not Premium specific, but please lift the artificial limit for number of pots and custom categories. If it’s a design issue then find a better design. And can I have all my categories (standard and custom) in one list, please?
Again, perhaps a general thing, but I need to set a category against a pot. That means that everything that goes in and out that pot would have that category by default.
For the love of everything Monzo, please let me add PDF receipts. I get so many in my inbox that I have to screenshot to add. That is suboptimal.
Speaking of which, can you scrape inboxes for receipts and automatically add them? @sherlock produced something to do just that. Perhaps you could buy/license it from him?
Let me add my future standing orders/direct debits to my calendar. So I can see what’s coming up.
Similarly, publishing a Monzo calendar that i can hook into with my calendaring app that shows transactions by day and the closing balance would be cool.
I’d like to see Monzo get involved with variable recurring payments (a new part of the open banking spec). That could help execute the money routing dream, but also to create a salary sorter for external accounts and to sweep the contents of pots / accounts to a specified location.
I want Monzo to connect to HMRC. There are APIs available and I’d like to see it used to add a payslip to my salary. And for a separate section in Trends which would plot my net and gross income over time, showing how much tax I’ve paid, my annual salary inflation/increase rate etc. In time I’d like to be able to submit my self assessment tax return through Monzo. I’d pay (a bit) extra for this. Especially if it came with an accountant to check things over
I want Monzo to** record and monitor my bills**. This could be hooking into the Octopus API, or by scraping bills from emails / online portals. There used to be a nice service called OneDox that did something similar but it couldn’t make money. In Monzo, I’d like to see things in Trends like my energy/water etc use over time, then the price per unit, then total cost to me. Comparators with average households would be cool. Trends would make this data come alive. There’s also a possible profit line here from brokering switches.
Similarly, please hook into a house prices API (Zoopla offers one). Do something funky so I can see the equity in the property by aggregating the data with the connected mortgage information.
For the love of 'zo, let me pay you for manual accounts, automatic salary sorter and automatic get paid early. It’s painful to watch a blue circle beg.
And finally, use all of this info to give me a) a net worth figure with some lovely graphs over time in Trends showing assets vs debts and liquid vs illiquid assets; and b) a way of modelling future spend.
That’s enough to be getting on with. Make (some of it) so please. 
Or Option D - don’t force us to pay 2 fees and just support it natively. Even if at a slight premium.