So 2025 marks Monzo’s 10th anniversary:
The 18th February to be precise.
@AlanDoe and Monzonauts - any celebration plans?
Community folk - let’s share memories and discuss what celebrations should be. I’d be especially keen to hear about a) when you first heard of Monzo; b) how you got your first card; c) did you crowdfund; d) where the investors and community 10 year party should be held!
First heard of Monzo on YouTube in 2019, didn’t know fintech was a thing as I’d had a Yorkshire Bank account since 2006 and never really gave it a second thought. Signed up immediately, few months later found this community then signed up shortly after that.
10 year anniversary debit cards for the community? 
Now this is an excellent idea!
Special edition black and hot coral, Monzo logo in outline form, “X” or “Ten Years of Monzo” in the corner. Lovely.
I’d pay a tenner.
Must have been autumn 2016 I first heard of Monzo. Two younger relatives had one for fee free foreign spending, so I got one and used it for all spending.
I’ve been through stages with Monzo. I didn’t want a bank account, I wanted a prepaid card and resented the change.
I’ve used it as a bank account for a while, but I’m pretty much using it as a small spend card and cash withdrawal card these days.
A) The Mondo days. Before they even had an app and right as they’d split off from Starling. I remember their landing page (and Starling’s; and Atom’s which was the best by far).
B) In the mail
C) Didn’t join the crowdfunds (thought I missed out but I’m now glad I didn’t) and didn’t sign up until after they became a bank and offered a proper current account.
D) Aboard whichever pirate ship we commandeer to plunder the plushies.
How come?
Not sure why I didn’t at the time, back then. I think it might have been because I was personally more excited about the wrong horse (Atom). The power of a good landing page and over promising, I suppose. I remember how excited I got when BBVA backed them (the primary backer and eventual owner of Simple in the US), but that wound up meaning nothing. When it became clear they wouldn’t deliver what I wanted, my hopes turned to N26, not Monzo.
I’m glad I didn’t with hindsight for the way Monzo have treated their crowdfund investors, and the way folks on here react to folks who are a bit disgruntled by all that.
I first heard about this bank called ‘Mondo’ through a YouTube channel. At the time, I was happy with NatWest, but I kept an eye on how things were going with Mondo. I think I remember them releasing something in 2016 (or maybe it was 2017?) asking for suggestions for a new name because of a legal challenge to ‘Mondo’.
I signed up for Monzo in 2018 when there were about 900,000 users. I didn’t fully switch until 2023 and haven’t used another bank since, as the app has everything I need and has helped me a ton.
Such a shame they pulled out of the UK. 
My brother who lives in Berlin recently got N26 Smart to go alongside his Revolut Metal, so he’s very happy at the minute. And he would probs get a Monzo account if them came to Europe as well.
An old work colleague moved to Germany around 6 years ago and kept telling me to sign up when they had UK accounts as he loved his. I kept putting it off then when I decided to go for it they’d stopped UK accounts. 
On the bright side, you’d at least timed it right in terms of functionality.
It was very much a Chase situation up until a few months before that point.
If my memory is right it would have been early 2020, so just before I joined here, when I kept thinking of opening it. I think I’d gone to their website and it was on the main page. 
I think around 2017 I heard about Monzo but I think at that point people still thought of it as a bit of a flash in the pan novelty. So I didn’t pay it a lot of attention and stupidly carried on using my crappy TSB and NatWest accounts. Then I think tail end of 2019 was when I opened my first Monzo account back when the pie chart was at the top of the account page. Made me realise how crap the offering from Natwest and TSB was.
I used it as my main account for about 8 months I think before I started lurking/posting around here and seeing people shopping for bank accounts made me realise how much I had been limiting myself and I started trying out new products providers etc!
Kind of in awe of @jo and how much attention he’s paying to his finances. At his age I was not thinking about this kind of stuff at all.
A guy in the office who’d already “sold” it to others told me about it circa 2018.
Opened an account, also got Starling around the same time but stuck with Monzo. Went all in, then started to outgrow the account and moved back to initially NatWest then HSBC.
Things that stand out:
I still have an account and maybe one day I’ll come back.
I remember joining the waitlist for the beta. I can’t remember the specifics but I found a way to jump the queue and so managed to get the 3,231st account.
Mondo. 2016.
Can’t recall how I learned about Mondo.
But community meet ups were great. I remember chatting to Tom briefly and just thinking this was the future.
The app was simple but really well designed at the time.
I remember only ever topping up my account by £100 at a time.
Then current account launched. Main memory is having to go to Monzo HQ to physically pick up my current account debit card.
I think Monzo was by far the best concept for a bank at the time. They have their moments now but I ultimately have either outgrown them or they have moved in a different direction to me.
My account was within the first 50,000. It was a shame that they didn’t restore the customer number upon re-joining years later. It would have been a nice touch.
a) when you first heard of Monzo;
Online, after searching for alternatives to the Supercard by Travelex, which was abandoned (unsurprisingly) in early 2016. Now THAT was a cheap and functional travel card! I came across the Monzo prepaid card and applied when there were 225K users. Used it as a prepaid card before it became a full bank account in June 2017 & joined the community a few months later. Then got a Joint account when it launched in September 2018
b) how you got your first card;
Via Royal Mail, after signing up in-app
c) did you crowdfund;
Yeah baby. Glad I did. It was quite the gamble then but I had confidence in the at-the-time leadership. Got a bit nervous when TomB moved aside but it worked out better in the long run
d) where the investors and community 10 year party should be held!
In the field 1 mile from my house which, according to Waze, is the exact centre of Great Britain - so just as easy/hard for everyone to get there.
So at my school, we were celebrating/discussing something to do with Women in Business & Leadership roles, and Starling Bank got brought up because of Anne Boden. From there, I kinda went away and looked into Starling Bank, and then wondered what other banks were like SB, which is when I discovered fd and Monzo. On my 16th I opened a Starling Bank account, and then about a month later decided that I’d like to try out Monzo, so I opened Monzo at like 10pm one night 
Edit: Because I didn’t clarify, early 2024 is when I first heard of Monzo 
Royal Mail 
No. Wish I could be an investor though 
Monzo HQ 
, with a free Hot Chip Plushie for everyone who attends, as well as a special Monzo debit card & merch 
