Indeed. The whole insurance industry would probably collapse if every policy-holder made a claim. Insurance relies on claims being in the minority and, given that insurance is invariably against something unpleasant happening, it’s usually a safe assumption.
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Nothing’s assumed. The balance of risk is carefully calculated.
It’s calculated within a broad set of assumptions: that acts of god don’t happen every day; that most people make it through the day without dropping their phone down the toilet; that people arrive home from driving, without incident.
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What you’re saying is perfectly reasonable, and I fully understand why you’ve signed up.
From a monzo plus point of view, however, this is a big ask for Monzo. It won’t be easy for them to match the market leader in bundled insurance products, or to offer insurance at below market value. Personally, I don’t think they’re going to be able to pull off anything remotely close to this.
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YNAB has been mentioned as some thing that Monzo should be doing and users would pay for (For UK users do not bother to look as they are US based and do not support UK bank integration and they are very expensive) This functionality is quite specialist (the transaction extraction etc is very complicated and requires extensive AI to work)
I think that monzo will be hard pressed to match or exceed the best of breed in this space (YNAB in US and EMMA in UK) and thus they need to partner with one of these to try and create a joint offer where both succeed in their own space
Totally agree - this is why they need to innovate and not replicate 
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YNAB can be used just fine in the U.K. and is so by MANY. You don’t need bank integration to use it. It is a very good and solid product. $84 a YEAR is not ‘very expensive’ although I guess that is subjective.
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I’m talking about total expected cost summed across all accounts. i.e. how an insurer does. Funnily enough I’m pretty sure we all know how insurance works.
The expected summed across all accounts will be less than what Nationwide are paying for the coverage and certainly less than what we pay Nationwide for it too.
That’s where I am doubtful hence my post.
And hence market rate being significantly greater.
Why would you want to add transactions manually. This is just insane
They do support some UK banks (more by chance than design) - but you can use Monzo’s API to integrate transactions automagically. I’ve been using that since I went Full Monzo and it’s pretty flawless.
Even without integration though, it’s solid. Part of the ‘design’ is manual transaction entry - makes one more mindful of their own budget.
I think competition wise, the more the merrier, and I don’t think it’s neccesarily a difficult proposition for Monzo to integrate a ‘zero sum’ budget approach. Either way though, I do think a fully integrated zero sum solution (Wether developed by Monzo, stealing YNAB, or something else) could be so powerful.
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Salary Sweep - As your new Salary comes into your account your existing balance is transferred into a pot.
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Metal Card
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Better loan and overdraft rates
Would you pay extra for salary sweep when you could do it manually?
First Direct offer a salary sweep (for free) but I personally preferred to look at it first when I was banking with them. But that’s just my opinion!
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No no no! (In my opinion, of course).
This feels like core functionality and something that shouldn’t be paid for. But, indeed, something that Monzo should definitely have!
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Yeah I already have this, taking it away from me and making me pay would be quite sad.
So I understand it would be awesome if it was for free.
For me I personally would prefer a bulk load of features that will make my life easier so I don’t have to manually do things to justify me paying for Plus.
But of course if it was free that would be preferred.
One of the key pillars of the Monzo brand is transparency, and I believe that charging for some features is totally compatible with that.
I would prefer it if each part of my bank was able to be in-business on its own, rather than a web of hidden flows where some areas subsidise others. The software features should be able to add value on their own, loans/overdrafts etc. should be competitively priced as that money shouldn’t be used to produce lots of other ‘free’ stuff.
And if I just want a place to store money and nothing else, then I don’t need to pay.
Other things I’d love from my bank would be ad-hoc access to independent advice, which is also compatible with Monzo’s ‘marketplace’ vision for money. Could I arrange a video call with an IFA or Mortgage Advisor? I’d happily pay for that and expect Monzo to get a cut for providing the platform,
Products like blanket insurance are difficult. They’re too broad as products and don’t cater for specific needs. I have a long lasting health condition and all of the banks’ premium accounts which have insurance don’t cover existing conditions. Banks have been pulled up on this in the past for taking money off people for products they can never use. Now, if Monzo were able to tailor an annual insurance quote for me and make it work, yes I’d pay for it. A true pick and mix, platform style approach, count me in!
I paid £41.99/year for Emma Pro and I love it. It’s a bit pricey, but if Monzo offered that and used their resources to complete it (more credit cards/banks supported etc.), I’d be fine with even £30/year.
I would definitely pay for additional software features. Please keep in mind these need to be additional not core upgrades features. An example would be I will not pay for the ability add custom categories (core feature) but I am willing to pay for budgeting features (YNAB, Yolt etc etc).
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Free vs subscription: Monzo needs to understand and accept that more customers means more opinions and most important more division. You have to accept you need to serve people that every year go out and buy a £1000 phone just so the have the latest gadget (hardware) but only use free services (Facebook, Instagram, GMail etc). But you also need to accept that you have users that upgrade their £1000 phones every 3/4 years but are willing to pay for app subscriptions (software).
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fin vs TECH: Monzo needs to accept you have users that see you as a FINtech => finance/bank component of their life. Others see you as finTECH => a technology company trying to solve the problem of finance in the life.
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Rooms: Monzo needs to look at the traditional banking system and digitise it. In traditional banking you have the core service: simple banking (keep my money and pay with them). That was the main room as you enter a traditional bank. But you also have other rooms were loans were done, another room were investments were done etc.
Stop trying to fullfil your promise of monzo making money work for everyone using one product. You need to start offering a layered product with people selecting what they want from settings. Not everyone handles their money the same way. You will not be able to make money work in the same way for everyone. That is why on this forum you will see again and again people asking for the ability to add custom categories because people have different categories in their life. Unless you understand this you will never move forward.
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If monzo move to this kind of model, I’ll switch away to a different bank. I’m not being funny, but if you have people depositing money into the bank, you should be able to make money from it via your own investments etc like every other bank. You also offer loans and overdrafts that you charge interest on making you money. You also already take a percentage of my savings interest to provide me the convenience of seeing a third party savings account in monzo. There are better ways to make money and this feels like classic bank greed to me.
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