Other bank accounts in your Monzo App?

[simon (Simon Vans-Colina (CTO Fronted))]

Dear Community,

We want to build a financial control centre for a billion people and we know that not everyone will want to move all their accounts to monzo straight away.
With PSD2 and open banking it’s becoming increasingly common to see banks and other services using “Account Aggregation Services” to let people add all their different bank accounts to one app.

HSBC partners with Yodlee to provide account aggregation for US customers

We are Yolt (by ING)

Some of these services use your old banks APIs, but if your old bank doesn’t have an API these services can also use your username and password.

We don’t love the idea of asking for your other banks password, and eagerly look forward to a future where we don’t have to… but would you, our customers like the option to add other bank accounts to your Monzo now?

So let me know, If adding accounts at other banks, credit cards and loyalty cards to Monzo was an option, would you trust us with your passwords? Is this a thing you’d use?

[spicefox]

Yes! I have a LISA with Skipton for example and would LOVE to be able to have a read only view of the data. It was the first “high street” LISA.

I personally would prefer read only for an overview, and if I need to move money then I would prefer to go through the individuals bank security.

[anon44204028]

Personally I would rather keep my separate bank accounts compartmentalized as I fear if you link them it increases risk if your account/bank is hacked they may end up getting access to them all

[spicefox]

What about read-only? Out of curiosity.

I wouldn’t want read-write.

[nanos]

So let me know, If adding accounts at other banks, credit cards and loyalty cards to Monzo was an option, would you trust us with your passwords? Is this a thing you’d use?

No.

Also, it might lead to my bank trying to blame me when/if my accounts are compromised. I’m quite certain that I signed somewhere, that they would only be responsible for fraud if I kept my login info secure, and that the moment I gave my login info to anyone they’d refuse any responsibility.

[simon (Simon Vans-Colina (CTO Fronted))]

I think we’d only support read-only views for now. Maybe once PSD2 and the Openbanking.org.uk APIs are released we might let you send money, but it’s not what we’re thinking about right now…

[anon44204028]

still not keen on the idea, but that because I have worked in IT and know despite all planning and testing the unexpected can occur and faults and vunerabilities found

[podgib (Geoff Pascoe)]

I would love this, but would want the sync to happen entirely on the device end - ie. The Monzo app on my phone connects directly with other banks, and my passwords never go to Monzo’s servers.

[crablab (Hugh)]

So let me know, If adding accounts at other banks, credit cards and loyalty cards to Monzo was an option, would you trust us with your passwords? Is this a thing you’d use?

Nothing personal but no.
For a start it is generally against Ts & Cs to do this and also, however secure Monzo may or may not be having some kind of plaintext copy of my password stored with the details of what service it is used for makes my skin crawl a little

The Monzo app on my phone connects directly with other banks, and my passwords never go to Monzo’s servers.

This however, would be slightly more acceptable - given my password is never going through a third party server.

[jzw95]

First of all, I want to say that I would absolutely love to manage my other accounts from within Monzo and have one place to go. However, I’d rather wait for the PSD2 APIs before using something like this as I’m not keen on sharing my login details. It’s not that I don’t trust Monzo, but as @nanos says, I think it would put me in a bad situation with my other bank should there be an issue. It’s the same reason I haven’t used any of the aggregation services so far, not even Yolt which is backed by a major bank (ING).

But, please, I am really hoping for account aggregation within Monzo once PSD2 is up and running. And I would want write as well as read access then.

[nanos]

This however, would be slightly more acceptable - given my password is never going through a third party server.

You would still have your password stored in reversible encryption on your device. Not ideal …

[jzw95]

still not keen on the idea, but that because I have worked in IT and know despite all planning and testing the unexpected can occur and faults and vunerabilities found

As long as the liability lies with the banks, I don’t care (which is why I won’t use this until PSD2). The convenience of managing all my accounts from within Monzo would be amazing!

[crablab (Hugh)]

You would still have your password stored in reversible encryption on your device. Not ideal …

True. But at least it is on your device and not someones server.

[tommy5dollar (Tommy Long)]

You should look at integrating with other banks but only ever through API, not username/password.

Don’t bother with username/password as:

1. it’s pointless spending time developing this since everyone will have to have API access in place very soon
2. often you’ll need a code from a live security token to gain access anyway, so this won’t work for everyone
3. Monzo should encourage others to move to their high standards, not pander to other banks’ bad practises

[crablab (Hugh)]

Monzo should encourage others to move to their high standards, not pander to other banks’ bad practises

This. This more than anything else.

[simon (Simon Vans-Colina (CTO Fronted))]

1. it’s pointless spending time developing this since everyone will have to have API access in place very soon
2. often you’ll need a code from a live security token to gain access anyway, so this won’t work for everyone
3. Monzo should encourage others to move to their high standards, not pander to other banks’ bad practises

Some good points here, but PSD2 only covers current accounts. There will always be other account types (loyalty cards, ISAs, Credit Cards etc) that aren’t covered by PSD2/ Openbanking APIs.

[anon72173902]

I would rather keep my accounts separate

[elziado (Ziad)]

I like the loyalty cards idea. Would be nice to have an all in one solution.

[ASKendrew (Adam K.)]

I personally keep track of all my accounts in an expense app and on a spreadsheet manually.

This is obviously manual; so when I spend something on my Monzo card I then add it into this app and it will categorise it. (Yep I spent a lot on ‘Auto’ )

It’s pretty good actually for how detailed I want to track my spending, as the targets in Monzo don’t really work for me, with money coming out of multiple accounts. I think having all this inside Monzo, could go a step closer to helping me consolidate my accounts without the need for a dedicated app!

[garete (Gareth)]

We don’t love the idea of asking for your other banks password

Prefer PSD2 for high risk accounts (current accounts, ISAs), but I’d be more okay giving details if the system is vetted low risk - e.g. loyalty card (risk limited to vouchers) or credit card (generally statements & repayments). Not sure how I’d use it, but seeing Tesco Clubcard points after a shop would be nice (without looking at the receipt).

Not a fan that my other bank recently made this T&C change: