That’s why my revolut only has these on the Home Screen as it’s all I use.
And I am loving the new analytics revamp.
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I like to see bank statements getting a general spruce up- changing the strange layout and making the transaction entries a bit clearer. Also having transacs run from beginning of the month (at top of statement) to the end as it’s clearer to read
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I’ll echo many of those thoughts.
I’ve said it before but I really loved the older versions of the app that had less clutter, took you straight to your balances and proper transaction list, and the red/amber/green left to spend graphic.
When it comes to pensions, savings, credit cards, loans, etc, I’m motivated by keeping costs down. I have no desire to spend more just to keep it all within Monzo (or anyone else) so Monzo’s offerings were unlikely ever to appeal to me.
I can see how Monzo Flex might work for some people, but for me it’s opposite of what I want. I loved the simplicity of the old app because I felt more in touch with my money, incoming and expenditure was easy to follow, and it just worked well for me. Flex, as I see it, obfuscates my financial position, and I don’t like that.
I don’t care for the packaged accounts. None of them represent good value for money for me.
What would I like to see from Monzo? An app that’s more focussed on the current account, as well as forecasting income and expenditure over the month. Like the old one was.
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I feel the same way. The app has become a little too busy for me.
I can understand why it has gone this way though.
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I miss v2? - the card carousel UI. That was peak simplicity for me. I can’t deal with the current app, it feels super messy and I never know where to look.
I’m going to go at the angle or what would make me close my Lloyds account and come back here. It’s really down to three things.
- Single source banking; I want to be able to access my bank via iPhone, iPad, web i.e. whatever I have in my hand at the time
- Family cover; it really irks me that the family cover is basically the same as non family cover in terms of the coverage for the travel insurance. It should scale with the volume of people covered.
- Half finished products, of which there are many.
I still have a Monzo account, have had for a while, I’d never say never to coming back.
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Yeah, the peak. Brilliant UX
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I’d go back if we could have this 
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I think I really needed this when I first joined monzo. It was unique to Monzo and it was great. It was - by quite some margin - the best view of a current account that any bank offered.
But I’m afraid I don’t really see what Monzo’s USP is these days.
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I love that older view plus the budget view as part of that. Trends looks graphically impressive but I’ve never been able to get it to work for me.
I am a sucker for punishment, this is my third time around with Monzo. I’m moving everything into one place for simplicity and see if it works for me.
I think Monzo could add options to reduce the clutter for those that prefer a more simplified view.
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Nice to see you post @Peter_G hope you’re well. I wouldn’t call Monzo stagnating, I’d call it maturing. That not an excuse to see them stop innovating though. I’d love to see improvements across the app from payee management, product offers, more explanation as to why eg I can’t get insurance, though I understand they might not be able to tell me. Finishing off products like the shared tabs, savings and investments. What would be cool is if staff come back and engage once they share a post about a product or service and have conversations like they used to. Seems like the reason for not doing that is the berating put them off. I can understand that. Oh and merchant data updates. A clear explanation on what the process is and whether they’d accept a few community members helping with it. I’d be up for that. I track all those that are incorrect but no indication why it’s not accepted. Give me the power! 
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Actually, coupled with the original white premium or hot coral and it was elite level UI and UX.
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I remember when so many complained about the carousel when it came out, demanding they could revert.
I also remember Windows 2000, a brilliant OS but I wouldnt go back.
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Windows 2000 pro was peak win OS for me. I’d actually still run that now if it was possible.
The thing is while I don’t like the new UI I totally get that this is subjective choice. In that there will be many that do.
I’ve thought of another area which I’d like to see improve before I’d consider rejoining which is CS. It’s fine when things don’t go wrong but (in my experience) beyond terrible when it does. Inconsistent, helpful but always involving a specialist and no real time support on the occasions that you really do need them.
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I think this is the key point for me. I’ll perhaps go into more detail on my own thoughts later, but I think that the Monzo app is probably best in class, but that the excellent technologists, developers, designers, researchers and everyone else that works on it is sorely let down by the poor customer service and operational decisions made.
