Oh donāt repeat the debacle of the ATM vote. Have guts and make these important business decisions as a company, donāt be indecisive and opt for a vote by customers. While it may be good to consult customers to ask their opinion, leaving it to them to vote on important things is a barmy idea. Staff have access to data and can make a reasoned and astute business decision, customers will put their own thoughts and ideas first not the company and will vote for ideas of personal benefit not ideas for benefit of the collective body of customers or the success of the bank.
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IMO you (& a few other users in this thread) are missing the point. Itās easy for experts - Monzoās team - to come up with products, thatās what the legacy banks do. But I think that what really matters is uninformed userās perception of the various product configurations that Monzo has come up with.
The ATM fees vote was important because the fees will potentially put users off signing up for Monzo. The only way to find out which fees would be least likely to put users off signing up is to ask.
Thatās also why the blog didnāt contain real world examples etc. because in the real world, Monzo wonāt have a chance to explain why the fees make sense in certain scenarios..
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Yep, and Iām sure thatās how the development team see it. 
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I was about to suggest a vote on your suggestionā¦but letās not 
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I think thereās a balance. We still make the majority of business decisions ourselves (and lots of people here on the forum then complain that weāre not listening), but getting feedback and views of customers is incredibly important. Whether thatās as a vote, or a survey or any other method, the alternative is hiding away in a black box and thinking āwe know bestā. I think if you do that, you end up with a big bank pretty quickly. Weāre trying to build something different.
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The problem with the traditional approach of asking for opinion is that there is very little feedback loop. People want to see their ability to influence changes. Opinions can be vague and have a diluted effect in large numbers. Often your feedback to a company will seemingly disappear into a black hole.
With a vote, you can actually see your vote making a difference and you can see other people voting against you. It also gives the company the ability to predefine a selection of suitable choices.
Not to say that opinions are worthless. Opinions could be analysed and displayed to the community with word clouds and suchā¦ They are also a natural part of this forum and are great for idea generation phase.
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The problem is with following a vote is if it is bindingā¦using it in an advisory capacity is best 
We saw with the Brexit Referendum how about 51% of a 70% or so turn out meant about 35% of the electorate dictated the future for everyone else (who obviously should have voted - but that is another issue) and with Monzo votes you will also get a more active (or perhaps more acurately a more vocal) core of members dictate the direction even if it is not in the interest of the others
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Almost 6,000 users voted on the ATM fees poll, a large portion of whom were not regulars in this community. It doesnāt matter if the user is vocal or not, each user gets one vote which counts as much as every other vote.
And if, as Tristan says, Monzo continue to make these polls more accessible, the minority casting their vote will become even less of an issue. Obviously not every user needs to vote, Monzo just needs a representative sample.
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But if youāre going to let people vote and then just do what you want anyway, thereās no point in having a vote in the first place.
Letting people think they have a say and then completely ignoring it is definitely not what I would expect (and exactly why I stopped using giffgaff)!
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So the problem is more that if the vote is close, something other than taking the vote by numbers should be done. Maybe a compromise of both options, or thatās where Monzo use their expert opinion.
As @alexs points out the ATM had a large portion of voters who were not just based on this forum. In that vote the winning option was clear by the number of votes.
In Brexit you had 34% against, %36 for, %30 undecided. I say undecided because thatās what you have to take them as. Itās impossible to tell what they wanted. As there were only two choices, there was no choice but to go for Brexit. The failure for the against side was in the campaigning, not the vote.
If votes are made easily accessible through the app. Someone who didnāt vote would have to be taken as undecided or not caring. Thus any numerically significant win would be what the majority wanted.
My last point has been covered by @Chalky. Not following the outcome of a vote would dissuade people from future voting as there vote would not be guaranteed. Thatās why every option must be vetted by Monzo beforehand.
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Which is why youāll see we retained that option in the ATM fees vote 
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Personally, Iām super excited for what Monzo can bring in the future. I had intentions over Christmas to move everything over to my Monzo card but something stopped me. There are certain features which while I donāt use often I still need, therefore, Iād still have to keep my Barclays account open.
Without a doubt, I think the rollout of the current account limited the number of new features Monzo could introduce but with more and more customers migrating, I think itās right to assume more effort will be put towards new features.
With all that said, once I can have an IBAN attached to my Monzo account, thereās Apply Pay support and thereās a way to put cash into my Monzo account, Iād be way more inclined to switch. For now, Monzo will just stay as a spending card so I can track the insane amount of money I spend at Starbucks each week! 
