I was reading about smarty.co.uk and it got me thinking about what Monzo could revolutionise next. I know there’s still work to be done with banks and the core Monzo product, but I’d love to see Monzo branch out a little…
For example they could provide 0% interest loans on new phones, for customers who banked with Monzo, and had a Monzo “Sim only” contract. Could even be offered straight from the app next to current Mobile Network Direct Debits.
I’m curious to see what else would work better if Monzo had a crack at it?
There’s definitely sense in what you’ve said… mobile only banking with their own “network” as such…
I do think they would be more successful from the phone financing side of things though because there’s a hell of a lot of sim only options out there already…
I would pay good money for a Monzo-style mobile plan with no bullshit. Sadly it would be impossible with the current state of the telecoms sector in the UK; it would be the equivalent of Monzo trying to launch their offering by relying on an existing legacy bank, which would be impossible as the two business models are radically different and opposed.
Not for me thanks. In the beginning it would be great, you would be able to roam in Europe for free but then because other customers are doing it you would only be able to roam for 10 minutes per day. After those minutes are used you will be charged heavily. Why well because they put it to a customer vote of course!
They would then switch from pay as you go to a weird hybrid of pay as you go whilst in a contract.
You would expect to be able to use high speed Internet at peak times but you will be throttled to GPRS speeds during the peak because they can. Why because they know what’s best for us!
Free phone? Yes sure it’s free just with a recurring monthly fee until the phone is fully paid for.
Or you could use it without restrictions for half your holiday and then it’s suddenly cut off because the provider has gone bankrupt due to absorbing the high fees
At least for half the holiday you got what you paid for. No chopping and changing and going back on what they’ve said previously. Yes I am being extremely simplistic but I’m a simple guy with simple tates.
Fair enough - I do think I know where it came from though - the 3% withdrawal fee (after £200 fee-free) via a community. Some agree with it, some don’t. Regardless, I still felt that it was worth pointing out.
Bingo! Yep that’s the one. Also taking about how they change what they are offering half way though.
1 No interest on balances. 2 Fees for foreign transactions in Europe which is more then what they are charged themselves, all because they give us a fee free token limit. Even worse they don’t measure the dates like you would expect, it’s not per calendar month no that would be too simple it’s from date of withdrawal. Good luck keeping track of that on holiday. 3 50 pence day overdraft fees? The less I say about that the better…
Yeah - from what I’ve read, one of their current priorities is to recoup some of the losses of the prepaid era - which from their accounts from last year stood at around £7 Million. I’d expect that once the marketplace is up and running (I mean with proper integration, not just referral links, so that they have some more leverage to negotiate), they’ll be able to pass some of the savings on to us. Not sure about overseas cash withdrawals, but I read somewhere that they might consider giving us interest in the future, and they might also revisit the overdraft - it’s not set in stone since it’s still in beta.
“Even worse they don’t measure the dates like you would expect, it’s not per calendar month no that would be too simple it’s from date of withdrawal. Good luck keeping track of that on holiday”
its made really simple by just going to account - settings - spending limits - and it will tell you,
how much you have withdrawn of your £200 free FX allowance at ATM
and
how many days you have left until you can go to ATM again ??? I think ??? rather than you having to keep track with a pencil and paper
“whilst in contract” - easily terminated
again despite the numerous objections to ATM fees at 3% level it was widely publicised with plenty of notice to the change - Businesses do change - T and Cs do change , charges do change thats life unfortunately - things change, yes I know click bait , feeling conned etc etc
rather than you having to keep track with a pencil and paper 