While I understand the need to leverage connections and go viral the socialisation around the signup process “bump me up the queue if I spread the word” seems a bit off for a banking service and gives off an odd vibe in that context.
Additionally while I am always keen to spread the word about useful services and products to friends and family I generally prefer to have tried them first and so it also seems a bit premature.
hmmm …youre not forced to sign up anybody to “bump” you up the queue if you feel uncomfortable with it , you could just wait your turn in the queue - It has undoubtably been very successful for inexpensive customer acquisition for Monzo.
This is a fairly common approach to help promote the viral growth, you might have seen other tech companies doing something similar too. Monzo growing faster indirectly benefits you, as a user because it enables Monzo to secure more investment (as it’s doing right now & deliver features / products sooner.
You’re not the first person to question this though & Naji has mentioned that Monzo wants to move away from this approach at some point -
For now, if you’re not comfortable referring friends, to this bank with a crazy colour card, you should only have to wait a couple of weeks to receive your card anyway 
Thanks for the comments and the link and response was interesting.
Firstly let me say I have no problem waiting for the card, the queue is fine and I’m happy to wait. Monzo are in the difficult position of having to supply something physical, and heavily regulated, and that’s always harder than pure software in largely unregulated spaces.
And I completely understand the focus on growth - I work in tech and while currently working for an established player have worked in a couple of startups in the past, one very early stage and one dying and fighting for breath.
However I do think the actions and strategies taken to achieve growth, whether optional or not, reflect on an organisation and also have to be questioned in light of the target market. In this case personal finances and banking - one of the least trivial, and more private, areas of life. It’s not a photo sharing website.
The trigger for posting the above was the notification I had from Monzo this morning which, when tapped, led me to a message asking me, again, to “spread the word” before I’ve even been able to try the service myself.
By all means ask me to recommend a product I’ve had the chance to try - if I like it and you make it easy for me I will, if I like it a lot I will regardless. But don’t ask me to recommend a product based on blind faith and Internet buzz. And don’t pester me while I’m waiting in a queue - if I was going to bump myself I’d have done it the first time asked.
In any case - I’m still giving Monzo a try, I think personal banking needs a good shake up and from what I’ve seen of the service it looks great, but they don’t get a free pass because they are a startup.
I’m surprised to hear that Monzo sent a chaser, I don’t think I’d like that either.
Thanks for the feedback! The referrals scheme has been a really effective way to drive growth over the past year. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea and could be considered a source of ‘friction’ for customers going through the signup process. For this reason, it’s unlikely we’ll keep this system forever 
As Alex said, you won’t be waiting more than a couple of weeks for your card even if you don’t refer any freinds 