The Big 2022 Poll: Expectations and Wishes!

Kind of does - Monzo Flex Virtual Cards. Only thing is you have a minimum spend of £30 with them but they work with Apple/Google Pay for spending in brick & mortar or with standard card forms on websites

Nope - hasn’t fully launched yet - there’s still potentially a few changes we want to make first (mostly behind the scenes but potentially some customer facing changes as well).

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A great (more ‘Massive’ than ‘Big’?) Poll there @Peter_G - really enjoyed going through it.
Deserving of the badge:
poll_master
:clap:

Let’s see how this develops through 2022 - I’m going with the idea that there’ll be more twists and turns than a game of Cluedo.

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I think it could go either way, but the optimist in me says that the “new” CEO’s first year (and a bit?) was sorting out the business, with the new Chief Product person getting to grips with a proper product pipeline and sorting out some of the fundamentals behind the scene.

If that’s the case, and they’ve got the company to where they want it, I expect to see an increased velocity for delivery and a regular heartbeat of releases, focused on a) new products, b) more differentiation for Plus/Premium, and, c) filling in the gaps of missing core banking features (IBAN, cheque imagining etc) and making sure that Monzo remains ahead of the competition.

I’d hope that that would all be accompanied by a bit more visibility in the media and with the community.

If it’s not the case, I think we’ll be able to clock it by, say, March. That’ll be characterised by lack of delivery, slow pace of change, a default to secrecy and a lack of engagement with the press and the community.

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I’d go with that.

Checking the (January) Big 2022 Poll with what’s actually happened by the end of every 2022 quarter would show how close or how far off the Jan-Poll results were.

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@Peter_G I do think that some of your predictions are right regarding some of the fintechs falling by the wayside or being eaten up by the bigger players. :+1:

My hope for the future is that those who do survive flourish in 2022
When I say flourish, I don’t mean lots of new features (although I hope that those that do want these get them too) for me, it means that they all find a way to profitability and continued success :slightly_smiling_face:

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I think no physical card would be a great idea! but that relies on cashpoints allowing you to use your phone as the card, which I have yet to see a single one allow me to do

Does it require the bank to add official support for it? I get that the bank would have to support it, if it was to say enter a code, like Natwests ‘emergency cash’ but if you auth it’s you via Apple Pay + PIN number would the bank have to code that in somewhere?

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Most shops and pubs do debit card cashbacks these days. And they take contactless too. I will try this out more around me instead of cash machines.

Edit: I wonder if this is tied to Link and if it works with Monzo cards or not

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I’d imagine it would, as I seem to be able to withdraw money from Link ATMs, and this is backed by PayPoint, which Monzo partner with.

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I meant to cancel a bill two bills ago then forgot and it went via virtual card on pot and I completely missed it :man_facepalming:t2: as it was in the pot feed which is also not the default view. Roll on unified feed.

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So I think I’ll leave the polls open until the end of the month, then in February we’ll have a quick look at how the direction of travel is faring against our predications…

In the meantime, here is what we’ve learnt:


On Monzo predictions…

  • The Community isn’t particularly bullish on anything! The top voted prediction (with only 49% of voters going for it) is Direct Payments from Pots. Even Monzonauts are getting in on the action, with at least one pluming for the option…

  • The one that I thought everyone would vote for - Flex fully launching - is in second place with 48% of the vote. If this one isn’t nailed down then what is? And what were the 52% of people who didn’t vote for this thinking?! Mystic Al (@AlanDoe) has voted for this one, so it’s basically already happened, right?!

  • Finishing up the top three is Flex, Plus and Premium payments from pots with 45%. I wish I had your optimism, but :crossed_fingers: fingers crossed :crossed_fingers: anyway!

  • We then head into 30% territory with something else which is pretty likely - 6m users, then a whole bunch of related stuff (Summary retirement at 34%, different time periods in Trends at 29%, then Budgeting into Trends at 26%). I confess some confusion as to the 5% gap between the first and last of these - do some folk think that budgeting is gonna go all Year In Monzo on us? :scream:

  • At the other end of the table, literally no one thinks that the FCA probe will result in an existential crisis for Monzo. Yay! But Community and international lovers look set to be disappointed: despite a strong steer otherwise from Mystic Al, only 3% of voters think the CEO will post or do an AMA, and only 2 out of 142 voters think that someone else from the C-Suite will. And only three people think there’ll be a full launch in the US, while three (other) folk think there will be some non-US international expansion…


On Finance and Fintech

  • Still nothing breaking the magical 50% mark, but Chase comes close, with 48% of folk thinking they’ll launch direct debits and standing orders. Gotta happen, right?!
  • In second place (41%) is Starling with their fabled credit card. It’s been coming for the last few years, for personal accounts then for businesses. Assuming they don’t go all Starling Flex on us, might this (finally) be the year?
  • Third (40%) is tighter regulation for Buy Now Pay Later firms… Let’s see - and whether that helps or hinders Flex.
  • At the other end of the table, 2% of voters think that Crowdcube will go bust (that’s good news, right?), only 3% think that Curve will fully launch in the US, and only four people out of the 77 voters think that a reimagined Dozens app will be a success :broken_heart:

But, having said all of that, was there any point?! 58% of voters think the Community’s prediction powers will fail miserably. #FaithManages

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Now, on to the tasty part… wishes!

Reminder: If you haven’t already, jump up here and tell us what you want (what you really really want). And @AlanDoe will zigga-zig-ah make it happen look on sagely, smiling knowingly at the one or two things that are baked in and shaking his head at the unreasonable expectations we all have.


