Monzo and Starling both ask you to move money out of your pots or goals if you need money to meet a direct debit or standing order
Both reject card payments if too much money is protected in pots or goals and not enough left in the main account. So they do exactly the same thing. The only difference is how they calculate charges.
and what do starling do if you say no Id prefer to use the overdraft that you won’t be charging me for because I have money set aside for a bill and there are no fees on what I use - I know Monzo say thats your choice here is what it will cost to use that money rather than your pot money ?
Do Starling say thats oK you have money in a goal and you can spend as much of that up to your goal balance before we charge you ?
I guess I see a point here, which we (i.e. those critical of Monzo) have so far neglected: My understanding of Starling overdrafts (and please correct me if I’m wrong) is that the overdraft limit is your card limit. So, if I use my table:
| on your card | + | in pots | = | total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -£500 | + | £100 | = | £500 | |
| -£1000 | + | £1000 | = | 0 | I have spent another £1000, taking me to my OD balance, despite not being overdrawn. |
If my “overdraft limit” is £1000 I suddenly cannot spend any more money without moving around, despite not actually being overdrawn, so the next step has to be
| on your card | + | in pots | = | total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -£900 | + | £900 | = | 0 | I have moved £100 from a pot to my card |
| -£1000 | + | £900 | = | -£100 | I have spent another £100 |
I still fail to see how that would put me in a more precarious situation than Monzo’s approach though, given that the only thing that’s changed is that I haven’t paid overdraft fees, and I still have £900 in my pot (for budgeting reasons)
Id love to live in your world where nothing unexpected happens 
car breaks , fridge breaks , roof leaks … Child needs new stuff because they lost the other stuff all the while Ive been spending the 1000 “allowance” “overdraft” “facility offered” whatever you want to call it because it was interest free because my Goal - that was savings for a bill that I know is coming - covered it
What about your world, where people are somehow financially incompetent because they don’t use Monzo?
What’s that about??!
if that was a question to me - lol - if you look at a lot of posts on Monzo / Starling they infer that the “new” instant notifications, clarity of spend helps them budget better than the older “legacy” banks where they basically encouraged you to go into overdrafts and people struggled to control their spending because they didn’t know what , when or how they were spending - they easily slipped into overdrafts
That’s a low blow. Those guys are criminally insane.
With Starling
• Your account balance is your account balance.
• Your account includes any goals (pots).
• Your overdraft fee is applied against your account balance.
With Monzo
• Your account balance is normally your account balance, but not when it comes to charging you.
• Your account includes any pots (goals) when calculating account balance in app, on statements, and if any letter written by the bank to tax authorities or Courts etc,…but
• Your account excludes any pots (goals) when calculating overdraft charges payable
• Therefore you can be paying overdraft charges when your account is not overdrawn
So while Monzo say they want to help people manage their money and that pots are a way to do this they actually penalise people who do use pots to manage their money !
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In what way are they "managing " their money if they are using an overdraft at 50p a day when they have money sat in a pot earning nowt
But you can’t spend all your overdraft if it is locked up in goals, as like pots any money in them can’t be used. If you have £500 of your overdraft in goals you DO NOT have £1000 overdraft to still spend on your card out of the rest of your account, you have reduced that amount from 1000 to 500 by putting some into a goal for future use.
I’m concerned about your fridge. It’s been mentioned a few times. Is it OK?
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They are managing it, all be it at a cost. They may feel it better to pay 50p a day to lock some of their money in a pot to meet a upcoming Bill, though as many of us would argue, they should not be paying that 50p anyhow if their account is in credit!
I still don’t understand the £1000 in goals and the £1000 arranged “overdraft” , why would you want an “arranged overdraft” to the goal balance when its your money they are letting you spend in the “overdraft” ? , why not just spend your money in your goal which in effect is what you’re doing if its ring fenced and you cant use the portion you have spent ?
all it seems to be is Starling saying go on spend your money from your Goal and we won’t charge you for it - woo hoo - or is that wrong ? its not Starling being benevolent to you, they are just saying we won’t charge you when you spend your money ??? we will call it an “arranged overdraft” - which it isn’t because you’re only spending your money that is then blocked in a goal - for Starling to take ??? because come the end of your £1000 spend from your goal you won’t have any money left in your goal as Starling will have it ? - whats the benefit of the “arranged overdraft” when all you’re doing is spending your money ???
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Starling are clearer on what you get charged against.
Monzo are clearer on what you get charged.
That’s my main takeaway. Monzo could stand to make their definitions clearer as to what account balance is etc. I still feel Starling are encouraging an overdraft.
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Oh crikey, is this still going on?!
I’ve avoided getting involved but here’s my view: Monzo needs to sort out the definition of “account”. It’s confusing and leads to arguments like this.
I can’t get excited or angry about the way that Monzo charges for overdrafts. I know the rules and understand when I will / won’t be charged. It seems that others aren’t as clear, though, therefore it would be helpful for Monzo to be explicit about it.
If I had a choice, I’d pick the Starling model of offsetting pots against overdraft. I’m confused that people find this way of calculating charges confusing. But, as I say, the current model doesn’t cause me any particular hardship.
As I’ve said before, I’m mindful that when pots can be held with external providers then they will need to be presented in a consistent and non confusing way. More thoughts on that here. I think this might be one of the things leading to the current confusion.
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Yes 
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I guess it’s up to Monzo to end this discussion - should be easy to do as well …
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I was about to say I hope that no-one censors this discussion… Then I got what you meant!
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Wow this has run and run. I find it simple
“Overdraft” defined as “a deficit in a bank account caused by drawing more money than the account holds.”
I have a bank account with Starling, I have one with Monzo. WITHIN that account (either) i can put money towards certain goals (or in a “pot”) that was my understanding. It’s labelled as being earmarked for something but it’s still part of my account.
See definition above - I should pay a fee ONLY if i am overdrawn (see definition again)
I totally get what people are saying about choice, preference, but an overdraft is an overdraft and a bank account is a bank account. If i’m in credit I am not overdrawn.
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It seems the overarching point at issue has been “what constitutes overdrawn” ie, are pots regarded as part and parcel of the main Monzo current account?
The thread has run this far largely because no one from within the Monzo team has clarified that for the avoidance of all doubt. I don’t get quite why. After all, this seems to be a genuine cause for concern for a number of account holders.
Had they stated that pots are/ are not inextricably linked for the purposes of determining a +ve CA balance, the matter of when an overdraft kicks in would be totally clear in all cases.
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