If Monzo wants to go for the unbanked, they’ll need to find a lower-cost way to allow cash deposits, or possibly just eat the costs of a few cash deposits a month. But that’s for further down the line, when they get their own banking license and offer proper checking accounts.
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It’s gone now 
Understandable tho #Beta
Yes, but that is to her paypal balance not bank account.
It does not show these before they come in.
Hopefully they add this soon 
Thought of reviewing the status of the wish list after 6 months period:
- Joint accounts - hope to get it soon
- Instant transfer between Monzo accounts - available
- Free ATMs - available through MoneyPass ATMs
- Early direct deposit - not sure when it will be available
- Bill Payment - not sure when it will be available.
- Unlimited Pots to save for goals - available
- Automated saving rules for Pots - hope to get it soon
- ATM fee refunds - no idea if it is an option
- Mobile check deposit - hope to get it soon
- Budgeting features - available.
- Recurring payments - hope to get it soon
- International Money Transfer - ?
- Mobile Phone Insurance - ?
- Extended Warranty - ?
- Purchase protection - ?
- Price Watch - ?
- Investment - stocks, mutual funds, etc.-?
- Debit card rewards - not sure if it will be available. Already N26 has started offering this feature.
- Monthly bill payment alerts - ?
- Web page account access - doesn’t seem to be an option
- Exclusive member perks - ?
- High interest rate for saving pots - nice to have
- Larger ATM withdrawal limit (min $2K per day ) - hope this will be available soon
- Larger daily spending limit (min $5K of course subject to what one has in his account
) - nice to have - Fast transfer from and to Monzo account ideally on the same day. ( currently, most of the banks take 3 days to complete a simple transfer ) - hope to have it soon
- Apple Pay and Google Play compatible debit card (Though it seems to a standard feature, recently launch N26 acoount surprisingly misses this feature) - already available. One of attractive features of Monzo right from day one
- Split payments request - available
13-15 I’m not sure can be done by Monzo themselves in an economical way. It might have to come with a debit card tier upgrade (and thus come from the card network), like how SoFi is starting to offer those features with their upgrade to World Debit MasterCard.
EDIT: Referred to the wrong part of the list- international money transfer has nothing to do with card network (usually)
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Nomad, sorry if you mention this above, but I’m curious where you live in the US?
I’m from DC, and I couldn’t care less about ATM fee refunds; I never use cash (and really, neither does anyone else I know), and a good number of businesses are card-only at this point. Once taxis (the last service you needed cash for) had card readers (and obv Uber came into being), it became largely useless.
Likewise, early direct deposit is a nice courtesy, but not terribly important to me.
13-16 are credit card only in my experience; have you ever seen a debit card offer those?
The key features for me would be:
- Show how much I tipped when out per transaction (different between auth and post perhaps?)—and highlight transactions where I tipped more than the usual percentage I tend to do
- Instant transfers between Monzo and non-Monzo personal accounts (for sending/receiving cash from friends)
- Highlight transactions that seem like they’d be in-person (restaurants, fuel) but are transacting more than one state away—most card fraud is intra-US, in my experience, so flagging international transactions is helpful, but doesn’t really address the problem.
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Hi Rahul,
I live in NY. Your point makes sense that most of the businesses encourage card payment. But cash is still the king in terms of paying miscellaneous expenses such as lawn maintenance, housekeeping, tipping at restaurant, food deliveries, etc. I don’t think that we are going to do away with cash any near future.
N26 debit card has started offering perks, though no other bank is offering any attractive perks.
Monzo being a challenger bank and willing to listen to its customers ideas/requirements, I am confident that they will try to offer out of the box feature which will help them get more customers use their service regularly.
Hey there,
Since we live in the city proper, lawn maintenance is less a thing but yeah, I leave a check for the house cleaners, def just tip using the card receipt, and all food deliveries, whether prepared food (pizza, Chinese) or groceries (instacart etc) are card-based. Genuinely, I doubt I’ve visited an ATM in the last 12 months…though, obviously, my experience doesn’t reflect everyone’s!
I have N26 UK in addition to Monzo UK; I don’t use the N26 card at all. The interface (to me) looks pretty ugly and primitive, and it doesn’t do basic things like save past transfer recipients etc. Ultimately, that’s been enough to get me to avoid using N26. 
