I use Monzo for almost everything I spend nowadays but I never have more than £1000 on it, I top up as needed. I keep my legacy for interest and large payments (uni fees, rent) and I’m guessing that’s why people like the ease of topping up via Monzo.me- to avoid this hassle. It’s quick, everything is done quickly within the app vs a FP- it’s not fast and takes ages to log in on my legacy bank, navigating two passwords, secret question, loading/offers page, and at least 6 clicks before I get to the option I need.
On another note: I’m happy to use Monzo and I’m glad it’s evolving into something that is increasingly useful for people to budget/ manage their finances etc. but I don’t think the way I spend on Monzo will change with the CA.
I know people keep talking about the CA having additional protection etc but that was never a concern for me, I recommend it for a bunch of other excellent things- besides the revolutionary features, the ease of use, design (why are legacy bank apps so ugly) and great service is a solid win.
Same for my legacy current account, there for direct debits etc, but my main spending is on cashback Amex and Visa, which won’t change unless my bank provides cashback. Plus I get the Section 75 protection on my purchases with my cards.
I would use the other features of the account such as savings pots as they’re a great idea for saving.
You might not open with debit card top ups as a killer feature, but it’s really handy and once you’re used to the convenience you’d be reluctant to lose it.
I’ve held off upgrading as i feel that even when the CA is launched, like Starling it will be half-baked in missing the features such as debit card top-up and monzo.me (my favourite feature).
The great thing about monzo is that its a real separator from my legacy CA. I can use the app/card without worrying about charges and delayed payments.
My girlfriend and I were discussing it the other day. I advised her to hold off upgrading as I know she regularly tops up small amounts and would get frustrated losing that feature in the current version of the current account app. I’m sure it will launch in the coming weeks.
One other thing, she mentioned how she had previously had invitations to upgrade. But she wasn’t sure where those invitations were now. Is there a way once someone has received an invite of being able to retrieve it easily, perhaps sitting somewhere in the app as a button on the card screen or similar?
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Anarchist
(Press ‘Help’ search ‘Contact us’ or email help@monzo.com or call 0800 802 1281)
28
Interesting use of “exactly the same way,” IMHO.
For clarity, I had a prepaid card with another provider and came to Monzo because of the ease of topping it up via Apple Pay through the Monzo app. I knew that Monzo were going to provide a current account, but thought it would be in addition to the prepaid card, not in its place.
In order to fund a current account from my main current account, I have to tap my way through screen after screen, and then wait for faster payments to do its thing, whereas with Monzo prepaid, it is simply a few taps and it’s done. It’s not a deal breaker, and I simply intend to wait until funding is available via Apple Pay before upgrading.
That was my thought, that people are thinking “Well, I’m happy with my current bank account, I don’t want to switch over to this, so I’ll get rid of it”. I think they ‘current’ means ‘one and only’. Banks with switching incentives have probably helped this misunderstanding gain traction - either by saying “you must switch your main account to us” or “you must use this as your main account/have your salary paid in” to get the incentives. So it’s easy to think this must apply to all bank accounts.
Perhaps you could try saying “Monzo account” instead of “current account” and see if that helps any? Along with emphasising that it can be used exactly the same way as the pre-paid - though having the top-up function live would help more than anything else with that.
tl;dr, a pre-paid card is something separate and easy-to-use, while a ‘current account’ comes loaded with baggage.
Ha ha - this reminds me of when I went down the entire high street aged 17, opening every building society account I could find, so that I could get the windfall when they turned into a bank. Six months later, they all did turn into banks, but I was only 17.5 years old, so I got nothing.
Not related to a personal conversations but a phrase stood out from another thread here where the poster was asking “what’s the point of having Monzo”. For whatever reason it struck me as interesting phraseology which was distinct from the more usual ‘having a Current Account’.
Now, it could be a simple linguistic thing that doesn’t mean much but it could also have been a brand identity thing in which case the mentioned ‘Monzo account’ used in place of ‘Current account’ is interesting.
Potentially anyway…
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Anarchist
(Press ‘Help’ search ‘Contact us’ or email help@monzo.com or call 0800 802 1281)
33
No, because you are presumably talking to people you’d like to attract from other current accounts.
What Monzo are saying to me is “change your prepaid card to a current account.” This isn’t a problem, but the functionality is different and for me it’s a minor sticking point.
Good news, you can now use Monzo.me again, but sending your Monzo.me URL to people. The interface for making requests from within the app will be returning very
Details on how to generate a URL with amounts/description filled in here:
The great thing about Monzo is it’s simplicity and clarity. My experience of other banks is it feels complicated and brings a bit of anxiety in the pit of my stomach when I thnk about all the transactions you have to keep track of, such as direct debits as well as day to day spending. The nice thing about the Monzo prepay card is that the day to day spending is kept separate and so is more manageable, helps with keeping on top of spending and helps with budgeting. My own concern about moving ‘everything’ over to a Monzo current account is that I may lose this simplicity of managing my money. I love what you guys have done so far… thankyou.
Tell me about it, I received my card yesterday and have just been to my bank HSBC to set up a transfer. You now have to jump through hoops, generate a code on your banking app
if you put in the wrong password the code will not work. Now I thought that my sign in password was the way to go but no, after various tries I then realised that my main digital password was required which is very rarely used. So thank goodness for Monzo but do hurry with Apple Pay Please.
I think this is the nail on the head here- some people wanted a prepaid card for their holidays and some want a new innovative bank account. Those sort of cards still exist and will likely result in a loss of some users for Monzo but I have no doubt that users will increase. I have recommended a lot of friends to the bank and they seem to be finding it good.
I got it as a travel card and used it and thought my god I want this as a bank…so I still think using MSE was a good sell despite all the moaners and accusations of free loaders. I convinced me I needed a better bank.
I was very existed to upgrade my account and was incredibly disappointed to see that not only have I lost the function to top up easily (requiring me to now go through the annoying process of setting up a new payee with my bank and authorizing a top up every time) which wasn’t clearly stated would happen! But Monzo have also continued to completely ignore its Android users and haven’t implemented the main feature I signed up for being the budgeting feature.
I have decided I won’t be using my card unless/ until these issues have been fixed and will be looking for other alternates.
