I understand what you’re saying but we also need to cater for emergencies and mistakes. For example, you have a locked pot and you add some money to it that you were trying to move somewhere else. Now you have a problem.
Of course all these different cases have different possible solutions that we can eventually get to but we’re also trying to come up with something simple enough that everybody can understand.
That’s not what I mean. What I mean is that with the new lock mechanism we’ll be able to see if the ratio of manual unlock differs (and how much) from the old model. Do you know what I mean?
There’s a chance in which the customer support interaction was adding zero friction and literally everybody who wanted to unlock a pot were actually unlocking it.
There’s another scenario in which 100% of people will unlock their pots earlier just because it’s now easier and won’t be able to stick to their goals.
The reality will be somewhere in between. That’s what I mean by data and learning, if that makes sense.
Will this be similar to cash deposits data though…
This data may be slightly compromised, how many will now put this locked pot money elsewhere to get the same friction they previously had? I for one will.
Cash deposits in the current form dont take into account how many would use the feature if it were the same as every other bank and fee free… thus giving a false sense that as a customer base we the monzo users dont deposit cash that much.
Similarly, taking data on how many people choose to open there “locked” pots early in this way will not take into the account people like myself who will remove their locked pot money and put it elsewhere or those that will now not see the point in making a pot “locked” in the first place now.
I agree, but if there were rules from the start, do you people would be more conservative with what they put in?
Do you know if most people needed all of their money or just some to get through to pay day? Maybe if you were only able to get to 20-30% of the money without interacting with cops, that would bring the number of requests down to make it a more viable option?
Yeah that makes perfect sense that is not actually the design that was the friction it was the implementation of the design that made the friction.
Is there any chance of a data release(anonymous and GDPR compliant) as I have my hypothesises and want to see if they match/are close…
Dipping out of this now but did want to say that I find pots, locked and unlocked very useful for ‘casual saving’. If I wanted to put big friction in my own way I’d move them to another bank account altogether. I have that choice.
For me, pots are not intended for Savings (with a capital S) but savings for occasional and near future things. They don’t offer interest so it’s just a way to put money aside. I don’t think the level of friction needs to be massive for that, just needs to be ‘enough’ (ha, define that!).
Anyway, intrigued as to how this plays out, but that’s all part of using something that is still being developed. The other option is that Monzo just launch stuff and its stuck like that for years and years which is… big banking way of working! No thanks!!
Ta to @Hugo for sharing and discussing too, on a hiding to nothing at times I’m sure but great to see the engagement.
It sounds like if you had consulted with the community, we would have come up with a much better solution then either of the current iterations, something people actually want.
A lot of this comes back to “what problem are Monzo trying to solve here”?
The first implementation seemed to be solving a different problem to this version (i.e. “I can’t save without friction”) although to @Chapuys point - it seems to work as 80% stay locked as intended.
If you look at the blog announcing in:
It can be tempting to dip into your savings, especially when it only takes a few taps. So, to help you stick to your savings goals, you can now lock your Pots until a date you choose and you won’t be able to take money out till then.
So it’s back at a few taps only.
Hopefully though you get some useful data. I just tried to lock a pot today - so hopefully you have some nice metrics soon on the “why are you locking” that helps inform between impulse control vs long term saving etc.
Vault or Safe option - you can access this money fairly easily but with say a 12-24hr wait time - nothing more than entering your PIN to withdraw;
Locked option - here it is locked and only able to withdraw via a third party authorisation/ questionnaire/ some form of extra friction as well as the 24 hour withdraw time.
And on the front end before opening the pot (or locking it) there is a clear bullet pointed summary of what each pot does - that way a customer knows what each “level” does.
I think this allows for both sides of the “locked” argument to have some middle ground.
Location based: I can imagine Monzo encouraging you to go for a walk to unlock the pot
Friend: always good until that friend is unavailable
24hr delay: I’m sceptical that people would always want to wait, or have the option to
How about a trivial question? I know googling the answer is easy, but it’s a thin extra layer and a chance to learn something:
How Long is the Great Wall of China?
13170 miles
That’s right! Still want to unlock your pot?
Come to think of it, could Monzo not automate unlock requests at the back end? Still require the friction of the user going to Help, typing “unlock pot” and what not…
But some form of automation to recognise the query. Similar to how those “user help” automated services work.
If keeping friction for the user is valued, as is reducing COps time… Could this work?