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This x100! It is the reason Iām back with Starling. I did ask Monzo if they could re-attempt a DD that bounced but they refused. I was then penalised a Ā£20 default fee by my insurance provider and it now means Iāll have this on my credit file. Not happy.
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I have to agree with much of the sentiment in this topic.
I wouldnāt say I set my expectations as overly high, and as someone who transferred pretty much all of my banking to Monzo during the CA preview, Iāve been fairly happy with the service thus far. That being said, as time goes on, Iām starting to realise some of the features and functions I took advantage of with Natwest, Iām struggling to do with Monzo - International Transfers and Apple Pay as a couple of examples - not a massive issue and I know itās in the road map, but I would have almost have preferred Monzo delayed the CA rollout until these functions were ready. Then other smaller āday to dayā things such as second attempts with Direct Debits, no 3D Secure etc.
I have no doubt in my mind that Monzo will eventually ācatch upā to my legacy bank and launch a whole range of new features and functions to better the Monzo experience and leave Natwest in the past. That being said, whilst Monzo is currently playing catch up in many areas, others such as Starling and the upcoming launch of N26 in the UK are already ahead with further additions and changes being made - only improving their offering vs what Monzo plans to launch or catch up with.
I guess you could assume that Monzo will always be playing catch up with the way things are currently moving. Donāt get me wrong, I think Monzo is a fantastic product and service, but in an ever more competitive market with many offerings available or soon to be available, Iām not sure good marketing and generally positive word of mouth (during the pre-paid days) is a reason to hold my custom in the long run, alongside others - the novelty of it all will soon wear off for others no doubt.
As a caveat, I totally appreciate that everyones wants, needs and expectations of a bank are different. Some will like the fairly basic feature-set of Monzo, others will not - just putting forward my opinion.
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Surely youāre in charge of whether you have enough money in your account to pay a DD?
Maybe, just maybe, the functionality to remind you there isnāt enough money for an upcoming DD should be something they focus on but Iām not seeing the need for retrying a failed DD when it isnāt their fault it failed.
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I think this is a pretty fair response, Monzo isnāt rolling out as much features as before so some people will definitely look around and compare it to the other options available. I wasnāt expecting much from Monzo but itās revolutionised my spending habits and the way I see banking and I want to see how itāll grow. Plus I love the staff and community and the brand is really good at inspiring a certain something- as much as they are a company, I feel like they are my friends- which is something theyāve really sold well as their image.
I have accounts with several fintech apps and Iāve stopped using Curve and Revolut entirely since they donāt have anything I need at the moment. Iām still using my legacy account for the odd feature or function Monzo doesnāt have/ doesnāt plan to have.
I see no reason why people should be compelled to do everything with one bank account- you would have one for daily spending, maybe a few for interest, another for joint accs, credit cards, a random bank account you havenāt bothered to close because it is such effortā¦ I guess itās easier for some people to just only have one, but itās entirely up to each individual to see which types of accounts serve their needs best.
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Also a very fair response, and thereās no denying that the spending targets and itās ability to change your spending habits is worth a lot just on itās own. I also agree that you shouldnāt put all your eggs in one basket and instead use a āportfolioā of financial institutions for a number of reasons - including merely as a backup in case Monzo or whatever bank were to break down for whatever reason.
I guess my ever growing concern is - none of this is particularly unique nor ādone bestā by Monzo - at least not anymore, and Iām not sure if thatās going to change anytime soon.
Either way, Iām not a pessimist and have nothing but high hopes for Monzo - hence why I moved all my primary banking over. I just hope that itās in Monzoās plans that they meet the feature-set of traditional banks with as much priority as they add any planned new features - such as basics - International Bank Transfers, 3D Secure, DD second try etc etc etc.
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I think a notification the day before would also work. In this case one of my DDs was a week later than expected. I just want that chance to move money in from elsewhere.
I use Squirrel which allows for next day transfers so I think a notification the day before could potentially work better.
Ideally both would be great. A warning the day before of insufficient funds and the chance to transfer money in by 4pm in the next day.
3-D Secure isnāt really something that strongly demanded by the wider user base. Look at the US where very few banks implement it. Sure, like with the Monzo forums, you get some people complaining. But the vast majority of customers donāt care, or even are glad because theyāre used to really bad implementations that cause huge headaches.
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Some sites in Europe require 3D Secure or they wonāt proceed with the transaction, thats where the desire for Monzo to support 3D Secure comes from.
Its less of an issue that US Banks donāt support it as their customers wonāt experience any issues unless trying to purchase from a European site that requires it.
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