Certainly I agree with you that no one in the US can go Monzo-only without mobile check deposit.
Beyond that, I think convenient and relatively cheap overdrafts, integration with a Monzo credit card, and what I listed in my previous post, would all help.
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I am glad Monzo, N26 and Revoult are making US banks feel the pressure to change their strategy to customize their services with innovating features.
The simple “instant notifications” has mad a huge difference in real time balance available and preventing any fraudulent charges.
My US banks have had instant notifications since 2009 (email/SMS) and push since iOS 4!
Really!!! Which banks do you bank with?
My previous ones did too; Citibank, Bank-Fund FCU, and I’m pretty sure Capital One does…
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Good to know that. Even though my bank also offers notification, it is not instant. They send one combined alerts in the morning and another one in the evening.
I know you weren’t directly replying to me, but to pitch in my two cents on the matter as well:
I do use cash every now and then (at home, the laundromat is cash only, when I was on vacation, none of the vendors at a farmer’s market in Honolulu would take cards, some Chinese restaurants in Seattle also), but access to the MoneyPass network is sufficient for this purpose when I’m in the US. When I’m traveling outside the country, I seem to become somewhat more reliant on it (for instance, most Chinese restaurants in Vancouver, Canada seem to be cash-only, some small stores and restaurants are cash or local debit only, one crepe place was cash, local debit, or Visa only, while in Japan, card acceptance is about 50/50 and skewed towards high end establishments and convenience stores unless you’ve got Apple Pay and a new-ish iPhone that supports the local stored value e-money system, and while China has cobbled together a way for tourists to use their local cashless system, tourists are limited to spending something like $700/3 months with it), and a certain amount of ATM fee refunds and/or a higher free withdrawal limit ($600? $800? per month) would be nice.
Early direct deposit I’m not particularly worked up about either but for mass appeal and competitiveness, they’ll probably have to get on that.
13-15 are coming to SoFi when they change from Visa to MasterCard (and upgrading the card tier to World Debit) for their payment network, so come 20 February, you will see one financial institution offering those on their debit card. Still no sign of 16, though, there’s that.
I’m hoping that Monzo takes these things into account and implements them the closer we get to a finished product; as it is it’s very much still a beta and not ready to compete full-scale in the US marketplace yet.
Also, I have N26 but don’t use it not because the app is bad, but because they’ve suspended me for “verification” since mid-December and haven’t even gotten back to me on what they actually want to verify.
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Agree with you that it is too early to get rid of cash transaction. Even in NY, most of the chinese restaurants accept cash only 
, though it is understandable in view of the increasing CC services charges. But when I went a dumpling restaurant with my family and friends, it took me by surprise to realise it.
Good to know that SoFi is once again trying to challenge the banking sector.
N26 is not yet fully ready for mainsteam banking in USA.
Watch out for Revolut. They have a beautiful app with a lot of flexibiilty to transfer in and out of their app. They have virtual card option too. Their instant notifications is lightening fast. The expenses appear in your screen even before you complete the transaction.
This thread is super interesting! We’re thinking a lot about cash and checks and when they’re used - I’m really curious to hear a bit more about when people are paying for services like a house cleaner / lawn maintenance, etc. Is there a reason you would opt for a check over cash @rahulsinha? Would you consider transferring money using an app instead if you knew that your housecleaner could receive the payment that way?
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Cash requires going to get it. ATMs have fees. Checks are free
Checks can be deposited without going to a bank unlike cash for the recipient.
Most transfer apps are only free for friends / family not business use.
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Also, to get back to you on this- I also think Revolut is one to watch, but they’re going to have to adjust the way their compliance department works. The relatively low amounts at which they like to ask for source of funds verification is going to turn off a lot of Americans who have never had to deal with that from anyone else before.
Also, on the flip side of the cash/check issue, there are also some who prefer receiving cash over check if they’ve gotten bad checks before. The bank usually penalizes the person attempting to deposit them, up to and including account closure if it’s a repeat occurrence.
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Yeah. I am one of the disappointed customers of Revolut due to their silly verification process for even my regular salary deposit. This defeats their claim of “early credit of direct deposit”; nonetheless, I liked the speed and flexibility of their feature of transferring funds in and out of the app and super convenience of exchanging in different currencies and spending in foreign countries. They keep updating their app regularly. Their virtual card option saves me from losing any data while purchasing online.