Paying in money

What are all the possible ways of paying in money to a Monzo account?

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Debit card (but try not to coz it costs them a lot)
Standing order
Bank transfer
Cheque
Apple Pay or android
Monzo . me

Here’s a kind of list https://monzo.com/blog/2017/12/18/why-upgrade/

Cash isn’t possible unless you put it into another account and transfer it over

Apple or Android (Google) Pay costs them the same as debit card top-ups so avoid if possible. :slight_smile:

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Am I not correct in saying that we don’t know that for sure?

I’m not sure having a message which reminds customers that certain practices should be avoided where possible, because they cost the bank money, is reassuring to new or potential customers.

If it’s not business critical, might it be worth rethinking that message?

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Again, 50p overdraft charge doesn’t address anything.

Another charge for card top-ups or the option to use them being removed is what we’re trying to avoid.

Because top ups are so expensive, we’d ask you to only use them for last minute emergencies. It isn’t sustainable for us to keep covering the costs if everyone only uses top ups to add money to their Monzo accounts.

Quote from this blog post.

This is how Monzo makes the request for users to use card top ups less.

It is critical to their business (see my reply above) but what would you change it to?

I don’t know, Alex. I’m not sure other banks explicitly advise their customers to take avoiding action.

Early days, I know, but persisting with the “it costs us money” message feels counter to building a big bank. (The message, though, has sunk in as it’s frequently quoted across the forum.)

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Other banks aren’t Monzo. Personally I don’t see why it would be an issue, different doesn’t automatically mean bad.

So to be clear, you don’t know if there even is a fix for this or what that would look like, you just wanted to raise your concerns about it?

Monzo can see from their data whether asking users not to use the feature is putting them off so I’m not sure how that’s helpful :man_shrugging:

But if you can think of a solution, that would be great.

That’s right.

May not be an issue - my point was more about perception in the longer term.

I’d hope that in the longer term, the majority of users will be happy paying their salary into their Monzo accounts so this option will no longer be needed :slight_smile:

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There’s the fix :grinning:

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Why anybody tops up with a debit card is genuinely beyond me. :man_facepalming:

Nobody does that with a legacy account, why do it here?

Even if you are using Monzo as a second account, a bank transfer is not difficult at all…

I think it’s nice that Monzo are being honest and asking. And tbh, I doubt Monzo are especially bothered about retaining custom from people that decide to carry on doing debit card top ups once they receive that email.

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I see the top up feature as a nice to have on the current account, for example, I was out with my friend the other night and she went to pay with Monzo and it declined due to insufficient funds. Within about 30 seconds she was able to open the app to find out why it had declined, quickly top up using Apple Pay then pay again.

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But she could have just loaded the app for the bank that she’s with and made a transfer in the same amount of time :S

If Barclays said something cost them I would deliberately do it more, they make huge profit and I think most of that comes from me.

My banking is free here and it’s new, I really don’t mind doing my bit to make sure they don’t have to consider extra charges.

Have twice transferred to Monzo using my Barclays app. Both times I’ve had the notification that it’s added to my balance before I’ve even had the confirmation screen from Barclays. No need to use debit card

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And that’s easier than clicking on a notification that tells you it’s declined and making a few taps within the same app? No. Not all legacy banks make it easy to transfer either unfortunately.

You said:

Why anybody tops up with a debit card is genuinely beyond me. :man_facepalming:

I don’t use the top up feature often but I can see why it’s beneficial in certain situations and that’s what gives Monzo the edge over a legacy bank that doesn’t offer it.

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I still don’t, if you top up… It’s still a pending transaction from your legacy bank and that’s really annoying

I genuinely would never ever use it. And if it costs Monzo so much money, it makes me sad that people would.

Some legacy make it difficult if you have never sent money to the account before, in that situation, great. But just think ahead and add your Monzo account as a payee beforehand.

Edit: You also get a notification to say why it has declined, and let’s be fair, if it’s declined then it’s likely that you don’t have enough funds in the account… I would always know how much I have to spend before I try to use my card though, but that is thanks to YNAB :yum:

After a few drinks on a Friday night I’m not sure everyone could say the same :wink: