I do think that sometimes we stray into feeling quite entitled, but this one shouldāve had some kind of announcement.
The fact that itās an experiment doesnāt change that itās something that Monzo said they wouldnāt do which theyāre now trying out. Doing that in secret does feel like a let down.
Yes @HoddzDJ weāve talked about being serial switchers before. Iām currently switching to HSBC for a free Ā£200. When itās paid itāll be for around 15 minutes effort. But I donāt have an account I wish to close so Iāve had to create a burner account in order to switch.
So in order to get the free money I have to create work for NatWest (who themselves paid me Ā£125 switch bonus earlier this year) in opening a new account and sending me a card. That account will promptly be closed down during the switch.
Easy money, certainly. Lossāmaking for the banks involved, yep. Unethical? Depends where you sit on the ethical scale with these multiābillion pound banks.
But Iāll leave the extrapolation to the reader with regards risk to Monzo, both in being the burner account and handing out free cash to freeloaders like me.
I do this too, my legacy is technically a burner with salary and DDs only, I donāt care who itās with as I use Monzo for daily spend.
Just in the process of switching First Direct to HSBC for Ā£200.
I may keep that one to collect the final Ā£50 at the end, and Iām planning on moving next year so need a short period of 3mths+ of paying bills.
Edit: snap (I managed to do this the phone, took about 45mins as he insisted on reading everything, still had to sign and show passport/driving in branch to confirm)
So thatās OK but to withdraw foreign cash or use card top ups with Monzo isnāt? Smacks of dual standards to me.
Can you please explain your analogy because Iām having trouble understanding how you think theyāre linked, or where you think I sit on those two topics?
Carrying out activity that costs the bank money. In fact withdrawing foreign cash say is a usual banking activity. Opening an account just to benefit from a switching bonus or to carpetbag a mutual isnāt.
I make no inference as to where you sit on the subject.
On switching bonuses generally, reading this thread and acknowledging what has probably become an industry in itself (we even have āburnerā accounts now?), I wonder just how banks are gaining.
Give you Ā£50+,
open your account,
handle the admin associated with it
close your account when you switch away
ā¦and repeatā¦
I wonder if thereās a bank bold enough to say, āWe wonāt tempt you with a few quid, weāll try and give you a bank youād be happy to stay withā. I wonderā¦
Go on, Monzo, be that bank.
There are no dual standards for me. I think by even making that comment you did infer my ethical position on those subjects.
Iāll do what I do and itās for any bank to make money from me. Iāve been open on this forum that I use Starling (after a brief period where I tested their app whilst Monzo was lagging behind in features) primarily for free foreign withdrawals. If Starling can offer me this, and have worked out how to subsidise it, thatās for them. I have no opinion either way on Monzoās charging structure for foreign cash withdrawals.
Similarly I am neutral on topāups. I personally donāt see thereās any point to them, and I have never paid in funds to my Monzo current account using a debit card as I prefer bank transfer. It is a fact that it costs Monzo more to process topāups and Iāve pointed this fact out to those complaining they are going, but I have no opinion as to whether Monzo should remove them or not.
Youāll notice I made no comment on Monzo actually offering switching bribes, but purely left my example in order to provoke discussion as to the pros and cons of these schemes. I was explicit that itās a personal decision depending on where one sits on that ethical scale.
The High Street banks have artificially created a switching industry where it is normal banking activity for people like me just to benefit from free cash.
For the record, I personally donāt sit far enough along the ethical scale to support demutualisation of mutuals because I feel I and society gain more from owning part of those businesses. But if an alreadyāplc wants to give away its money, then I may as well take some. Hey, Iāve even taken the free switching money from mutual Nationwide, but that transaction doesnāt lead to demutualisation.
My ethics are most probably different to yours. Thatās life.
Burner accounts have been around forever, basically since banks started bribing to keep your money with them.
Thereās almost aways a time period you canāt have held an account with them to stop repeated switching. HSBC offer at the moment is only for those whoāve had previous accounts before 01/01/2015 or are new customers for example.
I personally really couldnāt care less if Iām costing the big banks by switching to them to get Ā£150 here and there. They are there to serve me and Iām agreeing to their terms of offer.
