Simple refugee here, was hoping Monzo would be a good replacement, but my wife and I require a joint / shared account. Any idea when this would be implemented? Thanks!
Hi Anthony & welcome 
I’m all apologies for this response which is almost pointless, but as a 
Joint account user in the UK - I can’t confirm what is available with the Joint/Shared account implementation with Monzo US accounts.
Happy to go over Joint/Shared details (using the currently available features in the UK as a reference) though!
Support got back with me. No joint / shared accounts in the US 
Thanks for the update, even if it wasn’t the best outcome.
We’ll get there eventually 
I hope so! The race between Monzo and Envel to see who will become my Simple replacement has begun! Haha best of luck!
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Just signed up and got my card today. Also looking for a simple bank alternative as they are shutting down. Joint accounts are also a must for my wife and myself.
Is there any sort of ETA or event an indication as to whether this will/could ever be a thing? I signed up just assuming it must support joint accounts, because who doesn’t? This is a deal breaker for me.
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I’m right there with you! Until Monzo can support joint accounts, I won’t make the full switch.
+1 my wife and I used a shared Simple account for household expenses and personal Simple accounts for discretionary spending. With Monzo US in it’s current state, we can move our discretionary accounts over but need to use an alternate bank for shared expenses. Its a real bummer. Willing to wait though as long its on their roadmap – which it seems to be!
You can upvote this idea on their Trello board (not sure how much that board is used/monitored thought):
https://trello.com/c/cRxJj3Gi/53-a-way-to-have-joint-accounts-
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I really like how Simple did/does is. Each one starts with an individual account, and has one shared account. Of course there are two debit cards but Monzo could maybe satisfy this with virtual cards.
At least for my wife and I, we’d need cards for both joint and personal accounts. We use our shared cards in person far more frequently than our individual cards.
Very excited to have shared accounts enabled. My wife and I can’t really use Monzo until that’s supported.
Agreed 100%! Joint accounts is the most requested feature, second only to check deposits on the Trello board. I’d like to think Monzo is listening to its Beta testers 
However that board has been untouched by admin for almost a year now and the lack of updates around the US product is a little disappointing. I read a comment somewhere that they will be providing an update soon; I’m hopeful, but talk is cheap.
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Hi all, I’d love to hear more about what you’re looking for from a joint account? We have the feature in the UK, and you can see some info here Monzo – Joint account - Open one today in minutes – is that what makes sense for you or do we need to change the product offering for American couples 
?
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Thomas, the UK features get a big thumbs up from me! 
I see the screenshot shows shared pots, that would be a great feature for sure
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Here’s how Simple did it, which worked well for my wife and I.
We have our own separate accounts with Simple. Then we have a Joint Shared account with our own separate debit cards (each card is a unique debit card number tied back to our shared account). Paychecks go into the Shared account, and each time one of us spends, it’ll show up in the app (with the first letter of our names tied to the transaction so we know who spent).
Damn. I was hoping to still use Monzo with my wife by having her take my physical card, while I use tap to pay/contactless on my phone - and both of us being logged into the app. But she just installed it, logged in as me, and then it logs me out on the app on my phone which makes sense for security reasons. Apparently it works for Qube (the Qube founders are using this workaround while they beta test joint accounts), which is where I got the idea.
The Monzo (UK) Joint Account works in the same way. We each have an individual personal account and a linked Joint account. Spending using the Joint Account shows a sub-icon of who made the transaction along with the merchant icon - see the ‘Co-op’ transactions:
If you are on iOS and your wife is on Android (or vice-versa), you’d be able to do this. Monzo allows only 1 user login per platform. So if both on iOS or both on Android, only one login is possible at any one time. If one user is on Android and one user is on iOS, you’d both be able to be logged in using the same account (‘Trust’ issues noted…)
But it sounds like you’re trying this with a single personal account in which case there’d be no ‘user-specific’ indication of who spent - because your card was used (by your wife) to spend on your account.
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Ah, good to know!
I’m fine with that until proper joint accounts are released. I recognize her purchases, and I can easily ask if it’s something I don’t recognize.
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Having looked around at other potential homes for us Simple orphans, I have noticed a trend. Most neobanks do not offer joint accounts. Rather, they offer shared spaces. Envel has shared envelopes. OneFinance has shared pockets. Qube has shared qubes.
Here are some of my thoughts, which are certainly biased by my own experiences.
SHARED FRAGMENTS
The structure of this is that each person has an individual account, and then opts into shared expenses or goals. I TOTALLY get this. It’s kind of a more modern approach to family banking and seems less ‘old-fashioned’ than both spouses just dumping all of their money into a shared account and moving forward.
I’ve been married nearly 24 years, and for the first 23, that’s more or less the way my wife and I have operated as well. She had her account, I had mine. Technically, we were both co-signed onto each other’s account, but that was just a formality for use in case of emergency or convenience. Otherwise, we handled our finances separately.
I do think these ‘shared buckets’ are cool ideas for sharing some financial goals with people other than your spouse (friends, extended family, etc.), but for couples, from my experience, this approach causes more harm than good.
JOINT ACCOUNTS
I just turned 50 this year. And at the end of 2019, my wife and I, after having done a lot of research on how to make more financial progress, created a shared account.
The thinking moves beyond just a shared account, however. In this scenario, ALL of our money gets dumped into this account initially, and all of our family bills get paid out of this account. The ability to have a very clear overview of our finances like this has changed our financial stability DRAMATICALLY over the past 18 months. With only an allowance coming to each of us, what is left over is far more obvious to us, and we have discussions and make decisions on what to do with that money. With the other system, the only thing that is combined is the expenses. The “rest” of the money is behind each other’s locked doors. Even to the most open couple in the world, out of sight means difficult to manage.
As I said, we do still take an allowance out of the main account and put it into our personal accounts for fun and privacy (for instance, I’m saving up for a BIG 25th-anniversary present, which will take another year and I don’t want her to know about it ahead of time). But that money comes OUT of the main account after the bills are paid. It isn’t the lump sum left over after paying my share of the bills. That money is left in plain sight where can both see it.
REASONS FOR SHARED FRAGMENTS
I think there are a couple of reasons for the shared fragments approach I’ve seen at many of the banks. First, I think it is part of a cultural shift over the past 50 or so years. Older folks who bank at brick-and-mortar still use joint accounts, so the banks still have them. Younger people, with a heightened sense of independence, don’t use them, so joint accounts are not an obvious solution to banks serving younger customers.
Another reason is the MVP mindset. When developing new technology, you solve for the most basic units first. In this case, single-user accounts. Then you move onto more complex scenarios, such as joint accounts. My guess is that when these other banks got to the point of shared finances, they talked to their user base, made up of younger users who aren’t yet focused on building family wealth and preparing for retirement, and ‘shared buckets’ is what they were asked to build.
I would hope that in trying to roll out tools that their users could use to build wealth, that instead of only conferring with users, that the banks would also talk to financial experts with a track record of helping others build wealth to find out which tools are the most important and would be the most helpful to a younger generation whose careers and income potential have already suffered through the economic downturns of 2012 and 2020.
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