Welcome to the USA, Monzo. I’ve been a listener to the Fintech Insider podcast for a while now, and have enjoyed hearing about the traction y’all are having in the UK. I am excited to see you move to this side of the pond. I like the list from @IslanderNY – though I think some of their items may be more of a wish-list for year 1, and others are more must-have table stakes to be competitive in the US as a challenger bank accepting deposits. The roughly-prioritized list I would suggest for year 1, to get competitive with Chime and Aspiration and Simple and enable organic and paid growth traction:
A beautiful debit card and well-designed product packaging (but make sure it doesn’t require special USPS handling, as you don’t want your fancy card to result in a delayed delivery)
Avoid overdraft fees (but have a plan for responding proactively when overdrafts occur… which will occur primarily from ACH and RDC returns, and debit network posting)
Budget features built-in, with near-real-time rich push; categorization and balance and tip calculation (bonus: use an aggregator to pull in credit cards)
Bill payment with electronic and paper delivery; I am partial to Payveris. Major players are FiServ and ACI.
External account transfers using ACH to a linked account with same owner. Lots of fraud and ID theft risk here, but it is a must-have. Protip: Use Plaid or another aggregator for verification, avoid trial deposits, and create a model to manage the limits and funds availability. Also pay attention to counter-parties, as fraudsters will trend at some RDFIs.
Multi factor authentication (with non-SMS alternatives if possible)
Card block and PIN reset in the app
Mobile remote deposit capture, with limits based on a model that can consider customer need and financial risk. An easy way to start out here would be to outsource this to Ingo, who accepts the deposits with instant availability (for a fee)
Early direct deposit (post when Fed posts, rather than direct deposit date; This is actually fairly low-risk, and can be worked out with your partner bank)
High quality customer support, with good hours, some self-service options, and chat/message/telephone options (bonus: video!)
Apple and Google Pay, with automated yellow-path enrollment. Bonus: SamsungPay, and all-digital enrollment like USAA
Easy direct deposit form; Make it easy for new customers to setup their direct deposit. Include a form when you mail out the debit card, and allow for it to be printed
Allow for draw of paper checks (yes, landlords and elementary schools and plumbers all expect it; welcome to 1987); This may be difficult with a partner bank who works on a good-funds model, but it is absolutely table stakes to be a primary banking relationship for most US consumers. For an alternative model worth considering, look into the deal that American Express worked out for their Bluebird product with Wells Fargo; They allow for customers to pre-authorize (“positive pay”) the checks, and then the checks are drawn on an account that WF operates. This could be a perfect model for Monzo.
Some sort of first-day funding option other than ACH or RDC. You want those customers to have a magical experience and get invested, before they get that debit card. Let them do an initial funding with a debit card or even over credit card rails, even if just for a modest limit.
Access to a large ATM network (e.g. Allpoint) or fee reimbursements; Bonus: If you negotiate with an ATM network, see what it would take to get into a cash deposit network also.
Competitive interest rate for savings pots
Major aggregators whitelisted to allow for transaction data flow based on user opt-in (Plaid, Finicity, Fiserv/Cashedge, Yodlee, Intuit, etc)
Travel notifications and card fraud notifications and fraud activity verification
Friendly to major P2P players (Venmo, Zella, etc)
Joint accounts and shared pots
Maybe not everything on this list can be offered on day 1 with a partner bank alone (you may need to get creative with some other partners), but I would argue that if you want a high NPS with rapid word of mouth growth in the US, Monzo will need pretty much all of this sooner than later.
nice list @davedyk
I try to keep my wishlist updated regularly so that Monzo USA can release killer features to all tech savvy persons like you who are fed up with the major banks that are trying to slap the customers with sneaky fees whenever they get an opportunity.
Nope, Instant transfers can only be done by third party apps. You can pay bills by ACH transfer which is basically an electronic cheque, or by card.
I have autopay, but online bill pay is more popular as people can control when the money comes out of their account. All invoices have 30 days notice, so people pay in the month when the have the balance to do so. Keep in mind alot of bills are paid by check.
I would not say it is more common, but very common.
What is it about the US banking culture that is averse to “faster”/ instant transfer between bank accounts - do the banks just not like each other/ not communicate to try and develop such an infrastructure?
It seems such a basic part of my banking ecosystem without it I’d feel lost.
This is one of my annoyances with Simple. I would love it if even a small number of ATMs were reimbursed per month or year so that I could use it when I need to, but avoid it otherwise. I think at max I’d only need to go to an ATM twice a month, and that’s being generous. Eating the fees on just 50% of the transactions would be a huge improvement over most online only banks.
If Monzo really aren’t going to refund any ATM fees they need to provide an ATM locator in app. This is a standard feature of any American Banking app. Especially as Monzo do not operate their own ATMs. Free ATMs are a rare sight. Usually they are owned by credit unions or are members of MoneyPass. Though Monzo seem to be going with Maestro / Cirrus
It would be nice to know compatibility with Monzo without having to read the list of accepted interbank networks on each ATM
As there has been some discussion regarding Monzo being prepaid in the US, you might find it interesting that some employers which do not want to issue checks, will issue their unbanked employees prepaid debit cards onto which their wages are deposited.
Couple nice to haves after using the prepaid card the last week:
Better differentiation between pending and processed/approved transactions. I made a few purchases at restaurants and am still waiting for the tip to be included in the total (however the full price was removed from my available balance)
For transactions that are made for validation reasons, I.E temporary charges. Some of the descriptions make very little sense. Would be nice to categorize this as temporary charges and maybe even alert after a certain time of not getting refunded.
Love the card so far otherwise. Looking forward to seeing the app grow into what’s available in the UK
Welcome to the Forum Erik we’re super stoked to have you join us!
Firstly, thanks for the feedback, it’s always gonna be super useful to know, especially while we’re so young in the US
Can you elaborate a bit more on your second point? What sort of transactions fall under “temporary charges” and how could we make these make more sense for you?
You know the transactions that when signing up for service sometimes make just to verify that the card exists and that there is money in the account. They usually refund you with in a week and these transactions are usually less than a $1.
I have Schwab right now (a checking and brokerage account which allow for that no-minimum balance) and that is one massive reason why I am somewhat hesitant to move towards Monzo. Monzo has not stated which network if any, they will participate in. This would be an extremely attractive feature that would really make me move over.
I’m also wondering if Monzo will be offering checks since I still have to use them for pretty dumb reasons (I had to return some funds to Unemployment once, friends still perfer check over Venmo or PayPal).
we’re super stoked to have you join us!
nor will it have unlimited global ATM withdrawals.