However, although I could get my Salary paid into Monzo, (just be updating my company with my new bank details). It would mean that really I’m not eligible for the Current Account I have as it would mean that I don’t pay £500 minimum into the account, as to me there would be no point to, so I think that would mean I lose out on getting 3% interest (which is pretty good for interest these days I think). Plus they have a £35 interest and fee free Overdraft, I believe Monzo’s in £20. (But I don’t have an O/D).
For me I’m still trying to weigh up the pro’s and con’s of staying and potentially moving across to Monzo.
Don’t take this the wrong way, but I do think this forum can make you feel a little like you are “missing out” or not necessarily seeing what everyone else is seeing.
The fact is, if you currently get 3% and don’t struggle with managing your finances, you’d be crazy to move to Monzo.
If you wanted the “Monzo experience”, you could just set up a standing order each month and use it that way. I think the whole “gamification” with the rewards for doing certain things, and the social media hype make it feel like you need to be a part of it (it’s great marketing from Monzo).
But if that comes at a price (in this case, you missing out on 3% through your legacy account), I’m not sure why it’s even crossed your mind that you’d want to get away from that.
A huge amount of people pay their salary into a legacy account to fulfil the minimum requirements, and then move it over to Monzo for day to day spend. It would be what I’d do if I had a 3% account elsewhere.
Whereas I’d forgo a few pounds in interest a years (tops) to have a vastly better app experience.
As 90% of my bills go out just after payday and the rest to savings, the average balance I hold in a current account at 3%/year is worth far less than the joy of not dealing with the garbage app’s most legacy banks have (especially the ones I used).
Before my legacy bank now, I was with LloydsTSB before they split where I got no interest at all, so it’s not like I’ve never had a bank account that doesn’t pay me interest.
I like the fact that Monzo is:
Easily accessible via my Phone via the App
Can see Notifications straight away
Can see a Summary of my Expenses
Freeze/Defrost Card
Can use the Monzo Card Fee Free Abroad (which is one of the main reasons I opened an account)
Saving Pots (the other reason as I wanted to try and save some money for a Holiday abroad) It saved me having to open up either a Legacy Bank Savings account or another account somewhere else.
Only down side is the No Interest on non MonzoPlus accounts.
Savings Pots only gain Interest if you have a MonzoPlus account which is £72 per year. If I had £4,000 (which I don’t) this would equate to £60 per year in interest, thus being down already. I think at present I could only save about £60 per month which is roughly £720 per year, if I put this into a savings account outside of Monzo (easy access, so all the withdrawals I can handle) this would be at 1.5% per year which equates to about nearly £11 over that year. It would take me approx 5.5 years to save up to £4K going off those figures. At least I would get nearly £11 in interest over that year if I opened a separate savings account, as at present, I wouldn’t be gaining anything in a regular pot (non MonzoPlus) I’d just have £3,960 in 5.5 years. So there would be no point me going MonzoPlus until nearly 6 years time.
I’m the same - I could go searching for different accounts with higher interest etc, but my current account balance is always low, as everything is in savings somewhere (which is why I use Monzo).
But if I was concerned about the 3% (as @Reena initially said), I’m not sure the pros outweigh the cons.
However… Following on from the latest post…
It will come down to how much money you are sacrificing in interest.
Is using Monzo worth £50 per year (for example)?
Why don’t you just set up a standing order each month? You would never need to check your legacy app (well, rarely), and you’d benefit from both apps and services?
95% of my bills go out on the 1st of the month. So when the Interest gets paid, it gets paid on what’s left on the 1st, not at the beginning so, yes the Interest is not that great anyway.
I’d highly recommend you move to Monzo, it’s so much easier and better than any other bank. I’ve noticed also a lot of customers at my workplace use Monzo it’s becoming the next high-street bank without the street.
Ive just had my first real payment come out of Monzo thats for a subscription so setup it up as such, plus added a note to say what its for so it shows easier in the transaction list. Liking it more and more
My legacy bank (Bank of Scotland) receives my pay, from there an amount to pay all my bills goes into a second account with them, and an amount to pay my half of our joint bills goes into our joint Monzo account. The rest I move to my personal Monzo and is my ‘cash’ for the month.
Admittedly my situation is more about how I get paid than interest being gained but it works for me. I may not ever be full Monzo but that’s ok, the benefits of Monzo, and having Pots and notifications have already made me far FAR better at controlling my cash than I was before. Always managed the bills (due to above accounts) but overspent frequently. Now I even manage to end up with money in my account at the end of the month!
