Apologies if I haven’t been clear. I’m totally against a “oh you are paying have these core features just because”.
I am completely for Monzo doing the leg work and setting up a package which are external or extra capabilities that are not a core part of the Monzo platform (Insurance springs to mind) - Monzo would charge a premium to allow for the integration and that is how they would make money on it.
For me this is only if the “premium” account holders are not treated better purely because they are paying - everyone is a customer whether they are paying for a premium package or not.
Completely agree - I just think it should only be additional things, if that makes any sense?
Yeah, I agree - Perhaps it’s different on the continent (I don’t know), where free banking doesn’t really exist anyway.
But N26 saying you have “premier support” if you pay a monthly fee just strikes me as “For the few… not the many” to flip a political phrase on its head!
Outside of Nationwide, there doesn’t seem to be many seriously good value “packaged” accounts - So hopefully Monzo can break the mould and have something useful to offer people.
I’d also be OK with them offering little (potentially pointless) extras to grow the brand.
How many people went crazy for a “rocket icon” on their community profile? I’m sure there were 100’s of people investing the bare minimum just to get it!
100% im not opposed to Monzo offering things that won’t negatively affect those that aren’t signing up. Limiting what a “free” user can do in terms of interest/ overdraft/ feature access for me is wrong.
But offering extras (however silly they may be) works for me and I think its a great way to show the brand off.
TBH the rocket was one of many reasons I invested… although haven’t requested my investor card as yet!
I bought a number of shares I was comfortable with to support an organisation I believe in (and of course with some distant hope of long term gain).
I can however admit to buying a single share on my wife’s account, just because she wanted an Investor card. She can now proudly proclaim she has ‘a’ share in a bank
I instantly regretted it and wished I had just transferred her the cash for 10 or so, just to make it somewhat more significant…
Im also a +1 for there shouldn’t be a tiered platform.
Marketplace integrations should add all of what you’d get in a premium account anyway? so work on that and let the users choose if they want the extras you’d typically get from a plus account.
I imagine to get the added extras to a competitive price they have to be a bundle.
Why would three separate companies give you breakdown cover, travel insurance and mobile phone cover for £13 a month when the going rate is probably closer to £20
The marketplace im assuming will be multiple companies offering competitive rates on individual products
Bundles could be the way forward on this, bundles usually work on exclusiveness with the companies own offerings hence why they offer it at a slightly lower rate?
Think BT or Sky trying to secure your fone/internet/tv.
I think a bundle for gadget/travel insurance say would then undermine the ethos of the marketplace being there to help find the best deal for monzo customers.
The way I’d see it (rightly or wrongly), is that a packaged/bundled account which had a cost, would offer an overall “better value” for those services, compared to when purchased separately.
The marketplace idea, is not going to be a Compare the Market or MSE type comparison where you’ll be able to shop around for killer deals - But more that it’ll offer an easy integration between the service and your banking app.
Starling are obviously much closer to this second part, but I fail to see the real advantage in what they are offering.
Simply seeing my Wealthify balance in my Starling app (behind numerous menus) isn’t helpful.
There is no “special pricing”, so what is the point?
Other than potentially being easier to sign up, there is currently none.
Although we’ve used in the title of this thread to give context (everybody loosely understands the concept of what it is), it’s pretty clear internally that the word premium isn’t right for us and we definitely wouldn’t build anything that impacts or limits any core functionality unless you’re able to pay.
The approach is more like, what are things that some people need and, regardless of where they get it from, they’d have to pay for. Types of insurance (such as travel or gadget) are a pretty obvious example of this. Your need of it is totally dependent on you, and many people never have gadget insurance. So then, the play becomes, for the people that need this, how can we offer this in such a way that you wouldn’t need it from anywhere else - because you get all these other related benefits too. What different segments of users would benefit from different kinds of offerings? For example, the people that are most affected by the overseas ATM limit are for the most part the same group of people that would need travel insurance. Are there other things we can combine here to make something that regular travellers would pay for?
So we’re very much gathering the feedback here from as many users as possible to test various hypotheses on this, and we’ll see where it ends up
This is what makes Monzo awesome - they test everything and run it by their already standing consumer-base. They want to keep us happy whilst also growing and expanding.
For me personally when I’ve been travelling, data is always an nightmare - you always need it when you don’t have it. Maybe some sort of Sim Card that you gets activated when you go abroad?
Car Rental is another one that I think could work as a “Package” - As a 22 year old it is sometimes an absolute nightmare to sort out car rental as i’m below the 25 standard age.
The airport lounges part of N26 is cool aswell - it makes sense if you are offering a “Travel” packaged account.
Outside of travel, cash back is a natural point of contention - spend money to make money and I don’t think that this necessarily needs to be a core feature and so could work as a “premium” attachment.
As an aside and not on the “Premium” basis - rewarding those that are #FullMonzo - i.e. if you have £X paid into your account every month and make £x amount in scheduled payments you get Y. I currently use the Nationwide FlexDirect account for this reason as I get a better interest rate (not that I think it has to be an interest rate bump as the reward) - although I do just siphon my money back to Monzo after it has sat there for a few days.
My understanding (based on my call yesterday and prior “quotes” from the media regarding this forum), is that most of what was discussed is likely best unsaid.
Again as someone mentioned above as Monzo is a mobile bank gadet insurance should be a deffo, for me personally Travel insurance is pointless as it would only be good for 50% of the family, as either myself or the wife would have to be on another policy to include my son (disability issue & life limiting condition) so a while back we looked at joining the X amount a month with RBS but to add my son on top for one trip was another £98, as we are #fullmonzo for 4 of us going to Florida in September total price is £114, so with “premium” monthly cost plus extra £98 we are already losing out.
Again due to my son we have a motability vheicle so breakdown cover already covered
So for me the “bolt-on” option would be better say £2.50 a month gadet insurance, £2 a month DD rewards etc
Ooo definitely not the vibe I got at all Sorry to hear your experience wasn’t perfect!
This is the 2nd kind of this meeting I’ve had with Monzo so far and it was just as fun this time as it was last time Really awesome to get in early and give feedback on things, I’m hoping that with the study / research they’re doing really helps shape “Monzo premium” going forward
Can’t wait to see what they offer as and when (/ if) it becomes a reality
As long as you were honest, that’s all that matters.
I think we can be excited to entrust Monzo to think differently and use technology to become even more innovative, in order to put legacy banking to shame.
was really fun! I won’t share too much in case there’s stuff I’m not supposed to say 
I did sign an NDA after all 
Really looking forward to everything coming up 
definitely not the vibe I got at all 
Sorry to hear your experience wasn’t perfect!
Really awesome to get in early and give feedback on things, I’m hoping that with the study / research they’re doing really helps shape “Monzo premium” going forward 