Have you turned on the “Payments with Friends” setting?
It’s turned on when you click “Find Friends” on the screen pictured below. You can also turn it on or off in Settings at any time.
Why/why not?
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Hey Tim,
I have it switched on, for the rare time I may use Monzo.me.
However, I really don’t want to see the other contacts I have who use Monzo - A lot of them are work contacts, who I may have crossed paths with once or twice, but I’d never send them money in a million years.
It feels a little like the idea behind it was to create these social groups where everyone uses Monzo, and it’s a really easy way to pay your friends back etc.
But the reality (for me anyway), is that I have very few people on there that I’d ever need to pay, and even if I did, I’d just ask them for their bank details (even if they were showing in the “pay with friends” tab).
I wouldn’t know if Monzo was their main account, or even if they checked it.
So I can see how this might look really useful inside Monzo HQ, but for me, it’s a long way from being useful, and I’d prefer to see a much better payee management screen there.
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I wish the enabling of monzo.me wasn’t hardwired to contacts showing in my app, and I in others’.
I can see benefits to both functions but would like the ability for them to be enabled separately.
And a big fat YES PLEASE to a better payee management experience. Current UI and UX is poor.
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I wonder if there’s a GDPR issue here? If someone wants to keep their details private, they must be allowed to do so without any detriment. As you lose the monzo.me functionality, you’re forced into foregoing your privacy in order to use the feature.
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You’re not forced into using an optional feature in the first place.
monzo.me comes as a separate feature and is explicitly opt-in.
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This hits the nail on the head perfectly.
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I understand it’s an optional feature but you can only use it if you’re happy to forego your right to privacy. If you don’t want to share your details with other Monzo users, you can’t use the feature. I don’t think the two things should be linked.
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I may be wrong, but I don’t think it shares any of their account details, or even their name. I’ve got a few contacts saved as just their first name, and that is all they show up as in my app. The app just shows me that the person I have saved as ‘Dave’, for example, has a Monzo account.
I do see where you’re coming from though.
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You’re talking about two separate things here.
I don’t disagree with you that they shouldn’t be linked, I don’t think they should be.
But you’re original post I quoted was talking about GDPR. And like I said in my last reply, there won’t be an issue with GDPR as the feature is optional, and choosing to turn it on forgoes you choosing privacy over said feature.
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Getting deja vu…
GDPR has not stopped companies essentially blackmailing you into handing over data. If you want the service, hand over your data…
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I also don’t think it foregoes anyone’s right to privacy. I’m pretty sure the only things it shows to others is that you have Monzo and your Monzo profile picture (if you have one).
However, I also don’t understand why Payments with Friends is required for monzo.me.
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I have it on but like others have mentioned, some people are work colleagues that I’d never pay. The Monzo contacts are in a random order and change every few days. The ability to hide people would be useful but ultimately payee management needs a big overhaul imo e.g. my partner has 3 bank accounts including Monzo. It would be great to have these in one contact card with each account labelled so I know which is which.
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The way Starling do payees is really good, lets you create a ‘contact’ and then have all their various accounts saved.
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The ICO’s advice is to avoid making consent to processing a precondition of a service. You shouldn’t need to turn that option on in order to use monzo.me.
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I have it on. I find it highly useful. My contacts are all family/close friends so it’s a list of other Monzo users who I may not pay often but I know use their account.
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Except it then doesn’t display enough account details in each transaction to easily identify the account you’ve used for that transaction for that contact…
Ah OK. I’ve only set up contacts, not actually used it so far!
I think the point is not that it can be useful, it’s that it’s not really necessary, but has been made mandatory for monzo.me
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I would recommend avoiding it altogether. It’s really annoying if you ever have to work out exactly what account you sent money to.
I pointed this out to Starling and their “solution” was to check the transactions listed under the payee. So you have to check the transaction and date, then go to the payee and try to find the transaction again… Urgh