True, but surely the bottom line is better on monzoās IASP when compared to the third party savings pots?
Third party savings pots arenāt the competition for Monzoās though. Not really. Regular pots are.
The only thing that really makes it a competition between Monzo and the third party savings pots is the fact you can only have one.
But you raise another dilemma here. What do multiple savings pots mean for that marketplace? Monzo (as I understand it) get a cut from those savings providers. Theyād be cannibalising those too.
The savings pots we all want completely obsoletes existing pots as we know them, and the savings pots market place. Thereād be no reason for either to exist anymore.
The saving pot we got allows them to continue doing all 3 without cannibalising any too significantly.
I get why itās done. Itās all in their interest. But itās not in ours and I think thatās fundamentally the problem. I donāt see them ever being able to fix it in a way that satisfies both them, their customers, and their savings partners. Someone has to lose, and so far, Monzo has decided that should be us, the customers.
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Not necessarily. I see a future where multiple IASP would be allowed but that they couldnāt be used and bills/VC pots (this would mean standard pots wouldnāt be obsolete).
The savings pot market place could still also exist for those that really want to optimise for max interest rates rather than instant access.
I would consider this to be the optimum outcome for both the user and monzo. They would attract much higher account balances from their customers and while they may be earning less on the current interest free pots theyād be earning more from the balances that once sat with third parties.
Without seeing behind the curtain we canāt be sure though.
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I think quite a lot of people are doing this - but, as I have said before, it takes away from a big part of what made Monzo great for people - which was being able to separate out your money. I still want to be able to do this, but not at the expense of losing quite a large amount of interest. The āissueā is that people are a lot more savvy than they used to be when it comes to finances, partly because of the cost of living crisis, and therefore they are much more agile with moving their money around. So if Monzo suddenly says people can have as many easy access savings pots as they want, of course they are going to close their standard pots and move it over (there will still be those that donāt, but I suspect that number is decreasing). The benefit for Monzo should be that people then keep their money in Monzo rather than taking it out - you would think keeping the money in Monzo would be the objective - and if that keeps the customer happy even better!
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Iād be happy for Monzo to offer interest on current account and regular pots up to a higher limit than before (something nearer Ā£5k). Kroo is 4.35% at present. The way my monthly incoming/outgoings would easily be covered and Iād start using bill pots and salary sorter. Beyond that Iām happy with the 3rd party savings pots for longer term savings even with the next working day access.
At present, like others, I keep ~0 in my current account and donāt use regular pots/salary sorter so that I can gain the interest. If it was just about the interest I may as well use Kroo, Tandem/Chip (and as I pay for plus for connected accounts, YNAB or something for budgeting). Monzo is more convenient and Iām still using them for eveything but for me this is what I keep comparing against but havenāt jumped yet. I keep hoping Monzo will improve things.
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Monzo need to revert their decision and reintroduce interest on pots and the main current account, it worked. Or introduce a flat amount across all your funds whether they are in your current account, pots or instant access savings pot/safety net, to the maximum amount of Ā£100,000 (or whatever the figure may be), much like Starling.
The disparity between multiple instant access savings pots against multiple āregular potsā is just going to cause confusion for customers. Itās also going to create issues for Monzo when publicising the āfeatureā.
Itās unlikely anyone is going to choose a no interest bearing pot over an interest bearing pot.
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They are not going to revert, thatās obvious.
Itās not confusing so not sure thatās a valid reason. Itās bad for the customer but they know that, and donāt care.
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Iāve decided I will give Monzo until Christmas to revert, if not will move everything over to chase including salary.
Did have savings in Monzo but Iāve now got it in Santander for 5.08%.
Just a massive own goal this.
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They are not going to revert, when this was first announced it resulted in lots of negative comments, like those posted today and that was several months ago.
Nothing is going to change on this
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What is there to actively look at? Just do it? Youāre not breaking barriers or inventing something new. Iām really confused why experiments need to be done?
