Last year I made a comment about how it seemed to me that Monzo has an unclear direction. It still seems that way.
Monzo has gutted some of the core aspects of its product. Overseas cash withdrawals were limited, and now even UK cash withdrawals are. Since many countries still don’t have card payments everywhere, the first makes Monzo substantially less attractive for travel. Even the Premium plan doesn’t have unlimited overseas withdrawals, something Starling does with its free plan.
Monzo seems to have focused its product on ‘extras’, such as the Plus/Premium plans, and admittedly has cleaned those up. But they seem to be more or less identical to what Revolut had years ago. Monzo uses a travel insurer with a better reputation (AXA), but other than that I’m failing to identify any meaningful differences. There are ‘goodies’, but I get more goodies with my free Santander account to be frank. Seeing other accounts in Monzo is a nice feature but not one that seems to really help.
Revolut has advanced its core product, such that some features (like virtual cards) are now part of its free plan, and its paid plans have more. It doesn’t seem like Monzo can compete on the ‘extras’ front.
Ostensibly, these guts to the Monzo plans were for financial reasons. But Starling is profitable while not doing any of these guts and not having any Premium plans or other such income streams, and Monzo is still making a loss (I think?)
So I don’t get it anymore. What does Monzo do so well these days that other banks don’t do? What distinguishes this bank? What’s Monzo’s strategy here, because the closest to a strategy I can make out is being a ‘financial hub’ for all your needs (credit checking, seeing your card transactions for various banks, etc) – a bit of a jack of all trades but a master of none situation, and that doesn’t seem like a strategy to me.
Limited if you don’t meet incredibly simple criteria to stop people abusing it and costing Monzo money. Seems very sensible to me.
Isn’t a bank.
Bill pots are very popular. There’s lots that Monzo gets right. It doesn’t have to be in such absolute terms that one is the winner and everyone else loses.
It’s a community forum, so I’m asking the community what they think Monzo’s direction is. I presume you all follow this better than I have, so some idea of where Monzo shines would be nice, based on how they’ve shipped in the past few years.
Monzo don’t share their plans anymore so your guess is as good as ours. All we know is it’s profitability focused which is why you saw the release of premium accounts.
Monzo bill always dominate because of Bill Pots. When they release recurring card payments from pots and/or virtual card from pots then they will be the 1st to do that
Abuse to withdraw cash in the UK from your bank? Unlimited UK ATM withdrawals is something I think every free bank - basic bank accounts at legacy banks as well as digital challengers - provides. Well, except Monzo.
I think I found their decision more reasonable at the time than I do now - it’s hard to believe that a UK bank doesn’t let you withdraw unlimited amounts of cash from UK ATMs.
I don’t see how the two are comparable, personally.
A bank should do at minimum what it’s expected to do by industry standards established by precedent. An industry standard is unlimited domestic cash withdrawals without any fees. (ATMs are usually limited for security reasons I think, but you can always withdraw at a counter.)
This isn’t law. A bank can do what it wants (if it clearly sets that out to the customer) and if you want to be a customer, you accept that. If those are terms you don’t agree with, go elsewhere.
No business, or bank should do this. Otherwise every business would be the same and we wouldn’t have seen half the features that fintechs have released over the years.
It seems like your main gripe are these fees because you don’t use Monzo as your main account. Then you’ve dressed it up and exaggerated it into a whole tale around “Monzo don’t know what they’re doing”.
The solution is simple.
Use your other account (that is currently your main account) or switch to Monzo.
Nobody said Monzo is breaking the law. Nobody is filing a lawsuit. Nobody made a statement saying they disagree with the legal terms they signed up to.
It’s a discussion on Monzo’s community forums about a perceived lack of direction. I believe customers can still criticise and discuss a company without having to allege wrongdoing or threaten a lawsuit. Just because I’m a customer doesn’t mean I need to drink all the company feeds me with a smile on my face.
As I said before, they do good things and less good things, and I think it’s perfectly right to discuss and criticise what I perceive to be ‘less good things’.
Monzo’s direction in terms of product is opaque but it’s general strategic trajectory is fairly clear, as it’s a matter of necessity for the valuation. They need to:
start making a bet profit and then;
grow to several times their current size
They can’t do the second part until they’ve done the first part or they will run out of cash.
I’d expect product strategy to align with overall business strategy so we’ll likely see, in the short term, additional lending products and paid-for features before we see big improvements to the basic offering designed to stimulate growth and attract new customers.
I use both, since I prefer not to keep all my eggs in one basket, and different accounts I hold offer different things. The UK limitations are not a problem for me and are easily bypassed regardless, I just object to them in principle and think they don’t make any sense.
Monzo stated their reasons are to stop loss of funds. But again, the company has more revenue streams and more limitations than Starling, yet it does not make a profit and Starling does. So that rationale appears dubious and ought to be challenged I think.
I don’t know exactly. If I did I’d apply for a job at Monzo. I guess that’s the point of this discussion. Surely a company needs to do something better than its competitors, so my question is what is that for Monzo, and if it’s nothing then how can it be said that Monzo has a clear strategic direction?
