As the title says, Simple is closing (RIP). I’ve been a customer of theirs for 8(?) years-ish? Maybe longer. Long time. They’ve been my primary bank for the majority of that time.
I just signed up for Monzo, and am eagerly awaiting my card’s arrival. Pretty excited though, especially since I’m in tech and API access sounds fun
What are some things that I should know as a previous customer of Simple? Do people have a similar workflow for the envelope type system? Anyone use Monzo with their spouse? Can we order checks?
Please bombard me with all of your experiences switching to Monzo and stuff I should look out for!
Excited to get to know the community and start transferring money soon
I don’t use Safe to Spend too much. As long as Monzo shows my balance minus any pending transactions (or shows a running total of pendings?) it’s probably fine. My current budget is built entirely on Simple’s Expense’s feature. If Monzo doesn’t support something similar (automated deposits into pots), then I can do it manually until I can write small app to do it for me . I did it for years anyway with Simple!
What would you say the advantage of N26 spaces are over Pots? They look pretty similar to me.
Actually, I just read the US blog post for Pots and it looks like they support scheduled moving already. Now I’m super interested in how they’re different.
Oh man! I was keeping Simple around literally just for check cashing. Unfortunately there’s no real check situation on Monzo yet, but they are aware.
Anyway, guess it’s time for Monzo to ramp up their marketing/development push to scoop up a lot of former Simple customers!
Hi Daron! I just got the email about Simple closing too and I am so sad because I’ve absolutely loved it for the past 6 years or so!
But I spent the last year and a half in the UK and opened a Monzo UK account there because it seemed similar to Simple. I had a great experience with Monzo, and was all basically the exact same, with the exception that Monzo doesn’t have photo uploads of checks and it takes one day for you to transfer funds between savings and checking, unlike Simple’s instant transfer.
So I think Monzo US is definitely the way to go for replacing your Simple account! I’m wondering, does anyone know when we can expect Monzo US to be officially up and running so I can get an account set up?
In regards to pots and spending… if I have $300 in a “Car” pot and my available balance is zero, does, will any incoming transactions be declined? Maybe that’s what you meant by “Safe to Spend”. I’ve seen mixed reports about the behavior.
In simple I had about a dozen different goals/expenses and my Safe to Spend was essentially only $20-100 but when my rent was charged, that $2k charge went through successfully and I could categorize it (or use the auto-spend feature).
they’ve been “aware” since the first announcement. Seems like a case of mis-matched priorities to me as practically every thread and off-site discussion about Monzo US comes to the lack of check facility.
Thanks! This might work out well enough for what I want to do. I do really like the API access potential for Monzo so I’m gonna give it a shot at least!
Monzo does have a feature (here anyway, probably in the US as well) called Salary Sorter which automatically sorts your income into different Pots for you. I don’t use it myself so am probably not the best person to mention it, but this may replicate some of the functionality of Simple.
It does sound like Simple may be a bit more advanced in that area, but Monzo are developing new things all the time so expect them to add to it. You also may be able to write something in IFTTT to better meet your needs, but that’s probably not necessary.
I hope you like Monzo!
PS: Just be aware, cheques are very low priority at Monzo in general, so it is likely to be a while (if ever) for them to add cheque support. If that’s a dealbreaker for you, you will need another bank either in place of or in addition to Monzo.
This is very true and I’m absolutely with you on it as far as the reasoning goes. That’s the business reality in the US, according to everything I have read and heard, and something that Monzo do need to address.
However, by the same token, being aware of this reality, I cannot in good-conscience recommend Monzo to an American as their only account or even main account without a massive caveat and warning that they will need to sort out something for cheques (with another bank, or carefully see if their specific circumstances may make it possible to live without them - and I know how difficult that is).
I don’t want to turn the thread into an off-topic argument about cheques, but it seems to me to be a shortcoming so serious as to give potential new users in the US serious pause for thought. I think they do need to be made aware of the situation as it stands, which is that Monzo has no publicly-stated plans to bring support for cheques to the US account as far as I know - although support is assumed to be coming, it has never been confirmed.
I’m in exactly the same boat as Daron. Simple customer since invite-only beta, and highly reliant on Expenses. @Daron did a great job explaining the features.
Monzo is clearly on this track:
To elaborate on the above features, my partner is British and has a UK Monzo account, so I have a sneak preview of sorts. They’ve since added “Repeating payments” which is an improvement to the model. While they may never land on Simple’s Expenses, where they do end up may be tenable.
@SebH makes an excellent point about checks, which is getting at the more obvious truth when considering Monzo US as your primary checking account; it’s still a beta product. I was young when Simple was in beta, and it was a wonderful pairing of juveniles. Over the years Simple’s features launched right alongside my maturing understanding of money. I’ve unfortunately gotten myself too entangled with adulting to take that plunge with Monzo beta.
The plan for the time being is to open a more traditional bank account with a big US bank, and stick a Plaid layer on top of it, like Pilot or YNAB. I’ll keep some money and an eye on Monzo’s US feature set, with the hope to one day switch over.
Now, that is if One Financial doesn’t beat them to the punch…
That’s great, shame I don’t use Twitter and on Facebook they haven’t posted anything since July of 2019, so most likely not even checked. Hopefully there is another avenue of getting bumped up for Simple users.
I’d try emailing Monzo, the address is: help@monzo.com
Thanks for your kind words! I understand exactly what you mean about a pairing of juveniles, I was quite young when I got a card shortly after Monzo first launched in the U.K. and it has certainly grown since then (it was only a prepaid card originally in the U.K. beta phase).
You are right to point out that it’s currently only a beta in the US, of course, which is definitely something for potential customers to bear in mind. Really you should always carry a second backup card with any fintech that’s in beta.
I know the covid crisis has slowed Monzo US a bit, but the Simple base is craving something. I am seeing Envel and One FInancial pushed heavily.
I do see Monzo closing the gap, and hopefully they do make a good deal of progress within the year because this thread is evident in that Simple folks are interested in Monzo.
” is likely available again in August,
Hello from the U.K. 
and welcome to Monzo!