You can even keep current total limits so youāre not losing any money - Ā£10,000 limit on one pot is not any worse than Ā£10,000 over 10 pots, surely.
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The experiment is code for āweāre tallying the numbers on how much has Monzo saved in removing the interestā.
But I agree. Confusing.
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Happy cake day! Iād say move to Chase anyway. More customer friendly, better functionality for spare accounts and savings accounts, and actual customer service.
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Yep, me too. Iāve changed how I use Monzo since the interest was removed from regular pots.
Considering moving to a main stream bank because using whereās the incentive of using Monzo now?
Yeah, I think Chase is better suited for how Iām using the account now
Iām going to recommit to my vow of silence shortly, but I donāt think this is right. There are options. But the savings team is seemingly not imaginative enough to consider them.
Consider one or multiple of the following:
- specially designed bills pots with a lower AER (3.25% perhaps?)
- A system whereby you can assign multiple goals to one savings pot or a set of savings pots
- A basic interest rate across the current account and normal pots
- The ability to pay bills and/or schedule withdrawals from savings pots (perhaps for paid customers)
These could variably apply to paid customers or to every customer. The point here isnāt to win the interest rate race but to provide a service that enhances the wider utility of the Monzo app. If Monzo is serious then they should really be doing randomised trials on some of these to see, from data rather than the teamās clear bias, what the impact is on usage and on profit level. But it appears that they wonāt do this because they seem to feel like they know better.
I really want this to be wrong, but all the evidence points to the savings team being poorly led.
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As @ndrw said, Iād just go for it now. And then place the burden on Monzo to find a way to lure you back by Christmas. Thereās nothing quite like the friction of having to move your direct debits that will make you really question the truth of that.
Iām fairly sure once youāve given Chase a go, Monzo simply upping the number of savings pots you can have wouldnāt do the trick.
Iāve said it before up thread, but having now been all in with Chase for over a month now, I regret not cancelling Plus and doing it sooner. Itās the better solution and it already provides what weāre begging Monzo for.
So save yourself that tenner on Plus, and bank a couple of extra quid instead.
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Lots of criticism in this thread for savings & investments team. The truth is they are probably now responsible for a large chunk of Monzoās profit stream, and they no doubt have a lot of commercial decisions to balance. They are likely supporting a lot of loss making parts of the business that are popular with the community, but on their own would lead to Monzoās demise. Theyāve made some good progress this year, and while I wouldnāt personally use their investment product, itās surely going to get a lot of people investing who otherwise wouldnāt.
Agree with @ndrw though about the app feeling less intuitive at the moment.
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I appreciate there has to be a balance, but as someone now on the outside what Iād say is the inertia for change has gone. Itās just another savings account now. Itās only real differentiator is the interest rate.
When I first came to monzo around 2018 I was mind blown. It was light years ahead of anything else, even starling. Now, nothing it does is exciting enough to pull me back. And that includes savings. So I think the criticism is valid personally.
I appreciate its tough and there are a lot of moving parts, along with complicated stakeholders internally and on here. But nothing of late has been revolutionary. An investment product not highly different, a just about market-aligned rate, and not a huge amount of difference to any other product.
@Peter_G Put some thoughts up, which I liked. But little things like multiple savings pots make a big difference
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This is quite often the case with startups, but at some point reality has to set in, and compromises have to be made. Monzo was a loss making company back then. I liked all those heavily discounted grocery apps (Gorillas, GoPuff, Getir etc) when they were introduced, but now they trying to actually make a profit, theyāve lost their shine. Same goes for Monzo.
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Oh I fully appreciate that what you do as a startup is very different than a fully fledged company. But, everyone was a startup at some point and even those that are now mega corp 101 still adopt, successfully, the mentality.
Basically what Iām saying is Monzo as a product has lost its ability to pivot. Itās now entering the stagnant stage of its maturity, in my humble opinion.
It needs to learn how to pivot faster.