Can you link where someone has said it’s the greatest thing ever please?
The word ‘overliteral’ springs to mind.
The word cynical comes to mind for me.
My point still stands. Overdraft is almost legacy. It penalises ‘JAMS’ and traps those with heavy debt.
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So does my point.
Not even Monzo have said this is the best option. They’ve said it’s the one they’re trying now after consulting with numerous users and the community. It’s not set in stone.
I’m getting fed up of reading the same comments time and again where people are saying monzo are trying to mug them off with excessive charges
It would be fine seeing that if they were as closed as most other banks but they’re not. From the start they’ve put their thoughts out there and explicitly said it’s still a work in progress.
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Ignore them then. The overdraft is awful.
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For someone that has come from Santander, it’s not bad and I try not to utilise my overdraft.
I think the difference is that Monzo want to keep you out of your overdraft and managing your money. Legacy banks don’t, and while some are free right now, they’re subject to terms and conditions that they can change when they like and then bam you’re fooffed.
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It’s not brilliant but it’s definitely better than some of the others on offer in banking.
Don’t forget, Monzo aim to make it so that people don’t need an overdraft. They want to make money by saving people money.
However, to get that far they need to stay afloat. This is just one step on the way.
I think what’s important in all of this is nobody is locked into Monzo. I don’t need an overdraft so it doesn’t impact me, but ultimately if you do and you don’t like the rates you can vote with your feet. People do this all the time with Gas/Electric, Broadband, Insurance, Savings accounts etc. You can do it with your CA and that includes Monzo.
I’m not saying lets all leave Monzo because of the 50p charge, but if it doesn’t work for you there is choice out there.
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So you’re complaining about overdraft charges - which you’ll get from every bank - but not trying to borrow less 
The easiest way to pay less / no charges is to manage your spending more carefully & that’s what Monzo enables you to do. If you ignore that & the greater control that you’ll have over your overdraft, then yes the fees will look relatively expensive - because they are.
Monzo’s already pointed out that overdrafts are not for long term borrowing. If you’re using them for that, then it will be expensive & you do need to look at alternatives i.e. loans.
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I like to think of an overdraft as emergency lending for those scenarios you haven’t planned for. Not everyone has the luxury of a rainy day fund for example and that’s when an overdraft can be valuable. This is how Pay day loan lenders always position themselves and personally think this is where Monzo falls down.
Of course Monzo wants to help people better budget and avoid an overdraft but in an emergency situation Monzo proves far too expensive for small short term borrowing. I think we all need to try and better manage our money, but with low wages and increasing living costs people are frequently on the bread line and it only takes a small unforeseen expense to push them into the debt spiral.
As Monzo grows and so does their profits (hopefully) I’d like to see creative ways Monzo can help this segment of the market, the ones currently let down by payday lenders and big banks (in my opinion).
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It’s a little bit pointless to debate this because ultimately, we’ll see whether that’s true because users will either use the overdrafts or they won’t. But that doesn’t make sense to me.
If there’s anyone who can’t afford to pay back (the maximum cost) £15.50 after their payday, then I don’t think they need to worry about the % interest rate, as presumably they’ll have much bigger concerns.
Me too!
Of course, these are the most vulnerable people who need the most financial assistance support. I personally don’t think a Monzo overdraft is right for them, nor do I know any that might be (no research done). Yet hopefully as we both agreed these are the people who Monzo help most in the future.
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They are really high! But there is a way around it… have a second bank account! And simply use top-up to Monzo. Like that you have the funds in Monzo but with another banks overdraft.
Obviously that is yet another reason why Monzo will (at least for the forscene future) stay as a second account not the main bank account.
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But if you’re spending all your money from your Monzo account, doesn’t that make it the primary account & your legacy bank’s account the utility? 
For some people, this makes a lot of sense to me if the price of the overdraft is all you care about & you’re not worried about legacy bank’s punitive charges if anything goes wrong 
Well not really. It makes :mondo: a very useful and easy budgeting app. Instead of using Wally, as I was previously doing to budget my expenses, I use Monzo (no need to input every single transaction). I still keep salary, any incoming 
or big purchases (e.g. 
) using the legacy bank.
Ok, I’d be interested to hear what’s stopping you from using Monzo for that stuff too?
But just to let you know, we’re off topic so I’ll move your reply into a different existing topic.
I never used overdraft for purchases… just to cover huge Direct Debits - Mortgage and quarterly energy bills… not enough money sometimes especially in winter times when energy bills are around £400-£500.
For example I will borrow £30 for 4-5 days to cover Direct Debits… So I will owe Monzo £2-£2.50 overdraft charges… In this case it is very expensive. Other banks will charge nothing for this or few pennies…
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I think we’re coming from different perspectives here. I genuinely don’t care about paying £2-£2.50 in charges after payday, regardless of whether I could pay less if I used a different bank. The convenience & other benefits of Monzo outweigh that cost for me & it’s not going to have a significant impact on my finances. Obviously the benefits don’t outweigh the cost for you. We’ll have to wait & see which viewpoint is more common among Monzo users & no doubt they will (or won’t) adjust their pricing accordingly.
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I think it’s great we have so many, mainly constructive, conversations about overdrafts. But it really confuses me how far they go into who’s right or wrong with how they should work.
Monzo have set out their initial offering for overdrafts and currently only offering it to a limited number of users. They are being very transparent with it and have no near term plans to change it. So it’s now for users to decide if they want to take it up if it is made available to them.
No one is forcing People to sign up to Monzo. And no one will force people to take an overdraft with Monzo. You simply look at what is available in the market and make your own choice. 
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