Right now, we’re trying to nail the basics and give our users valuable features to simplify their financial admin. We’re trying to solve a lot of the pain points that small businesses feel with their legacy banking providers. Things like instant payments, visibility of spend, ways to segregate and save for taxes without having to open a second account, and connections to the tools they use and love.
We know we have a ways to go from being perfect, but we hope we’re adding value and really helping improve financial management for small business owners.
We’ve decided to launch with a £5/month fee, but that’s not to say that that’s set in stone forever! We’re actively exploring what different options might look like for different bundles of business accounts. (If you’re on the waitlist you may have seen some of the surveys we’ve been sending out). We know that all your needs are different, so as we start to grow, we want to make sure the account always feels like its tailored to your specific needs. Whether that means helping you reconcile your invoices if you’re a service business, connecting seamlessly to your payment terminals if you sell goods, giving you employee spend cards if you have lots of employees, or just helping you calculate your self assessment if you’re a sole trader.
Until then, we’re constantly working on a better experience, so you can always expect that it works for you the way you need it to.
The thing I’m most excited about Monzo Business Accounts is the potential for the future. We’re super passionate about constantly evolving and improving. You can check out our public trello board to see what we’re working on, and what’s coming next. And we’re always listening to your feedback to see what else we can make better.
Hey Jordan, thanks for your input. I’d argue that (other than connection to accounting tools) you’ve essentially got all of those points nailed in the Current Account already (which is why jumping up from £0/m to £5/m seems a bit of a hurdle).
If a user is already a fee-paying business account user elsewhere, I can see the appeal of moving to Monzo to take advantage of the benefits you describe above. But for someone like myself who is already a Monzo user, but not currently a fee-paying business account user, the incentive to move to a £5/m account is probably not enough.
As mentioned, my primary desire is a dedicated account for my business – this is the one single thing that would simplify my business finances more than any other feature – scaling up to integration with accountancy software and other features is something for the future in terms of my business set up (ymmv, of course).
I’ll be following the development of business accounts with great interest – for my sanity I’d rather do this with Monzo than elsewhere – so here’s hoping the evolution of these points moves on quickly!
I put my thoughts across on this survey. As a sole trader myself, I don’t want or need anything specific. All invoices currently hit my monzo personal account. All my spending is done through my monzo personal account. I have never had a ‘business’ account and it’s certainly not something I’d pay for (especially now I am a Plus subscriber).
I type up my invoices in Word and email them out. I prepare my taxes in a spreadsheet and forward that on to my accountant. I don’t have a desire to change this, it works well for me, so the integrations don’t interest me in the slightest.
If monzo released a business account that was free I would be all over it. That way I would have a dedicated account for invoices to be paid into and any expenses to be paid out of, along with a standing order for my wages.
I currently use Coconut, it’s more than adequate for what I need at them moment, I am paying a 2% transaction fee for foreign purchases and have an option to pay £6 a month to send invoices.
Until I need the facilities that would warrant extra fees from a Monzo business account even though I am on the waitlist I think I will be holding off a while.
Yes, I was about to take a shot at Coconut just as Monzo announced Business Accounts were in the pipeline and decided to hold off and see what the offer was.
Looks like until Monzo finalises the scope of what they’re offering then doing it elsewhere (be it Coconut, Starling or whomever) is the only real solution other than the £5/m beta test
To be honest, I have no objection to Monzo offering a free option, I’d just assumed they’d made a conscious decision to charge for it, presumably because everyone else does (other than Starling). Charging on the basis of turnover or something equivalent could easily make sense.
Yeah, you can swipe to access other accounts now. If I swipe right on my personal it goes to my first pot, then my second pot, then my joint account. Presumably business will sit alongside this in the same way. Once they find a way to swipe direct from account to account (and not via the pots and presumably loans, etc.) it’ll be really good. You can also access a list of them all to select from with a single tap (you used to have to do the same tap and then click switch account and then pick the account but now it’s just two taps via that route).
To be honest, it seems that Payments tab is now across your user account, not in the context of a single account which could be either good or annoying based on how you use it.
Just realised that we spend more than £5/month just on bank fees for things we buy online in USD, so even happier to pay a monthly fee to avoid that. And that’s before I check how much Metro Bank have screwed us on the conversion rate…
I’ve just moved from Lloyds to Starling for my business banking. It’s free, and integrates with FreeAgent. I don’t need any in-app invoicing features, as I have my accounting package for that.
Lloyds cost me £6.50 a month, and has branches and online banking. Monzo for £5 is a non starter for me. If they had a free tier, without any of the invoicing etc, I’d be interested.
Agree with quite a few comments here. I do all my expenses, invoices, taxes in Excel so no need for any integration. I dont feel the need to pay £5 a month for a Business account, I have been using Tide for about 3 years, they charge 20p a transaction, I make about 3 - 4 a month… (obviously this does not work for everyone)/
Jordan here from the Business Banking team at Monzo.