For those who were offended by my comment about normal folks being able to see Flex as a credit card where we see it as something other than a credit card, I was referring to the 99.9% of people who don’t spend their time on internet forums discussing the fine details of their bank 
It’s a card that lets you pay it back later, so it’s a credit card to any non-alpha early adopter super power users.
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I guess flex isn’t a credit card just like chase and rev aren’t banks as they don’t take cheques 
A vote for credit card here. It’s a credit card, just a better one without all the weird stuff that is designed to rip off confuse the customers, like the 56 days no interest ‘feature’.
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I think whether one approach to credit is better than the other depends on individuals. I haven’t tried Monzo Flex, but I have tried other BNPL products where credit terms are per item. I found that approach more confusing than the traditional credit card approach (single bill for all items purchased in a month).
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I’d certainly agree that the “per transaction” charging on Flex is very clear.
I pay off my credit cards in full each month but on one of them make minimum payment by DD and the remainder by manual payment so I always have the option of paying over time. On one occasion I miskeyed the amount and underpaid the full amount by £0.02. The interest charge applied because I had not paid in full was over £19 because of the large balance I’d had and the way interest on a standard credit card is calculated. I got the interest waived “as a gesture of goodwill” but I have been extra careful since. That would not have happened with Flex.
However the Flex “statement” is completely unfit for purpose; there still seem to be some restrictions on transaction types; although I’ve never had a Flex purchase refunded it seems that this can be messy; and some of the CRAs apparently still report it as BNPL or Other rather than credit card. So I’d say it’s not quite there yet as a credit card.
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FYI - Flex works the same way a credit card works here - it’s just that we present it a bit differently to try show customers what’s actually going to happen if they stick to the repayment schedule they’ve chosen.
On a credit card - you’re right in that you get 56 days until interest starts getting charged. However, if you don’t pay your bill in full; interest will be backdated to the point of purchase and so you lose your 56 day interest free period. This page from barclaycard explains it quite well.
Flex effectively works the same in that you can change your mind on how you want to repay and switch between paying/ not paying interest up until the first payment. This gives you a 45 day interest free period (14 days + 31 days in a month) before you need to decide what to do. On your payment date we’ll then backdate any interest in the same way as a credit card. It’s just that we present it to customers as interest being charged from day 1 because that’s what’ll happening unless you change something.
Note: 56 and 45 are the maximum number of days and the exact number of days depends on when in the month you make the purchase (and also assume you don’t change your payment date).
We’ve done a lot of research on credit cards and the overwhelming feedback is that customers find them confusing and don’t know how they work. I’d say that this community is quite an exception in this respect.
We’re definitely aware of some of the other pain points around payment holds, etc. - which we’ll look to improve in the near future 
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I think of it as a credit card 
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I’d consider myself quite financially savvy and I’m still not 100% how to take advantage of what I put on my credit card to really maximise the interest free.
I’d spent on it recently and I had the “Minimum payment by” malarky, but I didn’t know when I had to fully clear it by to not be charged interest. As I’d made the purchase mid-month I presume it was the next payment date? In the end I just cleared it all.
Compare with Flex and I get 3 months of interest free without having to do any mental gymnastics first. The 3 payments are clear and I know that if I make the purchase within 14 days of my next payment, I’ve effectively got another month.
For me it’s a lot better than the credit card for most things.
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Thanks for the detail @TheoGibson and look forward to the development of this. My personal take is that while at some stage Flex could be a credit card, to me it’s not. I’m aware that it’s a developing product so some of these things might change! Here are some thoughts that might align with others, or not
Ringfenced from day to day account
To me my credit card is for any large purchases (where I have money but want S75) or for things such as card holds for hotels when travelling etc. I also do my expenses when travelling for work on it. So it’s important that it’s totally clinical from my day to day account so I don’t get tempted to use it when I really shouldn’t. Also…
Not billed straight away
This is also why the default billing cycle works, let me put items onto it and get a bill at the end of the month (if I’ve not cleared it before which I typically do). This can be especially useful if it’s a work expense. Recently I had to pay for a room and this meant I had to load a few hundred onto the card unexpectantly, it was very useful being able to let that sit there until I could claim it back off work.
Psychology of credit vs BNPL
I’m aware this is super subjective. But for me I feel they are two seperate things. I think of BNPL as “finance” where I am paying for an item over a few months, interest free. I think of credit as planned for or unexpected purchases which I need to have the money for already to pay back off straight away. So flex would never be here for me as I would be worried that I’d be tempted to use it more, and therefore potentially have problems.
Zero connection to my main account
I know I mentioned it before but here it is again because this is the main reason I don’t see flex as a credit card. It has a linkage to my main account whereas I would never see a credit card as having.
I actually look forward to future developments, it could be a credit card option in the future but currently, not for me.
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This is what I’ve done. Sofas/half of Next is on interest free for 36 months.
But the period of time to add things interest free to that card is now gone. So now I’m either at 56 days with that card or 3 months with Flex.
I don’t want a new card everytime I want to spread something over a few months!
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It changed when we stopped taking the first instalment upfront - so ~9 months ago 
Thanks - this is useful feedback 
any you’re not alone in some of these thoughts!
I’m interested to see what happens to these balance transfer/ purchase teaser type deals - with the BoE interest rate going up makes them a lot less viable commercially.
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This is what I meant 
I’m sure it wasn’t designed to be difficult to navigate, but I’ll bet my life as soon as banks realised it was very confusing and an error in using it resulted in their favour, they definitely didn’t do anything to change it or make the terms clear. Most people have no idea the up-to 56 days is contingent of you having paid in full on previous bills. Or that it’s even ‘up-to’ 56 days.
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Martin Lewis has been tracking/talking about the terms reducing and the availability of them reducing.
For some of us, now interests rates are back to normal, stoozing is back.
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We’ve got to get more creative with those feature flags. I’ll be in touch about it in the next couple of weeks 
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@JIMMWX Thanks for the detailed feedback. What would being ring-fenced with zero connection to your main account look like in a Monzo credit card? 
Or what things could we do with Flex to help you feel like it has no connection!
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Spend over £600 - split over 24 kinda thing would be nice.
Or making lump sum payments reduces the remaining over the term, not off the end.
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Singular feed per card, statements which show purchases not just flex amount, and fixed cycle (I think it has some of this already?) - So over the month anything you put onto the card would just be taken off your available limit, and this amount would be billed at the end of each month. Or paid off from the current account sooner if you wished via transfer.
No instalment periods, again that to me is BNPL later territory and subtly different from traditional credit card interest free periods. An APR for the credit card, to encourage responsible spending.
And no ability to flex from the current account. To me that’s a BNPL thing. If you want to buy something on the credit card, you have to use it and the payment is deducted from your available balance on the flex card, not the main account. There’s no connection between the two at all.
Additionally, holds etc (for cars, hotel rooms) to be put directly onto the card, and not being ‘returned’ anywhere. They just stay there and reduce your available balance until they drop off.
I realise that a lot of the above is "classic credit card’ so maybe I’m just old school and see it as a thing that is different to BNPL in my mind.
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If you set the default payment plan to be “Pay in full”, then you would be automatically billed monthly to pay off the entire balance of your Flex account.
Is that what you’re looking for?
Does everyone have this available to them yet?