In this case its stick with us at least 30 days to get Ā£150, stay for the year and have another Ā£50. Itās up to me if thats worth Ā£50 to stick or if a better offer comes along Iām off. It usually doesnāt pay to be loyal.
If all banks completely stopped making these bribes, would I stick with them for their 5% interest savings accounts? 
Maybe as its worth a Ā£80-100 a year, still probably better to put a few thousand in shares if you have it spare.
Monzoās slightly different as I have account with them based solely on them providing excellent service, app and budgeting. Thereās no legacy bank that does this atm. Iām amazed First Direct came out top in the recent survey, they answer the phone quickly and are helpful but pretty crap in terms of website and app.
For now its handy keeping salary/dds separate.
Perhaps a post by Monzo on A-B testing would be useful. By definition users will get different experiences and itās really important that Monzo do this testing without the community getting all flustered. Itās not āunfairā to give users different experiences. Just ask yourself whether youāre happy with your own Monzo experience and donāt worry about what others are getting.
Monzo are making sounds business decisions on the back of this testing, itās one of the things that differentiates them. We are part of their glorious lab, just enjoy the app!
Damn. I just switched my previous main current account Iāve had since I was 18ā¦ 
I think Iāve pretty much had all of the incentives over the years from every legacy bank and it hasnāt made me stay with any of them.
I canāt do them anymore as I have done them all 
Itās an interesting test by Monzo but I really hope it doesnāt end up being rolled out, at least for as much as Ā£50. I donāt feel like the product needs to be something so legacy to get people to switch to them.
Iām getting instant transactions, nice app, friendly support, decent forum, budgeting, Google Pay support, and a nice bright coral card. All for free.
With Monzo, I wouldnāt mind if it cost me Ā£50 a year (~Ā£4 mth or 14p day) to have an account with them, let alone being paid Ā£50 to switch to them.
I wouldnāt say that about any other bank atm, not even Starling.
I think the problem is that because the forum harbours a feeling of loyalty, and because Monzo are ātransparentā in other areas, a false sense of expectation is placed on them by some people (which is understandable).
With some things, it pays to get in early (a Monzo investment for example) - With other situations, it doesnāt pay to be an early adopter.
All of those people who have helped Monzo grow, contributed to the forum, submitted bugs, discussed what they had for dinner etc etc, are now watching people potentially āgame the systemā and receive Ā£50 for their efforts.
Monzo needs to grow, it was literally their main goal from the previous report (for anyone throwing the ālack of transparencyā card around).
You can see how hard the UK banking customer base is by looking at all the customer sticking with TSB after their issues.
I thought the Ā£5 that was initially on offer for signing up was a complete waste of time - The Ā£50 is still a hassle because of closing down your old account and instigating a CASS.
It almost caters for the people who were going to switch to Monzo anyway (in which case, the Ā£50 is just an added bonus).
I guess the only thing Monzo can learn from is perhaps setting slightly looser expectations - Iāve seen comments along the lines of āyou said youād never do thatā, which is true.
In the same way the āyou can use your current account in the same way as your pre paid cardā was true at the time.
Unfortunately, in a relatively short time frame, as the business needs evolve, those comments become outdated, and are used as ammunition as an argument against the new policy.
I seriously doubt anyone who goes to the effort of signing up to a Monzo forum, want them to bomb - So if Monzo can benefit from offering Ā£50 for people to switch, and it actually makes a differenceā¦ Crack on 
Thereās concern that doing so would skew the data. I agree that finding out because a user shared on social media isnāt ideal either, though, and Iām hoping we can find a middle ground!
Monzo were one vote short of being eligible to be ranked. Guess where we would have been 
If Iād have known I would have voted!
It said there was a limit to how much of the Ā£25 could be handed out. I switched an account over and it completed Tuesday and the money was deposited then, Iāve also decided to use Monzo more so setup a standing order for X amount to allow me to use it more.
I think itās to Monzoās credit that they werenāt actively soliciting votesā¦
Disappointing that I switched a single and joint account to Monzo a few weeks ago and didnāt get a switch bonus! Was it just random customers getting them?