I think your first bet would be to look for cheaper gadgets insurance. The best way is usually to get it along with your home/contents insurance - as an extra on that it’s much cheaper. And pay annually not monthly if possible. £105 / year seems like a lot.
But this is a false economy - it’s been mentioned a few times, but if you were to make 2 phone claims a year, your home insurance premiums could increase drastically. Sure you might save on the monthly fee initially, but you’ll soon be paying more than dedicated gadget insurance where premiums don’t change, as there’s not presently a concept of ‘no claim’ periods, or having to declare past claims.
I’ve never seen the appeal or value in packaged/premium current accounts, and Monzo Premium is no different.
But, for £15, it offers some tangible benefits with real value, and people are free to take it or leave it.
Unlike Plus, which I think is too easy to emulate and undercut, and will struggle to differentiate itself from other products, the Premium tier seems pretty safe and future proof.
I’d agree on this - £15 per month feels like a significant amount for subscription. I find anything £10 or under to be easier to digest, and I’m more impulsive to try it.
My biggest issue is that the Metal Card is clearly costly, but the longer the term goes on the more it feels you are paying a higher amount for something that you’ve paid off?
Totally agree! Just upgraded and got the new metal card in the post. The packaging suggested it should be an “ooooh” moment but was more “ugh”! It’s a bland silver card. Really want the Colour version. Monzo, please bring back colour to the premium card…its a great marketing tool. Why switch it off?? Plus my purse looks so bland now.
TBH, after the pre-paid days of the beta Hot Coral card, the release of the current account Hot Coral card, then the Joint Account Hot Coral card, it is refreshing to see an amazing white-metal card in the wallet. Even more so than the Lagoon Blue or Blue Holo(graphic) Monzo Plus cards.
I feel Monzo is moving away from the Hot Coral branding and will likely progress to a completely different branding/image over the next year or so. And this is not necessarily a bad thing, Monzo has to ‘grow up’ from the - to be fair- incredible start-up ethos, to be able to deal with the current 4.7M users and attract (and engage with ) M’s more.
Found the “If no…” question difficult to answer, because none of the options seemed to map directly on to “I don’t think it’s a bad offering, it’s just not for me at this moment in time.”
I was on the legacy Curve plan, I’m not sure if it still applies now but I remember being given AXA travel insurance details even though I haven’t paid anything.
For a new customer, according to their website for 9,99£/month on the Curve Black plan you do get travel insurance.
My reason for “no” is that it doesn’t seem to be a product aimed at me.
It’s clearly aimed at a frequent foreign traveller, who uses airports a lot.
Whilst I do travel abroad sometimes, it’s usually eurostar or ferry, I haven’t flown in 10 years.
I do however drive a car and Nationwide FlexPlus offers a really good car breakdown cover and that is conspicupulsy absent from Monzo Plus.
So I guess if Monzo put in car breakdown, I might switch over.
Perhaps you could have two options: “Plus for people who fly” and “Plus for people with cars”
Also I don’t see the point of paying a fee to get interest. It just muddies the waters. Nationwide were smart enough to see the folly of it and scrapped the higher interest offer.
7 quid a month on revolut gets 90 day per trip travel insurance and cheaper 20 quid lounge access. Those 2 being the primary things I value as appeals to the Monzo offering. So for me it fails the value test at twice as much a month for less.
Plus I am a multi currency person and need / want EUR / USD balances so while Monzo has a nice app, it can only ever be part of what I need in its current form. Starling gives me EUR, TW and Revolut multi currency deposit accounts, N26 a maestro card in EUR for Holland, etc etc.