I don’t have an issue with paywalls themselves, but I’m not convinced a binary paywalled or not approach is the smartest here.
If Monzo’s main revenue comes from its current accounts and cross-selling other products (like bundled accounts), it makes sense for Monzo to position the app as the centre of customers’ financial lives and to use its features to bring customers to the current account and other services. I suppose my argument is that open banking connections are the beachhead that will bring people to other services.
A sensible strategy could be to offer a few free connections to draw users further into the Monzo ecosystem. Once they see the benefits, you’ve got a real opportunity to encourage them to make Monzo their main bank. You could even offer more free connections — especially for things like credit cards — if customers pay in their salary and set up direct debits. That way, you’re driving more current account usage and boosting revenue at the same time. Of course, there are some folk that will never make Monzo their principle account, so I’m totally still down for something like the Extra package. And, I go back to my previous worry - I’d like to see Monzo challenging itself and moving forward: whilst open banking in Monzo is (for the most part) best in class, it’s rapidly becoming table-stakes. So I’d like to see them bank the investment in that and move on to something else, if that makes sense.
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I’ve been using Monzo as my main bank for nearly 3 years and generally really happy with it. I make heavy use of trends for budgeting and connected accounts for CCs and Chase for the cash back.
I’ve recently tried Emma and YNAB (which I used for budgeting prior to Monzo) and am now moving my budgeting back to YNAB. The main reason is that when an account is closed, Monzo removes all transactions for that account, which messes up budget history which I like to see spending patterns over time. Emma and YNAB both cache transactions (and support manual accounts for those which don’t have an open banking API. I’ve stuck to external accounts which Monzo does support but my recent issue with Chase which stopped the connection working for 2 months on Monzo (Emma managed to work around this and keep up to date albeit with 2 small transactions missing). This was Chase’s fault but Monzo’s way of handling the Chase feed wasn’t as robust as Emma and no option for manual entry.
I’ll stick with Monzo, probably downgrade my Perks to Extra (somehow!) because I still like Monzo’s interface for a quick glass of the balances and transactions across all my connected accounts and move money out of my Monzo savings to other accounts as needed.
But if Monzo would make a more robust connected accounts integration (i.e. maintain history for closed accounts etc) then I’d probably move back from YNAB to Monzo fully for budgeting.
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I’ve struck by the comments on user-interface and thought that it might be worth unpacking them in a new topic:
For my money, I quite like the current interface. Sure, there are lots of tweaks that would really help (separate sections for credit cards and current accounts, connected savings added to the savings section etc), but I think it’s pretty elegant. I’m still not sold on the marketing fonts or graphics, but they aren’t that pervasive in the app…
Might be worth checking out Actual Budget - it’s open source and therefore free (or just a few quid every few months if you go for a PikaPods hosted option). It’s not quite as slick as Trends, but is pretty nice - and the data is yours forever!
Thanks @Peter_G , I’ll take a look.
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Don’t disagree in lots of way, but, and Monzo were advertising for a SPM for Open Banking recently (didn’t apply, was tempted though) so they see it as a revenue stream, and secondly, the role also asked for someone to represent Monzo within the new regulatory set up, which I suspect the likes of Monzo and Revolut will be asked to pony up money to fund the new stage of Open Banking. So making it pay for itself is probably more of a thing.
I’m a Perks customer, so I do appreciate the connected accounts stuff, and can see the longer term roadmap, but, that Open Banking roadmap for the whole industry has dragged and dragged, and all the promise still feels 2 years away, when it was 2 years away 3 years ago. But I also get the other stuff which has me quids up on the monthly fee, and that’s where I think I’m paying my money for (the free cinema ticket (28 years later for the next one and the rail card) and not the software stuff, that feels more like a bonus.
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Be warned that if using Actual with GoCardless it doesn’t work well with Pots - it can see them but that’s about it.
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