Whatâs interesting is that at the Christmas event, Tom stated the US would likely be Monzoâs first international market⌠did Ireland come out of nowhere, or was it always a secret surprise.
I think Monzo in Ireland is a great idea, the country needs some competition!
Itâs not a long process compared to any other countries, but it also has to make business sense. Ireland is so similar to the UK that itâs just a fairly obvious thing to do.
I would have thought you could have nearly next day card delivery to Ireland from the U.K. althoughmaybe an extra day and a bit more ÂŁ. Support could all be done from the UK I imagine. Same platform and app underneath etc
Not sure if itâs mentioned anywhere but Monzoâs deputy CEO @paul was Head of Banking Operations at Allied Irish Bank, so Iâm sure these will not feel like completely new pastures for Monzo (sadly there is no alpaca emoji yet).
I wouldnât have thought youâd be able to access two currencies from within the app. Only based off the fact I think I remember someone from Monzo saying they werenât planning on having multiple currencies in one account a while ago.
multiple currency accounts and separate accounts in different currencies are different things. Monese have separate GBP and EUR accounts that can both be accessed via the same app. No reason why Monzo canât go down the same route
@rather ha ha, very good. We do have an alpaca Slack emoji! And yes, youâre right I worked in Ireland for a year and a half and am looking forward to offering Monzo there. Some of my friends over there canât wait to be part of the Monzo journey!
Hi
We have been working on the Irish and US plans, with Thomas leading on both. We can passport our UK licence to Ireland, and this is a quick and relatively (!) painless process. The US is more complex and will take a lot more time, essentially we have to apply for a brand new banking licence just like we did in the UK in 2015/16. Hope this helps!
In case anyone else is interested, thereâs some really good info on these here, including some details on the trends for the approval these applicationâs -
I wonder if Monzo will pay the debit card stamp tax (yes, Ireland actually taxes debit and credit cards - 12 cents per ATM withdrawal for debit up for 5 EUR/year; 30 EUR/year flat rate for credit - this tax replaced the old tax on cheques - 50 cents each, if I remember correctly).
N26 is currently paying this for their Irish customers.
Ireland has absurdly expensive banking - and the concept of taxing people on accessing their money is just ludicrous. Monzo will be some much-needed competition. However, Ireland also has even more strictly regulated debit interchange than the EU regulation - 0.1%. So itâs tough to stay in business and not charge absurd fees (some Irish banks charge for every purchase you make, for example).
Itâll be interesting to see how Monzo does it. Getting customers in Ireland should be easy - N26 has done very well. Making money, howeverâŚ
English is like 97% of the populations mother tongue, I dont know anyone who speaks Irish on the regular. And anyone who does also speaks fluent English⌠So I cant see this being a requirement.