Preface:
I recently switched to Monzo USA from Simple since they are shutting down. After doing some research, I realized Monzo cannot be a full replacement YET, but (at least for me) with the below features I would be able to completely switch to Monzo.
I received my Monzo card this week and have been playing with the US app. Overall I’m happy with the way Monzo works. I love you cant “overdraw” your main account by auto-spending from pots (I’m sure others will have different opinions here). I think the interface is easy to use and based off the features available in the UK, I’m optimistic for the future of the USA version.
Before getting into the two feature that are a must for me (and I suspect many others transferring from Simple), I want to explain my current setup. I’m a heavy budgeter who uses YNAB to regularly reconcile accounts across multiple institutions. YNAB allows me to track my net worth and balances of investment accounts over time, and get a deep look into my spending habits. A Shared Simple account (with my wife) is our primary checking account. We have other checking accounts as well which have small direct deposits setup for rewards purposes - this makes YNAB critical for budgeting purposes. I had
(have) Simple setup with Expenses which mirror my budget in YNAB. Expenses are funded from our paychecks as they hit our account automatically (similar to Monzo’s salary sorter from what I can tell). Simple is connected to YNAB via Plaid to import transactions (as are all other institutions). Each of us have individual Simple accounts which we use for discretionary or fun-money spending.
The two must-have features:
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Shared / Joint Accounts
My wife and I use our joint account daily for purchases. It’s critical that we have a joint account with which each of us have debit cards for spending. Monzo already has our individual accounts covered, but lack of a shared account means our primary bank account will have to be at another institution. -
Plaid Integration
Being able to view transactions in other FinTech tools is critical, but it is really only important with a Shared / Joint account for me. We don’t budget discretionary purchases, we budget the transfer to discretionary account. I only need to track transactions in the shared account. (I’m sure others will have different needs).
With these two in place, I’m able to transition over to Monzo entirely (hand happy to!).
Other non-critical, nice-to-have features:
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Salary Sorter and Spending from Pots
- Automate my regular task of populating my budget / pots? Um… yes please!
Salary Sorter Calculated as a Percentage would be a great improvement on this feature too! - Pay recurring bills from those pots, so I am confident I won’t overspend? YES!! (Improvement over Simple in my opinion)
- Automate my regular task of populating my budget / pots? Um… yes please!
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Pot Goals: Set a Target Date
Simple allows customers to set a target date for goals, but also lets customers setup recurring expenses and dates for those as well. This lets you easily set a funding source for an expense (presumably update your salary sorter for Monzo) when setting up the expense. Simple handles all the math for you to ensure you have enough money on-hand by the time your expense or goal date comes. It also supports setting this up as a recurring expense on a monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, bi-annually, or annual basis. -
Integration with “Instant” Payment services like Zelle
This would be great to be able to send / receive money from non-Monzo US friends and family. Especially since Monzo is in its infancy in the US.
Note: US users can still use Venmo today, we just have to go through account verification which takes a few days. If Plaid integration was supported, US users could link accounts instantly to use Venmo. -
Bill Pay
This would be a nice feature - Since I dont have a UK account, I’m not entirely sure if this is the same as (1.) - Earn Interest on Pots
Today, for long-term savings I use a second institution to save for long-term expenses so I can get a better interest rate. Being able to earn additional interest on “long term” pots would be a big win in my opinion. Having said this, it would actually be nice to have long-term vs short term pots. In the US you get 6 outgoing transfers from “savings” accounts per month. I’d be happy with the same limitations in exchange for a decent interest rate. -
Mobile Check Deposits
I can get around this right now because I also bank at other institutions which have mobile check deposit. It’ll be annoying though to have to wait for the deposit to clear, then the transfer…
Ok enough ranting. The first two are critical, the rest bring Monzo to par or ahead of Simple