Vet Card

UK Feedback & Ideas
1

Hi Monzo community,

I want to share a product idea that I think would genuinely help a lot of pet owners in the UK — including me.

I own three French Bulldogs. Anyone who knows the breed will already be smiling, because they’ll know what that means for vet bills. Pet insurance has become eye-wateringly expensive and frankly doesn’t always pay out when you need it. So like a lot of pet owners, I’m essentially self-insuring — trying to put money aside for when something goes wrong.

The problem? I have no financial discipline whatsoever. A savings pot is useless to me because I can unlock it the moment Deliveroo starts looking appealing. I need something that makes it genuinely impossible to spend the money on anything other than vet bills.

Here’s the idea: a prepaid Mastercard or Visa restricted by merchant category code (MCC 0742 — Veterinary Services). Money goes in whenever I can afford it, but it can physically only be spent at a vet. Not a takeaway. Not a supermarket. Just the vet.

No insurance premiums. No claim rejections. Just my own money, ringfenced and waiting for when my dogs need it.

I’ve already worked out a scrappy workaround using a prepaid card and giving the login details to a family member — but I shouldn’t have to do that. This should be a proper product.

I genuinely believe there are millions of pet owners in the UK in exactly this position. The pet insurance market is struggling with trust and affordability. A simple, honest savings card restricted to veterinary spending could be a real alternative.

The technical mechanism already exists — MCC restrictions are used in corporate expense cards all the time. This is just applying that logic to a consumer savings problem.

I’m not a fintech person. I’m not a developer. I’m just someone with three expensive dogs and a genuine problem that nobody has solved yet. I thought Monzo’s community was the right place to share it.

Would love to know if anyone else feels the same way.

Thanks for reading :paw_prints:

1 Like
2

Nothing stops you withdrawing the money from the prepaid card instead.

3

What would happen if your pet died and your money was stranded on the card?

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4

I hear you. It would require some level of discipline but generally having to go to the cash machine often thwarts impulsive purchases. For me anyway

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5

You can create a pot and hide it, but I think you’d have to unhide it to add funds, and then hide again.

You can also lock pots, which might stop you, but it’s fairly simple to unlock it.

Addressing your improv spending is key here, have a Google and find some techniques and give them a whirl.

2 Likes
6

Good point. Maybe there could be some kind of exception i.e having to call monzo to release the funds in those circumstances or something.

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7

I like the idea of this but it is something you can easily do with a pot and linked card (minus the MCC restrictions). This is how I manage my dog’s expenses / ring fenced savings.

Your solution would also need to allow other MCC’s for places like online pet pharmacies , supplement companies etc as people will shop around for cheaper drugs / treatments even if they have insurance as Vet drug prices are highly marked up to the point some insurance conspires won’t pay them.

Hopefully the recent review by the Competition and Markets Authority will bring some welcome changes to prices…but I’m not holding my breath.

2 Likes
8

Monzo are already struggling to keep up with general enquiries, let alone taking something like this on as well.

The challenge of ringfencing vet money makes sense, but I don’t think the solution you’re suggesting is particularly viable. As someone mentioned earlier, it ultimately comes down to a combination of using existing pots functionality and building the discipline to manage it.

That’s obviously easier said than done, but there are plenty of resources available to support both if you’re genuinely looking to address impulse spending.