Tide is essentially putting your money within a Barclays account.
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Regardless.
I think the main point here is that āsome other companyā has a better option than Monzo at present. The specifics of Tide arenāt the conversation here.
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Itās never been said whether the Ā£5 per month is just for the development period or for the long term. Iām sort of expecting this to change when the formal launch comes around (although I have absolutely zero information to base that on).
Change up to Ā£10?
There are clearly many people who would like a free basic Monzo business account, me included, but looking at it from the Monzo point of view they have spent a lot of time & money doing their market research into what people want & have, rightly or wrongly, decided that a ābells & whistlesā account for a Ā£5 fee is the way for them to go & with a waiting list of several thousand a free account is unlikely to be offered any time soon.
They even seem to be confident enough in their current strategy to be offering accounts but then rejecting them at the sign up stage due to type of business or turnover. It would be nice to get some indication of their current requirements so that those on the waiting list could decide if the wait will be worth while.
They could have a free tier for businesses with low transactions. Like Maybe free for <50 transactions Ā£5 for 50-500 transactions and Ā£10 for everything higher.
This would reflect their operating costs and be fairer to their customers.
TBH I could live with Ā£5 a month - its way higher than Tide but Iād take it; itās the times I donāt use it that are the biggest problem for me. If customers arenāt using it why should they pay?
Theyāre really not being smart about this. And itās weird because Monzo are typically very smart about everything!!
A tier system would definitely be better, whether it be transacting based or feature based.
TBH, Iād rather pay the Ā£5 fee for the Monzo experience rather than a Ā£5 fee for the legacy bank experience but the idea that, having waited for your number to come up & then being rejected because of your business type is just a PR shot in the foot
I was waiting but due to the uncertainty have now decided, regrettably, to switch to Starling. Maybe if, in the future, Monzo offered no condition free business accounts I would switch back.
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I am similar to the OP. I am with tide and will stay, as my fees are less than Ā£1 a month. I have been offered a Business Account but will hold out for a better deal.
I agree, why the fixed charge? It definitely smells like legacy and teirāed charges make more sense.
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I agree, I use FreeAgent for all my invoicing and accounting as itās linked to my accountant and when I get paid by customers itās either via bank transfer or by debit/credit card with a link on the invoice or I take card payments using my phone which goes through my Stripe Account, so all I need is a basic bank account for having money paid in and normal payments out.
I donāt need any of the bangs, wallops and whistles as itās all managed by FreeAgent
Odd. I donāt pay for personal banking and my personal account has far more transactions going through it than reach4thelasers describes. There are rather a lot of free accounts. Perhaps the banks are making money out of the billions that are in there somehow.
+1 on this one! Iām completely with @reach4thelasers on this and I must say that I was rather dissappointed to see this pricing structure presented by Monzo ā I thought Monzo would know its users better! Surely most people using Monzo use it for 2 reasons: 1. Convenience, and 2. Priceā¦ Compromising on the pricing structure will surely put a lot of people offā¦ I see all the other elements as details (such as if itās a bank or not) ā I know they wonāt be to everyone and that some really care about these ādetailsā, but for most users, surely it comes down to convenience and price 
Also, surely with Starlingās recent introduction of multi-owner business accounts for limited companies, Monzo will have to up its game a bit in order to have any hopes of being able to compete in this area 
ā¦And who knows? Before we know it N26 will probably also introduce a competitive solution?
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Will anyone notice though?
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Haha! 
Good point @SouthseaOne! -although if they offer a great alternative and people start realising, then perhaps that could make N26 more popular here in the UK? Again, I think it comes down to convenience and price and that will eventually make people moveā¦ They do have a lot of resources behind them to pull this offā¦ Anyway, for now I think Iāll explore Starling as a Monzo and Tide alternativeā¦
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Ultimately itās down to you to figure out if the price is worth it. Currently itās pretty much a beta - so as an early adopter you will pay a premium. My basic litmus test was:
- Itās FSCS insured and a bank.
- I can sort my money into pots (Corp tax, VAT etc)
- Customer support responds in a reasonable time (much faster than sitting on phone with HSBC)
- I can manage this all from the same app as my personal account
- There is an easily accessible API, open to all. I am going to be using this to export and send weekly statements to my accountant.
Itās your responsibility to define if this is worth Ā£5/m (which HSBC small business costs.) I donāt use any of the invoicing functionality, and donāt envision myself doing so in the future, but for basic banking iām perfectly happy to spend Ā£5/m.
I do hope that going forward Monzo adopt a tiered system for Business Banking, much like Monzo Plus. For example:
- Core banking: Ā£5.00/m
- International Business (discounted intl payments etc + Ā£5.00/m)
- Accounting features (invoicing, etc + Ā£5.00/m)
Ultimately I just need access to basic banking featuresā¦ but I feel allowing us to customise our own packages would be incredibly useful, otherwise I feel the app could become quite cluttered!
Maybe itās just me but, Iām happy to spend less than 20p/day for an app which I feel saves me time.
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@kja ā thanks for making that point!
Just out of curiosity ā why havenāt you gone for Starling then? As far as I can tell most of those points are also covered with Starling (which is free!). Although of course not this one if youāve already got your personal account with Monzo:
- I can manage this all from the same app as my personal account
Iām not sure about the money pots(?), but I personally think that Ā£5/m for that is quite a lot to pay. Fair enough if you disagreeā¦
UPDATE:
Seems Starling has got an equivalent to āMonzo Potsā:
Monzo āPotsā and Starling āGoalsā let you stash money away for particular goals. A holiday or Christmas present perhaps. Keeping the money out of sight but within reach could help you save.
ā finder.com
Good point. I did look at Starling, and concluded that I preferred Monzo for the following reasons:
- I already had a Current account with Monzo
- On the fact of it Monzo is better to employees (I like to support companies with a good culture) https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Reviews/Monzo-Bank-Reviews-E1557148.htm
- I also like that Monzo are transparent and publish Annual Reports.
Yes, I could save Ā£5/m by moving to Starling, but realistically do I see Starling maintaining a free, unrestricted business account? Not really, so I chose Monzo primarily because theyāve built up a level of trust with me.
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Same here, wish I had a BB invite thoughā¦
Has pricing structure of Monzo BB been finalized and published somewhere?