Big Wish Countdown

:one: In at first place is that old chestnut, cheque imaging. Will 2022 be the year that Monzo makes our 1990s banking realness come true? It’s the only wish over 50% so it’s gotta be done, right?

:two: In second place is Direct Payments from Pots. If there’s one thing that the community likes almost as much as exchanging money through writing on bits of paper, it’s Pots! Especially paying directly from them. Fortunately, we also think this is what’s on the cards for this year, so we’re moderating our expectations! :muscle:

:three: More Pots! This time credit card pots - stashing away the amount you spend on credit cards from your Monzo account to a Monzo pot. Then presumably paying the bill from that pot. That’d be sweet… :honey_pot:

At the other end of the table…

Poor the Garmin Pay. Only 2% (just three people) want it. And it’s even beaten by Badger Pay. Oh my. :badger:

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Quite right.

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I’d really like to see budget durations for specified days. Such as the last Friday of every month in addition to monthly or every 4 weeks. Would love to see a credit card too.

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Last call for votes! :ballot_box:

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I’d like to see Pots get a few more features this year and a bit of a visual cleanup.

The top part of the screen (around the title/pot total) is too cluttered when the pot is an interest earning pot and when you have a savings goal too.

The iOS app custom image alignment tool for pots is still square instead of rectangular.

I’d like to see a return of the goal progress bar in some form too, and things like having a date attached to a goal etc. If a progress bar could also be shown on the pots overview screen without significantly reducing the number of pots you can see at once that would be good too.

Also to have a visual of how your savings have been progressing over time would be cool.

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PLEASE add IBAN/Swift and Cheque imaging.

These are basics in all other banks. ALL!

Even Starling added these very quick but still not in Monzo after years??

This is why I won’t go full Monzo. I can’t get paid from US to Monzo as they won’t allow Wise (I wouldn’t use a third party anyway)

Please add these basics into Monzo.

Been with you since Beta waiting for these.
I even remember IBAN “being planned” but then removed from plans…

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So we’re just ending the seventh (!) week of the year and what better time than a quick look at how things are going.

i have to say I’m pretty disappointed at the pace of Monzo delivery. In those seven weeks we’ve only had a (partial) rollout of a years view in Trends. Come on Monzo.

It’s even more of a pity, considering that this period should have had some development stacked up from the Christmas pause. I think back on what the former Monzo product person said in their exit blog:

Just in the past few months we’ve shipped three Zero to One products: Monzo Flex, Monzo Pay and Monzo Trends. These new products are doing great. And we’ve already shipped tons of improvements to these brand new products.

I can’t help but think this was a little bit of a pat on the back when, in reality, Flex hasn’t been formally launched yet (and isn’t widely available) and Trends is still not available to everyone (unless @projectfortytwo is somehow mistaken). I don’t know anything about Monzo Pay, not being the target market.

My point isn’t to call out a vainglorious post but to say that, from a customer perspective, there’s still much further to go. Seven weeks in to the year and a marginal change to an existing feature is not velocity.

Anyway, let’s see how expectations are tracking with reality:

  • Flex will fully launch :x:
  • Pay for Flex, and Plus and Premium, from Pots :x:
  • Direct payments from Pots launched :x:
  • 6 million users! :white_check_mark: (reached at 2314 on February 9th: (The race to SIX MILLION users is over - #169 by AlanDoe))
  • Summary is retired :x:
  • Different time periods in Trends (e.g. weeks, years, custom) :white_check_mark: (that a generous tick as it’s still rolling out!)
  • Cheque imaging :x: (I know I put this in my predictions as a curve ball - I must have been on the Christmas sherry).
  • The forum will survive a year :white_check_mark: (so far!)
  • Budgeting moves out of Summary :x: (not yet - will the Summary/Trends/Budgeting/Left to Spend quagmire ever be resolved?)
  • Monzo offers stocks and shares (or other investment products) :x: (reminder: Monzo set this expectation - now they need to deliver on it).
  • No one from the C Suite will post on the forum :white_check_mark: (so far!)
  • Plus / Premium for joint accounts :x: (sobs in @davidwalton)
  • 7 million users :x: (that’s actually an assumption as and we’re unlikely to know when it is hit, so shrug :man_shrugging:)
  • A proper web interface :x: (unless you’re a business customer!)
  • Payment directly between Pots / connected accounts :x:
  • Native international transfers in the app (with an IBAN) :x:
  • Master feed, aggregating different accounts or pots :x:
  • There will be (at least) one update email for investors :white_check_mark: (one popped into the inbox on 13th January)
  • Enriched merchant data is updated / accurate again. :?: *(my app says no, but at least it’s not being totally ignored right now…)
  • Tablet apps :x: (come on now, this really won’t be on the 2022 to-do list, surely?)
  • A founder will leave :x: (Jonas is still with the company, and even popped up on a recent podcast).
  • Pay in cash at the post office :x:
  • Removal of the blue buttons below the cards on the feed :x: (I suspect this is a design decision that’ll never actually be realised. Le sigh)
  • Monzo offers crypto products :x: (:zipper_mouth_face:)
  • Monzo will announce a profitable run rate :x:
  • No physical card by default (orderable for free) :x:
  • One or more of the C suite will leave :white_check_mark: (Chief Product Officer heads off)
  • Monzo closes US operations :x: (in fact, the US has exited beta!)

… I’ll leave the rest because we’re into diminishing returns!

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Not sure where else I should look for this. I have Home / Plus / Pay / Help tabs at the bottom of the screen. If I tap on the pie chart icon at the top of the screen I see “left to spend” and budgeting options. Nothing in Monzo labs to select. Any pointers?

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What app version are you on?

(click the cog top right when in the list view, it’s at the very bottom)