That would impact adoption of the paid accounts, making us unsustainable again. The goal here is to drive sustainable revenue in return for real value for customers who want to pay for it.
Apologies if this was tongue in cheek, but these are the very things that I don’t want to see as paid features!
I think the reason why is down to some (hopefully constructive) criticism on @tomdavies’s initial post:
I’ve said before that there I think Monzo’s approach will differ massively depending on whether they anchor themselves on building a current account or a financial control centre or platform.
So this means that if Monzo is just seeing themselves as just current account providers, then they might well paywall transaction lists for credit card providers. But if they see themselves as a financial control centre, then doing that would seem to be absolutely counter to their ambition and would be counterproductive.
(Personally, if the hub/control centre aspiration is being set aside then I’d be sad).
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What’re you basing “not paywalling features would make Monzo unsustainable” on?
By creating a set of power tools for the customers who want those features, we’ll have higher adoption of our paid accounts (because they see value in paying for them).
Without putting them into a paid account, we couldn’t justify building them.
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Ok so it would make building the additional features unsustainable. Sorry to nitpick but that’s a much more specific problem than "it would make us unsustainable’.
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Thanks for the update however im also in the budgeting shouldnt be paywalled.boat. It should be another tool that drives people to use monzo as their primary account which will make it pay for itself surely.
Custom categories for example is something thats now been done by various other banks for free. Is this falling into your new budget tier?
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I was being slightly sarcastic… but unfortunately these are the features I see being part of the paid account along side things such as Monzo Points (or an alternative version).
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It’s both. Having those features in the paid tiers will make those tiers more valuable.
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I might like the tier 1 but please don’t force us to take a metal card, I don’t want one, I only want to pay for the “power user features “
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Will either tier have priority support?
Instead of approaching retailers one by one and launching with a ‘back of an envelope’ list of a handful of discounts, it would be great if you could partner with someone like Park Group (think Lovetoshop vouchers, flexecash discount card and employee discount schemes) who could allow you to plug into their network of hundreds of discount agreements which has taken them decades to negotiate and amass.
I see that in the same way as Monzo launching in the US with a banking partner before getting a licence , or using a processing partner for payments before building their own. If you go in alone without much idea what you’re doing you’ll die pretty quick. Instead invite those with experience and reputation to assist you to get started and then you can do what you need to do to optimise your business (eg. Offer 500 low margin retailers via Park and then negotiate/ launch your own high margin discounts with your chosen ones).
TLDR: Offer ALL the discounts not just what some Internet person said they’d like to see.
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Good update, thanks Tom. I’m more curious about how this is shaping up now.
Out of interest…
Would people be against something like IFTTT going into the paid tier if it meant it got loads more development and advanced options?
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Some great ideas here.
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Something I’ve mentioned before, but I think that rather than talking about paywalls and different feature sets, it might bring clarity to have the standard Monzo app and feature set for all tiers, then complementary apps that are Made by Monzo that do advanced stuff.
It feels more logical to be that if, for the sake of argument, you are developing a YNAB competitor as part of a paid plan then that should be a separate app (although tightly integrated) rather than shoehorned into the main app - which has a different purpose and probably a different design language and set of user needs.
It also helps distinguish clearly between extra value (a whole new app with extra functionality!) and the main app, and will help avoid the temptation to paywall individual features.
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Will Monzo Plus be available to Monzo staff as a free or discounted perk? I imagine staff opinion on paywalling features may differ depending on whether they themselves have to pay to use them…
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I think this is the best Monzo Plus update I’ve read to date!
It makes total sense to charge for advanced features, especially if it pays for itself, so long as (like you say) “core” features are still maintained and new ones are still introduced in the future for the free and paid-for accounts.
A lot of my concerns have been answered here personally so thank you very much @tomdavies and I’m definitely looking forward at what’s to come, even more so now I know the kind of pathways Monzo are going down with the paid-for plans 
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Thanks for the update on this topic @tomdavies really solid update, and appreciate you taking the time to field questions too. Thank you.
I think I misread your post though. You said you’re still open to name suggestions when we’ve clearly already voted! #TeamPlussyMcPlusFace (/s)
I still have my hesitations about the paid account for features bit; I’m not against it in principle. but the features would have to be blow my socks off good to make me want to switch. I already pay for YNAB, so I’m open to the idea - but you have to beat your competition in terms of quality, functionality and generally how well polished the product is.
I think the clarity between “making budgeting work for everyone” and “free for everyone” is a very important distinction to make, and I agree with the sentiment at least. Edit to add: and I’d much rather Monzo make money by selling value add products than fees etc that target those less well off.
Cautious but looking forward to hearing more.
One thing that does stand out, it’s interesting that Tier 2 would capture the Power Budget features. Depending on the final mix of Tier 2, I could totally see myself wanting the tier 2 only things, but not the things in Tier 1 - and I’d not be keen to pay for features I don’t want. Would be interested to see how that tracks in user testing when you get there.
Cheers!
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Change of heart… I don’t have an issue with a feature paywall as long as it’s not a feature that would benefit the majority of people. Such as monzo budgeting in its current form.
Will be interesting to see how this all ties in with @bruno and team who are looking at this area of the app next.
This is 100% the type of thing I imagine being part of a paid tier.
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Please… no… never 
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