I still don’t understand though. Even though PayPoint bills them (as you said), they still must send the money somewhere physically. They obviously don’t keep it for themselves.
The money is no longer PayPoints once it is deposited with the shop as it is deducted from the shops bank. Yes, technically it will need to be banked but so would the rest of the takings for the shop for that day. It wouldn’t need any extra effort or costing on the part of the shop as they would do that anyway.
In the name of balance, I’ve just made my first cash deposit into my Monzo account. They chap knew exactly what to do: swiped, asked how much, took cash, notification received, receipt given and I was out. Probably took less than a minute.
If I get that level of service every time I deposit cash (which is probably only a handful of times a year) I’ll be happy.
6 Likes
Wish I’d found it that easy.
I had around £150 to deposit a month-ish ago around the Oldham area and tried, i think, 5 places, each and every one of them just said something to the effect of “we don’t know what that is”. I gave up and just waited until the weekend to put it in my Natwest account instead and will likely just avoid depositing cash to Monzo via. PayPoint altogether.
That being said, I very rarely, if ever, carry cash around with me. The only reason I had cash in the first place was because I’d just sold a bunch of a stuff ahead of moving house, aside from that, I haven’t had cash on me at all this year.
1 Like
Without detracting from your negative experience, did you ask any of the shops to just swipe your card to see if they could follow the instructions on the screen?
If an operator says they “don’t know” it seems at least worth a try. That feels different to a “No we don’t do that here” response.
2 Likes
This will likely be an unpopular opinion, but I shouldn’t have to ask them to do that - nor would I have known to ask them to do that either because I don’t know what the process is. I’ve never used PayPoint for anything before, so I have no idea how they work.
In my opinion, if a new feature is promoted, a basic user would generally expect to be-able use that feature as specified (at any PayPoint vendor) with as little friction as possible. From my perspective, all I knew was that I could (or at least should be-able to) do it at anywhere with a PayPoint logo. The last thing I would expect in that moment of being turned away is to then have to research why I’m being turned down and then start suggesting ways in which the cashiers or shop attendants should be using a system I know nothing about.
Of course, I mentioned to them at the time that they should be-able to accept the cash deposits as it had been stated I can do this through a PayPoint vendor - for example, in the Asda Supermarket (one of those local small ones) I tried it in, I got a few blank expressions, a “let me check” and a manager coming over.
I get your point however, some PayPoint vendors may need training/education in the feature which is a shame, because it means it’s clear the rollout of awareness in this feature in my opinion has been pretty poor, at least in the area I was trying to do it in, anyway. But should basic Monzo customers have to do this?
I’m not criticising any particular party by the way, I don’t know who is responsible and it’d be wrong of me to assume who the poor experience I had is ultimately down to, I’m just stating my experience and what my expectation was. It actually doesn’t matter much to me as I can still use my Natwest account for the rare occasion I get cheques or cash to deposit. At the time, I just wanted it put away as soon as possible to contribute to the deposit of moving house and was aware of it, so I thought I would try it out.
9 Likes
I actually think Monzo, rather than designing an innovative, cheaper alternative to the Post Office, has created a horrible customer experience which is reflecting badly on both the Monzo and PayPoint brands.
And whilst I agree in theory customers shouldn’t have to tell operators how to use the PayPoint device, being as the instruction seems to be as simple as “swipe the card, then follow the instructions to enter the amount” it is quite obviously in the interests of the customer to know this and suggest it, or you may find yourself in that situation of again visiting five outlets to no avail, all for wanting to know that all the operator has to do is swipe!
Actually, if Monzo is to pursue this horrendous experience, it could help by placing a suggestion to tell the operator to swipe in the app, but staff have stated earlier in the forum Monzo itself doesn’t believe customers should be informing operators this. To me this is exacerbating an already bad customer experience, but whatever.
