We’re launching the first 100 Monzo Business Accounts!

looking forward to close my starling accounts.

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You could I agree and I said previously I am happy as an investor and a general backer of Monzo that they are getting into BAs as thats where the quick profits will come from and there seems to be alot of need for improvement in this sector.

However, that doesn’t mean I cant feel disappointed to see the company’s bread and butter (CAs) take an apparent back seat when there is so much that is unpolished should we say?

Would you be happy to see Apple make slower/smaller improvements to the iPhone just because theres money to be made and they are behind in the Home Speaker sector and a few other companies have got the march on them?

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As an investor, surely you’d prefer the company to spend resources on a paid-for product than a free one? I’m pretty sure Monzo HQ have their heads screwed on regarding best use of company time and money.

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Yes. We wouldn’t have the iPad, Apple Watch, AirPods etc if Apple decided to not make any new products after the iPhone. The iPhone still improves every year and they also work on other things.

These things bring the whole market up and there’s a trickle-down effect that benefits everyone even if you don’t use these products directly.

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I think you all have me wrong on this.

I have said I’m happy in a way to see them build BAs because its a good business move as thats where the money is and also because its a sector thats crying out for better banking.

My point was as a consumer with a CA and not with a BA or probably the intention of ever getting a BA i am sad to see that this will affect the progress of polishing off the current account.

To answer your point yes I agree that Monzo should launch multiple products to “make money work for everyone” but in your example as an iPhone user who doesn’t own an iPad I don’t care too much for the advancements in the iPad. Equally here for me with BAs

Hey @Sam87! Whilst we’re testing with our initial 100 users, it’ll be £5/month. You read more about the current fee structure here: https://monzo.com/legal/business-account-fee-information/

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Are there any plans - during or following testing - to waive this fee for startups/small businesses based on turnover or time since incorporation in line with other banks?

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Thanks for sharing, it’s nice to see that things are kept simple with just 1 monthly fee. I can’t comment on if £5pm is a lot or not for a business account but it will be interesting to see how/if this changes over time.

Only criticism/feedback would be that IMO the free abroad ATM withdrawal limit is rather confusing since it’s per user not per account?
Personally I don’t think it’s fair that someone could be put into a situation where they are paying 3% to withdraw money on their family holiday due to their recent business trip sending them over the free limit.
I can understand why it’s per user between personal and joint accounts but I wouldn’t expect to incur an expense due to what I had to do for work at a small business.

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Thanks for the feedback, Jack (and nice name, too!)

We’ll definitely bear this feedback in mind as we build the account. As I’m sure you’ve seen, this is the very beginning - we’re starting very early, but it’s for this very reason (getting feedback like this) we release early then build based on feedback :blush:

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Joined the waiting list, been wanting Monzo to do this for almost a YEAR! haha. I currently use Starling and have used a few other business banks but nothing is the perfect ‘fit’.

Whilst it’s exciting that Monzo are doing this it does feel a bit sneaky that the information on fees / charges are hidden away on a legal page and not mentioned in the blog post or marketing site for the product.

I’m hoping this is just because it’s early days though!

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What is missing from the other business bank accounts you have that would make this (or the others) a perfect ‘fit’ ?

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Hey @jackcully,

I echo @Jackcrwhitney’s sentiments, but I had a follow up if you don’t mind.

When I first read it as “per user, not account”, I thought that it was generous, and would allow businesses with multiple users all to withdraw £200 abroad.

With the current limited trial (or even the future plans), will the business accounts allow multiple users under the same account?

Hey Adam! Great question :raised_hands:

We’re using this initial test to really get to grips with how customers use their accounts. We need to charge for business accounts so that we can both cover our costs and make money. But, we want to make a bank account that’s really special too.

We’ve got some features that we really think people will find valuable, too. We hope that, in this initial instance, those who sign up for this trial see the value in paying £5/month. If it doesn’t work, or there’s a better way to serve those customers’ needs, we’ll work on that too!

The primary goal here is simply to learn. We’re really excited to work our customers here, and can’t wait to see what we find out :blush:

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We won’t be eligible for the first round because we’re a charity (and en exempted one at that), but what is really important for us is for two people to be able to authorize payments.

Love Monzo and would love to move our banking over (eventually).

Sure! Thanks for raising.

We’re really, really early in the journey with business accounts - we wanted to launch something as early as we could, and then build it with our users. Because of this, we’re launching these 100 accounts with some similar rules (ATM fees being one of these rules) to our personal current accounts - but dependent on feedback, and how business accounts are used, this (or anything else relating to business accounts, for that matter) could change in the future.

As always, we’re super receptive to feedback about this - so thanks so much for sharing :ok_hand:

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I just don’t see how Monzo can charge £5/month for something that Starling provide for free. Tom said that businesses were “crying out” for something new. I don’t see how this fills a supposed gap in the market.

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Thanks @jackcully, not sure if you missed my question though?

Hey James!

It’s definitely not our intention to hide these fees, so I’m really sorry if it looks like we are!

When we reach out to the 100 test users to set up their accounts, we’ll make it super clear that the account will cost £5 a month before the account is set up :+1:

A note on this - this isn’t the final fee structure by any means - it’s just a good starting place for us, and we’re super receptive to feedback from our test users (and everyone else!) about this. When we launch our full business account later in the year, we’ll be super upfront and transparent about this :blush:

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Ah, sorry I missed this @nickh! Yes, business accounts will allow multiple users under one account :blush:

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