The fact you had to close the thread for the weekend should tell you everything about this product launch.
Any update on letting users have multiple pots?
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I get the feeling fixing this in any way is going to take a while due to all the technical and regulatory work that needs to take place - and all of that is only if the decision-makers at the top actually recognise that there’s an issue here.
Gone are the days that Monzo could just change course like a light aircraft, now it’s more like a large container ship.
Problem is, whilst Monzo try to work out which way north is, I’m moving my money away to Santander and it’s unlikely that it will come back any time soon. I’m re-assessing my Monzo subscription (I think in the end I’m just going to go from Premium to Plus) and I’m sure many others are re-assessing how Monzo fits in their financial life too.
It’s been wild watching this particular straw break the camel’s back, but this was always going to happen with the arbitrary restrictions placed on instant access savings pots.
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If nothing changes by the time this new decision is implemented, I will do the same. My budgeting is easiest when I have different pots for savings with different purposes, for example I save different amounts for vehicles, home heating (we buy oil), and home insurance every month (we pay it annually), and it’s easiest when I can see the current saved amounts each in its own pot. Monzo are already making this more difficult for me by forcing me to have it all in one pot and keep a separate record as to what amount I have saved for each thing. If they now also pay me less interest for it, it will go somewhere else with higher interest, simple as that.
It really goes against what I thought Monzo was all about - making budgeting and finances easier, leveraging all the new design and technology possible by bringing radical new ideas and new ways of working with money.
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Some of these comments make it look like monzo stripped out the Pots functionality completely and it’s an account, and savings account then nothing.
Pots are still here. Budgeting is still possible. Finances can be managed.
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All £1.67 of it ..
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Regardless it’s £1.67, or 1/3rd of a pint of beer per month … I could understand if it was £16 per month. I just dont understand the drama …
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I think you’re missing the point a little here. Whether the customer has plus or premium isn’t relevant. If there was no one pot limit on the IASP then you would be able to keep your saving split into pots and earn more interest. The current implementation means it pays to have all your money lumped in one pot.
Yeah, as I see it having multiple Monzo instant access savings pots is a separate point to the removal of interest from current account / ordinary pots. I’d love to have many monzo instant access pots and in it would quell the furore about loss of a maximum of £1.67 / £2.50 for plus / premium customers. That is, if they have a £2k balance of in current account & pots for the whole month …
Two things
- losing £1.67,£2.50 per month due to the decision we are discussing
- allowing multiple instant access savings pots to maximise interest and allowing bulls to be paid from them.
Point 2) is just one possible solution to point 1)
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I think we’re more or less on the same page then.
Going back to the original comment that sparked this bit of debate:
I would argue that in some ways they have done exactly that. Yes the feature still exists, but it makes no financial sense to use it.
I wouldn’t say this is particularly linked to the capped interest plus/premium customers are now missing out on, it just happened to be that particular issue that ended up really exposing the pot limitations.
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Accumulated for a year, this is a whole day’s worth on a posh sun bed on a beautiful Greek beach.
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They can still be managed but plus and premium were sold on the facts that you get interest on your main balance and pots, it brings in a little and helps reduce the amount fees somewhat.
If that’s removed and replaced with just the savings accounts earning then most would combine their carefully managed pots into that or move elsewhere as that’s what other bank offers, I’d likely move my pots over to zopa but like them in monzo as it’s easier in one place which was the perk of the premium.
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I’ve just blown my 12 months interest on a few pints of KEO and a kebab on a Cyprus beach . 
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If Monzo has lost Revels, then something has badly gone wrong.
I shall shortly resume my vow of silence but I’m here to ask Monzo to reflect on two things:
-
whether the savings team truly understands the wider product and how customers use it to manage their money. With respect, the evidence suggests to me that they don’t.
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how to engage with the community. Again, with the utmost of respect, closing topics to curate the discussion is not a good look. And nor is broadcasting marketing messages instead of an authentic dialogue that explains the considerations at play, preferably from the responsible product person.
Monzo has set itself high standards. It remains a market-leading product. But it risks getting carried away by its own hubris. What Monzo does next on this will be a defining moment for the company: will it double down or will it refind its humility?
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Welcome back!
Hope you’re well.
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A trivial amount to some maybe. A lifeline for others.
For parents of Primary SChool Age children on not much more than the minimum wage and for whom the discipline of the pots functionality is a godsend, it’s one, maybe two items of school uniform. A welcome boost in keeping their heads above water.
At 4.5% interest, Monzo is still making money on that cash on deposit.
It is surely possible to be both a profitable entity and be the bank that leads the way in helping people budget and developing financial literacy.
30 years ago, I was that person who was ‘not good with money’ - don’t underestimate the power of the discipline of the pot functionality on offer.
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This is true, but I was wondering if you had also gone to chase - so glad to see you back on here and hope all is well!
Only you could come here and perfectly summarise the crux here. It’s not about the interest (which is to some people important for a variety of reasons) but multiple pots are a fundamental way of budgeting for many here. And the interest on pots takes the sting away of the plus cost.
Strong agree. I really dislike this approach, to a good level. The only reason I could see that this thread was locked, over a weekend, was that Monzo felt the community would all bend over, and they didn’t. I’ll probably get banned for that, so apologies in advance and goodbye if that happens.
Locking for personal attacks or otherwise fine and totally valid. This wasn’t that.
So what next?
- Monzo reverses positon (unlikely)
- It allows multiple IASP - I don’t see this happening, it makes sense to people here but not to Monzo, what stops someone putting £400k in each pot and tanking the bank
Or
- Multiple savings pots that are interest bearing, but only one get’s 4.5%, everything else gets 1% with a maximum of £1.5k per pot.
Covers peoples bills pots, allows for savings to builds, happy people, happy Monzo.
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I feel personally that the most annoying thing is feeling penalised for following the pot mentality that has been so heavily promoted by Monzo for so long. You have your 10 different pots with different savings in and feel in control of your money. Then you are told that you can have a much better interest rate but only if you merge them all. This then leads to a really uncomfortable feeling which makes banking with Monzo become unappealing - because if you don’t merge them all you are missing out on a better savings rate, but if you do merge them all then for a lot of people they lose control of their most effective way of budgeting. I am really shocked at how little Monzo seems to have thought this one through.
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