4 Likes
Someone above suggested using Collect+ retailers (i.e. most Co-op food branches) as they may be more experienced. Unfortunately I found that wasn’t the case in a recent trip to a local one. Once again the checkout assistant refused outright.
The other posts above seem to imply that as well as PayPoint being a bad deal for Monzo customers, but it is also a terrible deal for the retailer. Given the almost exploitative terms, poor commission and expensive equipment leases to be part of their network, no wonder most shops reply with near apathy when it comes to applying any sort of effort into accepting Monzo.
And if retailers are getting as little as 7p out of the £1 it costs us, that just feels unethical and a bad deal all round. Unless you are PayPoint, of course.
Monzo should be dropping them like a hot potato. No good can come of the current arrangement for anyone except PayPoint themselves. It is becoming hugely inconvenient for customers and hugely damaging to Monzo’s reputation; especially given that it seems they have nothing further to say on the matter. No acknowledgement of any issue or attempts to rectify the situation going forward. It’s a shame.
11 Likes
I think this is a silly way to look at it. PayPoint does drive a lot of customers into the store for the various services they offer, it’s the shops own problem if they’re failing to convert customers and offer other products and services that the customer wants. Literally everything the business does has a cost attached to it. Monzo for example offers a current account and this costs money, however they’re working to monetise it in as many ways as possible.
Take Starling and the free overseas cash withdrawals as an example - they’ll be making the costs up in other ways.
I think people should focus less on the cost of individual things because that’s not a true reflection of the cost to the business.
Monzo shouldn’t have to be dropping PayPoint because it’s ‘unethical’ - it’s the businesses own fault if they’re not making the costs up. They should, however, be getting on at PayPoint regarding the acceptance issues because that’s abysmal.
1 Like
I’m currently 0/2 on my attempts to get cash paid into my account at Paypoint locations. First one (a newsagents in Oxford City Centre) just point-blank (and quite rudely) refused to do it, in the second one (a co-op in South Oxfordshire), two chaps looked on the screen and couldn’t find what they were looking for. The app instructions doesn’t say anything about instructing the staff to swipe the card and I really shouldn’t have to trawl through forum posts to find out how to instruct a third party how to carry out a basic function for my account.
I’m very supportive of the idea of using something as easily accessible as Paypoint but in my experience so far the service is falling very short of the standards I expect from Monzo. I appreciate that’s not directly their fault, but they choose their partners and I hope this feedback is taken into account when they’re making decisions on renewing or changing how they accept cash.
I have a separate issue in that a large area of the magstripe on the back of my card has warn off and I have no idea if it will actually swipe or not. I guess I’ll find out next time I’m at a Paypoint place now I know what to tell them to do.
Last Thursday, I got my first Monzo card and deposited cash at a Tesco Express in London with no problems at all. But today, I went to the same store and there were different people at the till and they did not know what to do, at first saying “We don’t do that here.” I asked them to try and they did try something but said there was an error. I’m not sure what the error might be, though. Thankfully, I went to another convenience store nearby with Paypoint and was able to deposit cash.
I disagree. It is Monzos fault because they choose PayPoint knowing how notoriously bad they are.
There’s a reason no one else uses them.
4 Likes
I agree with that. It’s paypoints fault primarily for not training their staff properly but it’s becoming a Monzo issue as they decided to use them and therefore associate themselves with paypoint
4 Likes
Is there an issue with paying cash in via paypoint? I went in this morning to my local paypoint (a BP garage). He said that they didn’t accept Monzo and it didn’t work in his machine.
Should I try a different one?
Just say, you need to “top up” your card. The shop keepers don’t realise it’s same process.
Happens all the time 
I find when I say I want to put money on my account they always say it don’t work now I just tell them I want to put money on this card
I saw a post on /r/glasgow last night from a monzo user who had tried to topup via PayPoint and had been refused at several locations as none knew how to do it
as said before
just hand card over and say please topup this card it swipes
Just tell them to swipe your card…