The debit card top up screen already says this on the iOS app. There’s no message on the Apple Pay screen, but I suspect that wouldn’t be allowed by Apple.
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JustEat is not just card fees! They rip off takeaways by charging about 15% of the total cost of the order
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The speed of transfer is important for some people. But Apple Pay also has the advantage of ease of use. It can be done from within the Monzo app (and the Monzo app is superb, isn’t it?).
Now that I know that this (and ATM withdrawals) are expensive for Monzo to process, I can modify my behaviour to suit.
I do think that it ill behoves a bank to expect it’s customers pay for a facility they previously provided free of charge in order to attract those customers, though. Sounds like an old fashioned bait and switch technique.
Monzo have an excellent reputation which has been gained in a very short time. I’m sure that it is something they will be keen not to lose.
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Fidor (in Germany not UK) have a bonus for customers if they do not use ATMs each month.
Maybe you could enter Monzo users into a draw every month they do not do a card top up or overseas withdrawal?
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That assumes that your legacy bank has a usable app, which is far from universally true 
I do find that a bit galling. Monzo clearly want people to use the account as their main current account, which is fair enough - that’s the product they’ve wanted to build from the start. To repeatedly emphasise that people can use it the same as prepaid, though, before introducing fees to discourage that seems a little disingenuous. I guess they didn’t want to scare off all the users that only want a prepaid-like card, but still, it feels less than totally honest.
My suspicion, and this may be totally unfounded, is that these would be less of a problem for Starling. They launched a current account right off the bat, so people who didn’t want a current account would be less likely to have signed up. I suspect a lot of Monzo’s issues with these costs is due to them launching a prepaid card, and their users getting used to using it as such, before switching them to a different product. Starling have fewer users, but I suspect their users in general probably already use it more like a current account, which would make these costs less of an issue.
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Yes but then why have the feature? Seems self defeating to offer so many caveats on a feature that should make life easier, at least that’s how I’d feel.
But this way gives people a nice simple choice. Many airlines charge extra for credit card payments . It’s only the same principle.
Having it there is a great option. I really don’t think Charing a fee which is clear is really too complicated as you suggest
Ok. I think overall this would be fairer, but what I read in the debates to get the feature back was people wanting simplicity and ease topping up, which seemed a big selling point.
I stopped using them when I found that out.
Agreed. But whilst it is a pain to have to log in to internet banking, to set up a new payee is usually straightforward online, or on the phone, and you only have to do it once.
Regardless, I see an opportunity for 
Monzo to demonstrate how much easier they are to operate.
Maybe you need to be talking to them through the app. Randomly select a sample and ask them a quick question in app.
If it did, I wouldn’t have been so interested in Monzo.
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The ideas I like from this thread:
- Make topping up by debit card a smaller feature on the top up page
- Change wording to paying in or similar
- Advise the exact cost of the charge of a “top up”
- I can’t decide on the this being a must or an optional fee. If it’s a requirement id liken it to machines where it costs to withdraw, which you only ever use in an emergency.
Or give top ups as they are known now, a death day because the goal is to be a primary account. 
Or really really hide the debit feature top up so new users look to use standing orders and faster payments.
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First line of first post:
Why? Better for Monzo, yes, but what makes not using top-ups better for the customer experience?
There is a divide currently going on between users who are happy with Monzo being their primary current account, and those who want it as a secondary “daily cash” account. The pre-pay card drew in a lot of people in the second camp, and it’s why a lot of people aren’t wanting to upgrade to a current account as they dont need a second primary account. They don’t want a salary going in. For them, top-ups are the primary use case.
Faster payments are not a suitable replacement because a) they have to be triggered from the sending bank, (you probably jumped on monzo to get a usable digital experience) and b) they can take up-to 2 hours.
I think Monzo needs to have a think about how it’s making it’s money, and if it can’t absorb the cost of the a large proportion of it’s customers, then something is wrong with the model. Otherwise we’re going to get the gradual decay of all the great features because they’re too expensive to support (I’m looking directly at customer support here!)
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Why not just charge what it costs you for every added value feature you offer?
Doing free allowances and then charging more than needed to make up for the lost income seems like you’re prioritising parts of your user base to me all the while making the whole process more convoluted.
I think it’s a lot easier to say you’re doing £100 top-up and that costs us £1 so we’re going to charge you £101 for this. Same for overseas withdrawals and any other feature you may add in the future.
I’d rather have a clear understanding of what I’m getting and what I’m paying for it instead of mixing “free” items and then overcharging others. Especially since Monzo is targeting to be the billion-people Bank 2.0.
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But if you purchased something from Amazon and wanted faster delivery, you’d either:
A) Pay a one-off extra fee for Next Day Delivery;
B) Already be a Prime member, giving you Next Day Delivery (and other benefits) for £7.99 a month.
I’d be more than happy with either scenario from Monzo, whether it’s a monthly subscription for unlimited usage of “premium features”, or no subscription with pay-as-you-go fees for features like Debit Card top-ups.
It’s not an outlandish concept for a business model.
Unfortunately, the ‘something’ that’s ‘wrong’ might be that too many people jumped on what was supposed to be a limited run of prepaid cards and now have an unrealistic expectation of the future Current Account.
The Monzo model might be ‘wrong’ but it might also be that the customer base is ‘wrong’ for what Monzo is doing. Much of the publicised and talked about marketplace features appear to be built on the back of primary current account customers so I agree there’s a mismatch between what Monzo is trying to do and the aims of some of the customers who have taken up the prepaid cards perhaps without understanding that.
I suspect that Monzo isn’t going to change it’s direction any time soon which leaves very few other options.
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Agreed, but that’s not the customer’s fault.
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That’s the transparent (word-of-the-week) way of doing it. It does make it less appealling to the UK customer base who’s used to getting everything for free though.
No it’s not but, worst case, it does mean that there may be some customer disappointment in the future when the Monzo model doesn’t get adjusted to suit existing users as you seemed to suggest.
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