We’re tweaking how locked pots work

Monzo Chat News & Updates
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@Feathers

This isn’t any bank, this is Monzo.

However, that last line was tongue in cheek, so don’t take it too seriously. However, being able to easily unlock accounts still makes the ability to lock it moot. It’s pointless. It just adds an extra click to me withdrawing money so I may as well just use a standard pot.

A better solution, in my opinion, would be to give someone else that I know the ability to unlock it for me. My wife and I both use Monzo. How about Monzo send a notification to her account to say ‘Adam has requested to unlock his account’, and she has the ability to authorise it, rather than this going to Monzo. She’s the sensible one of the two, and normally talks me out of buying crap I don’t need. I’d be more than happy giving her the keys to my locked pot if they aren’t with Monzo.

Give the keys to anyone but myself.

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For any locking method where the lock can’t be opened instantly, there needs to be the backstop of being able to contact COps to have the pot unlocked. I guess the trick is finding a solution that minimises the number of times COps are contacted to unlock pots, to the point where it is negligible.

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I think a 24hr delay minimum should be in place if you have not reached the set unlock date you set…
the instant unlocks we now have is pointless…

I have today finished my transfer to Monzo with my Wife and one of the pulls for me was the locked pots to save for Christmas and the like ie not open till 1st of November.

we now cannot do this :disappointed:

still plenty going for Monzo but this is a big shame
people spoiling it for others.

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153

You still can do the lock, albeit it’s very soft now

Were you worried about not being able to resist touching it?

What would work for you in your case (if not the delay)?

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yes too tempting, a delay means no on the spot “let’s have a takeaway”
we had a passbook a few years ago so if we wanted to get money me and the Mrs had to go to get it …any barrier to impulse spending is welcome.
iv moved to Monzo for budgeting.

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155

I really do think Monzo should put Locked pots back to the way that where. And tell everyone if you lock your pot “ITS LOCKED” and that’s how it is. People should use them the way they there intended. If you can not risk having money locked away for a long time then it’s simple DO NOT LOCK YOUR POT

And the rest of us wishing to put money away for let’s say Christmas can lock a pot until say 1st of November safe in the knowledge we can not get to it and have a plan in place.

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156

Best way to lock a pot in the meantime is to use something like Atom. Fix the term for however long you need it.

You’ll get a better interest rate then Monzo too.

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157

Hello everyone!

I really love locked pots and set several of them up before the functionality changed. I have only just realised today that you must close the pot and withdraw all funds from it (if it is locked) as I had set them all up under the old rule that you could withdraw set amounts by contacting an agent in ‘chat’.

EDIT - since been corrected this was never the functionality of locked pots and accept my error on that part

I find this frustrating because I have a few pots I would like to remain locked so that I cannot arbitrarily withdraw from them (e.g. I have a travel pot) and put savings in when I can. Then when a holiday opportunity arises I would like to be able to withdraw the set amount I need from that pot, for that particular holiday, but for the original pot to still remain so that I can continue to use it for the next holiday - I really don’t want to delete it each time and then set up anew.

Today I have a locked pot called ‘piggybank’ with a large amount in it and also my roundups go in there. It is for general saving and locked to prevent ‘dipping’. I have a house project that now requires a withdrawal of a set amount, which would leave the remainder in the pot but have been told on chat by an agent that this is no longer possible and I need to unlock the pot which will delete it and put all of the money across to my account.

I would then need to set up a new ‘piggybank’ account to do the very same thing… rinse and repeat.

It isn’t the way I thought locked pots would work and find this quite a faff. Sure having the pot locked and then deleted on withdrawal is great for single saving events like “wedding” or something but it does nothing really to help people with accumulating ‘general’ savings that they want protected from those nights you are at the pub and ready to raid the “piggybank” for another bottle of wine :grin:

I completely understand we all use these pots in different ways and the pressure on customer service to action withdrawal requests might have become unmanageable.

I am quite on board with the 24 hour thing as posted by some.

Tap the pot - request a withdrawal of a certain amount and a 24 hour limiter is set on the transaction. Then, fully automated, after that 24 hours your set amount is in your account.

Hoping a new option will come along soon so I don’t need to keep deleting my general locked savings pots.

Oh, please don’t suggest just regular unlocked pots to solve this problem. I am one of many who need help in managing my savings; I would just shuffle money about unlocked pots as it is too easy to withdraw - hence the lock was my saviour. So shoot me, I am a bad saver but thought Monzo had cracked it, sadly I feel this is no longer the case.

