I had to ask for a Pot to be unlocked because I got hit by a parking ticket that I hadnāt predicted and my MOT was due which I hadnāt accounted for.
Itās a shame and Iām annoyed that I had to unlock a pot but I saw no other option other than to borrow money which is a habit I want to get away from.
I could argue that having the pot options, never mind that they are locked, has enabled me to have some form of backup money for this kind of scenario. 12 months ago I would have struggled.
Did you not have an emergency funds pot which you left unlocked or was all your spare money locked away?
I think thatās the danger of the whole locked pots argument - and it could perhaps get a bit circular.
I donāt have an emergency fund because I keep spending money I can easily access ā Iāll use a locked pot because then Iāll actually save some money ā I donāt have an emergency fund because my spare cash is locked away.
And to some extent, locking money away under a locked pot, when one doesnāt have enough clarity of their genuine true expenses - could be problematic too.
Basically, good habits and financial awareness are just as important as the āsoftwareā side that lets you save.
Not enough to cover both unfortunately.
It is something I am working on but Iām also trying to save up for our family holiday in the summer. Which was the locked pot.
I was going to ask the same.
What I do is hold some money in an unlocked pot for emergencies and just before payday Iāll move it all into my locked pot. Then rinse and repeat. Touch wood Iāve never had to request an unlock so far 
I agree with all of the above that being able to unlock your own pot so easily defeats the point for me. 24/48h wait or maybe an unlock code at creation date (which I would not write down therefore not unlock lol)
deeply disappointed and more than a little annoyed by this. I was seriously considering coming back to Monzo (I honestly really want to) - locked pots really were the killer feature for me. As far as Iām concerned retaining any semblance of the functionality in this state is disingenuous - they are locked pots which are not ā¦wellā¦ locked.
Because I canāt help myself.
Locked pots are locked. They require confirmation from the user that they should be unlocked and deleted.
To make a withdrawal from an unlocked pot I have to:
To make a withdrawal from a locked pot I have to:
Iām happy for more friction to be added to this process. But if you are regularly in the habit of creating locked pots and then unlocking them, then is issue with the software? Why are you using a locked pot? In the hope itāll help you āsaveā or āprotectā the money?
I have two locked pots, one for holiday money (about to get unlocked in 29 days woo hoooo) and another for the 1p challenge. The other pots (I have several) are unlocked and I shuffle money in, and out, of them. Hopefully I can start budgetting better and not having to take money OUT of the āBirthdayā pot but until then Iām not going to lock it.
So yes, more friction, but even that message you have to confirm IS friction. Iām all for the software helping us more in this regard (I definitely need the help!) but at some point I have to take some ownership for my actions. As hard as that may be (I am RUBBISH with money!).
Yes to a little more friction, and I canāt wait for a Monzo created thread asking us all what form that friction would take as, from this thread alone, we canāt even begin to agree! 
I have ADHD, which means I have more or less zero impulse control. A few years ago I didnāt have any savings and Iāve never ever been able to save money to buy anything.
Just for reference, I know the locked pots approach works, because for about a year Iāve been using a service called squirrel which more or less provides this exact feature (I canāt get at money in savings pots without a 24 hour time period elapsing). This year I went to Glastonbury festival and managed to save Ā£1000 for spending money. The ability to do this for me is life-changing. But squirrel is pretty featureless other than this so Iād really like to go back to Monzo
But even that message you have to confirm IS friction.
Itās just not enough friction to really stop anyone doing anything. If a warning message is going to stop you, you probably donāt need locked pots and can probably rely on the simple budgeting features. Iād argue that if this is the case, you really arenāt the use case for this feature, so your opinion is kind of beside the point. Plenty of people who really do need it exist though.
Thatās the equivalent of telling an alcoholic if they want 1 beer theyāll have to take the whole 6 pack
Itās not friction and itās pointless
I think whats worse is they promised a feature change to happen and is just hasnāt appeared.Its not even like you can design a lockdown system using IFTTT.
Even if there was an integrated savings pot with no minimum balance it would solve the problem, although the rate would be lower than the interest iād get with the Plus account
Yeah, really its just a lockdown ringfenced budgeting tool. Iām surprised they havenāt just taken the functionality of a fixed term pot and just scrapped the interest
A savings pot without any savings would be an odd sell on the surface - it would need good clear and to the point ābrandingā (cf āgambling blockā)
Keep making the argument here and it could catch on
It costs no money to implement. The way I would market it is looking at the relationship people have with managing money especially when they have an impulse disorder. I would spilt a group of people into three(I would try and make sure the impulse disorders are comparable, so ADHD and maybe ADD(and some other groups and try and keep external variables to a minimum so age group and level of salary etc. ). One group would be given money in (a tenner) and put in a normal pot and told not to spend it. The other group would be given the same amount but it would be locked away but they could open the pot whenever they chose. The third group would be a group that were given a locked pot that they couldnāt open themselves(Someone else has to open it).
The hypothesis would be:
Having a defined level of friction for savings results in individuals with higher levels of impulse disorders saving more money.
I think the name could be savings related " piggie bank pot" or words to that effect.(playing on the idea that most people have had a piggie bank at some point in their lives and they donāt pay interest.
Further if you were to actually do the experiment properly it could be published in a journal somewhere that would add to the body of literature on the subject.
Further research could look at the group that could open themselves and look at the effect of a warning/note/something saying āare you sure you need to open this pot?ā and look at the decision lag. I.e did that message have a long change(a day or a week) or did it have a short change(5 minutes).
There is a lot of research that could be done to better inform designers about how to build better products to encourage saving.
And thatās great
What I was attempting to say was along the lines of Monzo not existing in a bubble now the way they did
Every development gets poured over by Which and the papers and numerous blogs and Trustpilot and the like
If it is suitably communicated and named then it should be fine, maybe even commended, but if it comes out taken by other parties as a savings account with rubbish interest and takes āagesā to get your money out then damage could be done
I totally agree, I think it would need to be managed by someone who has experience in communicating R&D/academic research.If anything I would setup an āMoney labā or something and partner with an academic institution. That in itself will get the correct media attention whilst framing future developments correctly as I know the reason to cut the āoriginal locked potā was due to the lack of clear quantitative data on friction. Most companies spend significantly on R&D why should a Fintech be any different. I would be curious to see if it would also bring in considerable cost savings.
I like how you ignore the part where I say āYes, more frictionā. but sure. I agree with your points.
And the rest of my post where I say āYes, more frictionā??
No worries, dipping out of this completely now.
Please bring back some friction to locked pots, theyāre not that useful at current.
Maybe even just having a savings pot that pays 0.5% interest (no minimum), but takes 24 hours to unlock could be an option?