Turning off debit card top-ups for new users

Ending support for iOS 9 could mean people having to buy a new phone, possibly more expensive than they can afford at that time. Customers from a socio-economic disadvantaged background or an older or less technological background could be deprived of access to their account (aside from via an ATM or the emergency web). Removing top-ups doesn’t affect those demographics really in the same way.

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I realise I’m probably not best placed to comment on this, since I would be very happy for Monzo to ditch debit card top ups for everyone!

But…

I don’t think it’s been anywhere near long enough for that argument to happen - I don’t know the growth rate of Monzo, but I’d be amazed if anything drastic has changed since the PP era ended.

Surely this conversation would have happened at the time, and a conscious decision was made to keep it then? If it was overlooked, I’d be very disappointed.

If this conversation was happening in 3/4 years time, I’d agree with you.

But only a few months after the initial promise was made, and the PP era ended, is far too soon to be using that argument.

As for the iOS 9 debate - My thoughts were documented early on.

“I’d say 4 years for Android phones, and “whilst Apple support iOS updates” on iOS.”

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My reply was going to something like this but you said it better somewhere else :joy:

Why so much negativity? I am sure they will alter some bits if needed. Give them a chance

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Without cash deposits and other things we need top up by debit card as a back up not everyone has online banking and we do have cash to pay in and not always able to pay over by bank transfer so top up comes in handy if cash deposits at post office was available and instant credit to the account I’d stop topping up by debit card completely but that’s seems like years away there’s no quick fix to cash deposits about time you done something about it then I can just use monzo but I can’t pay cash in and still have part of income in cash so I pay in to virgin money account as of yet no online banking to do instant bank transfer so I have to top up by debit card it’s that simple not everyone has all money coming by bank transfer

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If you deal in cash and don’t have online banking you can’t use monzo fully on its own as no cash deposits can be made that’s the sticking point if there was cash deposits then top up with debit card will be thing of the past and irrelevant if you can go post office for the cash deposit I’m part bank credit and part cash deposit but all money ends up in monzo but I need middle man that’s a current account but it’s got no internet banking so I can’t bank transfer my cash deposit so top up by card only way I can’t live waiting on cash deposit feature be added it’s no happening when it’s vital it is added

This was going off topic so I’ve split the thread to allow the respective conversations to continue

10 posts were merged into an existing topic: CYBG acquisition of Virgin Money

Then I walk as a customer. I’ll cut my nose off to spite my face on enjoying the perks (mainly FC transaction rates) and ease of usability of a Monzo account because we still can’t pay cash in directly. I have the salary from my main job paid into my Monzo account and pay all my bills and direct debits from it. But I also have a second job at weekends that pays cash. I can’t get to a bank branch to pay it in somewhere else because I don’t have one near enough my main work place to go in my lunch break and they still don’t offer customer friendly opening hours. A prepaid top up card that works with paypoint is the only way I can do this.

Monzo is a bank account. A b-a-n-k account and lots of people including myself still have needs where cash is concerned. This should have been higher on the work list (case in point, it never even featured on the Big List, people have to pester and push for it to get them looking at it) so they’d be straight up doing the wrong thing by a number of customers without making their accounts fully serviceable first.

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Yeah, it’s one of those situations where someone will lose out whatever priorities are called. I’m glad it’s not my job to make those sorts of calls.

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Not just as cut and shut as that I’m afraid, with regards to my parents, monzo is thier only online banking app, the online thing scares them and they want to keep Thier details away from the internet as much as possible, getting them onto monzo was a huge step for them and I’m hoping that in the future I can get them fully shifted over, but for the time being if it was not for the top up facility they would ditch Monzo, I appreciate that they are only 2 pensioners and monzo does not rely on them to survive or move firward but I seem to remember monzo saying they were creating a bank for everyone…so I have no doubt that there will be more elderly people out there who might like the idea of monzo but would steer away if it was gonna cost them money to load the account.

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Hey, not originally my message, but my reasons are as follows;

I get free offers (magazine or taste card yearly subscription)
I get discount on shopping
I get upto 3 accounts giving between 2.5-3% interest
I can do most banking in the app without Web or a physical device for security
I can deposit cheques through my app

Thats why monzo doesn’t have me as a full user in the conventional sense of banking.

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I’m not sure if this has already been mentioned but here’s my opinion.

Monzo should put some questions before allowing you to top up.

They should advise that they are paying a large amount of money in card fees and ask why you use top ups over bank transfer. They should also ask if you are willing to cover the cost for that reason.

They should then see what the majority of responses say and see if there is another problem here that they could solve or if making users cover the cost is the best option.

In my opinion, this needs to be aimed at users that make use of the feature as they will be directly impacted by the loss of the feature

This feels like Monzo to me. They are getting opinions on something that will affect the way you use Monzo and are being transparent with why something needs to happen

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Monzo is the only bank or indeed organisation of any kind that has ever messaged me to say that they would prefer me not to give them money in a way that they are willing to accept. This strikes me a rather odd way of doing business.

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Top ups cost them money (a lot of money, to be a sustainable business they’d prefer you to use bank transfer instead.
card top ups were the only way to get money onto the pre paid card back in the day.
Do you think it’s better they contacted you to discuss rather than just cutting you off?

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I don’t think there’s many other banks would even offer card top ups into an account ?

My main question is if it’s money coming from another bank, what’s the benefit to the user to card top ups vs bank transfer? Wouldn’t it even take ‘ages’ to show correctly on most legacy bank accounts transactions when you put the top up through?

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Lack of mobile banking, no access to one of those card reader things for web banking, lack of instant transfers from their legacy bank, faster & easier to do than bank transfers (the last one isn’t a great reason, but it’s still a reason people give).

Do card top-ups work with non-UK bank cards? If they do, that would be another reason.

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Yep… I have recently topped up with my Australian card as I needed the funds in my account quickly, luckily my provider over here doesn’t charge International Fees so it actually worked slightly out cheaper than using a service like TransferWise…

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If I was with a bank causing me any of them type issues id be switching in an instant! Thats just a personal opinion though !

It’s a difficult one I understand!

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My Mum only had telephone banking (no internet or mobile banking) until I introduced her to Monzo. It only took her two months to almost fully switch (only thing holding her back is the overdraft she’s using in her legacy account), but during that time the only way she could add money to her account was was by card top-up.

Maybe offering free card top-ups to everyone for their first three months, then charging a fee would be the solution for people like her.

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But you stay with a bank that cannot accept cash, has difficult cheque paying in, no cheque book, messy work around for foreign transfers in, no foreign transfers out, and isn’t over keen on you using ATMs anywhere.

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I never use ATMs, I pay for everything by card (even the barbers now takes cards), my money gets transferred in. No real contact with physical cash these days. personally, it suits me :slight_smile: last time I got a cheque was from HMRC, but then this year they bank transferred my tax refund instead.

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