P

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Locked pots have ALWAYS been deleted on withdrawal (before the unlock date) so this isn’t a new thing. Contacting through the in-app chat would simply have led to the COP deleting the pot for you, they had no ability to withdraw money from them.

Additionally, getting COPs involved in closing them for you was supposed to be a ‘desperate emergency’ feature (on par with setting off a building fire alarm) yet a number of people seemed to treat that as ‘normal’ usage. It was that rather massive misunderstanding of Monzo’s intent which has led to ending up where we are today.

Going forward, I suspect we’re going to have pots that are locked and can’t be opened by COPs (very, very unlikely) or pots that a customer can unlock with a sufficient time delay of some sort.

Neither is ideal.

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159

I think what has happened is that we’ve gone from all the friction to relatively no friction - and that is a problem.

But there is also a business reason - I suspect that friction will be built upon and re-iterated to a happy medium - most likely a time delay or some form of verification to move funds in/out.

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160

Hello, sorry that was my misunderstanding from the get go - I think the language used was “contact us to withdraw” which I wrongly understood to be a set amount, there you go - happy to take that on the chin.

I stand by my comment that it is useful for saving for a single event and not general savings - which might not be the intended use for pots by Monzo but I can’t be the only one who needs that little extra help in preventing dipping into a savings account. I can set up unlocked pots until the cows come home but would no doubt quickly dwindle savings from just having such easy access. It is a mindset thing for me - knowing it was locked I never even considered the pot but knew it would be there for when home improvements came around etc.

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Yeah, everyone will have their own opinion on this and I see that from above. Just really want to have a locked pot that I squirrel money into and have friction on withdrawing from it but that I could withdraw a small set amount as and when needed.

Wish I was a good saver but alas! haha

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With a Monzo locked pot(1.0)you could continue to add money to it over, say, a year. Atom only give you 14 day if I recall correctly then it’s locked with no ability to top up. Unless they have changed something in the last year?

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To be clear, I’m not saying that you’re in the wrong here, just that Monzo didn’t seem to have expected the interpretation which you (and many others) took. This is what caught them out big-time as far as I can tell.

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165

No not at all - I didn’t take it poorly from you Feathers :+1:

You are correct - I interpreted it, like many, in a way that Monzo didn’t intend.

For now I will just need to delete and withdraw all funds and keep locking away, otherwise I will fritter :rofl:

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166

Would say a 24 hour delay be enough friction for yourself?

I think it is helpful to get some actual personal opinion from locked pot users (I have one but would not really need to open it before the locked time so my opinion is slightly skewed).

What would your ideal form of friction be (without COps)?

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A configurable time delay has been suggested. 1hr increments perhaps?

That way if money from a pot is desperately needed in an emergency, the 1hr should suffice (and if not the COps can still help). Beyond that I’d go for 12 or 24hrs to make sure I wasn’t just impulse buying or something.

But that’s just me.

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168

1hr increments are interesting, I don’t think they’d really offer much service, as you say COps could still help - and so the 1hr unlock isn’t really friction IMO.

I think logistically a 24hr delay would be enough for most, maybe with a few menus to travel through to ensure that the withdraw is what you want. Maybe categorising the withdrawal as well to show you over the course how/why you unlocked your pots?

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169

24 hours would be great for me, personally.

My current scenario helps to highlight this:

  • I have a locked “piggybank” account that I squirrel money into for general savings it has say £10k in it from me adding money and also round-ups going in there.

  • I need to access £1k this week as I am having some work done in the flat.

  • I request the withdrawal today for £1k and have 24 hours timer auto applied and would have the money in main account tomorrow - all good!

  • The remaining £9k still in piggybank for me to continue squirreling away money etc.

As an aside, I also have pots that are locked for specific events eg

  1. I am saving to buy a piano but have a goal amount so would not need to withdraw until goal reached and would be happy for that pot to be closed as it was for that specific purpose.

  2. I also have a pot for Christmas 2019 locked until 1st Dec and would not be too fussed on emptying and closing that account as it has met its intended purpose.

Just suppose it is the general savings idea it helps me with. Almost like that “rainy day” pot that you have specifically set aside for things that will undoubtedly pop up but you don’t know what they will be and when.

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170

I think the assumption that “COPs could still help” needs to be challenged here. Should COPs still be able to help? If they can then the issue isn’t really being solved.

(I’m not recommending a course of action here but I think it should be thought about)

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