We just launched our Monzo integration and we’re here to answer any questions you might have!
Tail is a cashback program for your Monzo account, we provide you with real-time card-linked offers from an ever expanding set of retailers. All offers in the Tail app are automatically linked to your Monzo card, and redeemed cashback is sent to you in convenient, weekly payouts.
If you are in London and want to try the app you can find it here: www.tail.at/download. We are working as hard as we can to come to the rest of the UK, so if you’re not in London hold tight!
Why does it need a ‘Monzo integration’, rather than just signing up with a sort code & account number? - since all the Tail stuff happens in the Tail app anyway.
i.e. What is Tail doing with the access it has to Monzo/Starling accounts, and the data within them?
Thanks for giving it a try. Just so you know we are regulated by the FCA as an AISP, they have ensured that we manage your data responsibly and strictly stick to our privacy policy.
We do not pass on or sell any of your personalised data, it is not our business model. We only make money when our users redeem offers. i.e. we debit our retailers for the cashback amount + a Tail commission.
I’ve just downloaded the app and gotten to the sign-up page. Is there a reason why you need to be able to see my Account Balance or Name and Address?
Have you chosen those options or is that Monzo’s default API settings? List of accounts & transactions make sense (though I’m not particularly keen on giving you access to all of my transactions).
Unfortunately we do not have control over these permissions at the moment.
We do not need pots and balances but cannot yet remove access to them with the Monzo API. This is the same for Address (We do not actually currently have access to your address, this is planned addition to the api but it’s not live yet).
However, we do need your name and transaction history. Your name is used for the faster payment when we send cashback. We use the full transaction history to entice retailers to give us higher cashback offers, i.e. this person has never shopped here before, you should give them a larger than normal discount to come and try your food for the first time.
This is so backwards: you don’t need the Open Banking API, you need card number (or something less that’s still uniquely identifying) to identify spend at partner retailers, and sort code & account number to make the payments.
Do that, and , you support all current accounts/debit cards - not just Monzo & Starling - and it’s a much lower invasion of privacy.
Hey Oliver, in order to use card number to identify you at the point of sale we would need an expensive epos integration. Our method allows retailers to set up an account in 60 seconds, create an offer, and set them to go live instantly.
Using the transaction data we’re able to tailor offers based where you have shopped, meaning our retailers are willing to give us larger discounts. We have multiple 50% offers from places that would not normally give a discount that high, and it is because we can can say that the user has not shopped in the restaurant before.
Like we said above no data is passed on, this processing is done within the Tail environment and the retailer will have no way of personally identifying the users who offers have been sent out to.