You can now open an ISA through your Monzo app šŸŽ‰

That seems unnecessarily sarcastic. My point was Monzo would need better ISA offerings to encourage people to move over.

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Itā€™s an opinion, I would guess that they will be happy that you wonā€™t be moving over to Monzoā€™s ISA - saying that Monzoā€™s offerings are poor and you have a better rate is great for you, but as can be seen from the thread, others are taking up the ISA.

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Agree 100%

You may think so but everyoneā€™s different. The success of the previous savings pots made that quite clear.

The number of people who want to deal with only one bank is quite surprising and, on that basis, the Monzo rate is quite respectable when compared to some others.

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Great work on brining ISAs to the app team! Imagining that was quite a lot of work so itā€™s a great development.

However, was just checking out the ethical investment policy of Monzoā€™s partner org for isas, OakNorth.

Itā€™s super vague, which isnā€™t very reassuring, and isnā€™t very Monzo.

Would love to see Monzo partner with someone like Triodos. They are hyper-transparent: you can see everyone they lend money to. This feels like it would be a good fit for the Monzo ethos.

Obviously not one for this year, but maybe something to consider for the future?

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For those of us who look at best buy tables, the Monzo easy access ISA is fairly middling in terms of rate. But these tables are dominated by relatively small (at least in terms of name recognition) specialist savings banks and building societies. There will be a lot of people who wonā€™t want to bother opening accounts at these places just for a savings account and for them the more relevant comparison is perhaps the Monzo ISA vs the bigger names or the high street bank they may already have some relationship with (maybe as their previous/other current account provider). Unfortunately the online comparison tables donā€™t easily allow restriction to the major banks. But I was curious enough to take a look myself.

The table below shows Easy Access Cash ISAs from banks included in the Competition and Market Authority (CMA) Personal Banking Service Quality survey (plus Monzo). This survey currently involves the 16 largest personal current account providers in GB and the 7 largest in NI.
https://insights.gfk.com/personal-banking-service-quality-great-britain-0
https://insights.gfk.com/personal-banking-service-quality-northern-ireland-0

Because I have focussed on Easy Access cash ISAs I have not included
*Fixed Term cash ISAs
*Limited access cash ISAs (those that limit the number of withdrawals you can make in a year).
*Notice period cash ISAs (those that require a notice period of more than 1 day to make a withdrawal).

Bank Worst Rate1 Best Rate Flexible?2 Min opening deposit Conditions to achieve best rate Link
Bank of Ireland UK N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A (No ISAs)
Bank of Scotland 0.35% 0.35% Yes Ā£1 N/A Click Here
Barclays 0.60% 0.75% Yes Ā£1 Balance above Ā£100k Click Here
Clydesdale Bank 0.60% 0.90% Yes Ā£10 Balance above Ā£40k Click Here
Coventry Building Society 1.45% 1.45% Yes Ā£1 0.3% Bonus until Aug 2020 Click Here
Danske Bank 0.50% 1.00% No ? Balance above Ā£45k Click Here
First Direct 0.85% 0.85% No Ā£1 N/A Click Here
First Trust Bank 0.75% 1.00% No Ā£50 Balance above Ā£35k Click Here
Halifax 0.60% 0.60% Yes Ā£1 N/A Click Here
HSBC 0.55% 0.85% No Ā£1 Premier account and rolling bonus period on new deposits Click Here
Lloyds 0.35% 0.35% Yes Ā£1 N/A Click Here
Metro Bank 0.90% 0.90% Yes Ā£1 N/A Click Here
Monzo 1.14% 1.14% Yes Ā£500 N/A Click Here
Nationwide 0.50% 1.10% Yes Ā£1 Nationwide current account or 15 years membership Click Here
Natwest 0.20% 0.85% No Ā£1 Balance above Ā£50k Click Here
RBS 0.35% 0.85% No Ā£1 Balance above Ā£25k Click Here
Santander 0.20% 1.50% No Ā£1 123 World or Select Account, and min opening deposit of Ā£500. Includes a first year bonus Click Here
The Co-operative bank 0.56% 0.75% No Ā£1 Online only Click Here
TSB 0.30% 0.60% Yes Ā£1 0.3% first year bonus Click Here
Ulster Bank 0.35% 0.85% No Ā£0 Balance above Ā£25k Click Here
Yorkshire Bank 0.60% 0.90% Yes Ā£10 Balance above Ā£40k Click Here

Compiled 11 April 2019

1 Several banks have a variety of interest rates depending on factors which vary from bank to bank. Examples include the type of current account you have (e.g. Standard, Fee-based, Premium) and the balance in your account. The worst and best rates from each bank are included in the table, but not rates in between.

2What does Flexible mean? Click here

Aside from the opening deposit requirement, the Monzo easy access ISA compares rather favourably to the banks who are the major providers of current accounts. In terms of rates itā€™s only beaten by Santander (which comes with certain conditions to achieve the best rate) and Coventry BS (who donā€™t seem to be offering current accounts anymore so Iā€™m not sure why they are actually in the CMA list).

After doing this, an earlier criticism I made of of Monzo that I will reinforce is they really need to add information on the Flexible nature of the ISA to their webpage and the app. This information was available on the ISA product page at every bank listed in the table except Monzo. It shouldnā€™t require a request to customer service to get this information.

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Totally on board with you. I guess at this moment the focus is on revenue while giving customers at least some way to save with interest (mentioned as one of the big reasons people werenā€™t signing up back in the summer).

Iā€™m hoping that in the future any marketplace will also include products from Monzo (or Monzo-like partners) who can offer both competitive rates and modern banking features and show that you donā€™t have to accept complete compromise as a customer (youā€™ll still have to lose some availability if you bump up the interest rate though I think).

Equally I think to cultivate a marketplace there needs to be some evidence to other providers that there is value in that partnership and these Investec and Oak North pots are the way to show that.

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Poor, Iā€™ve a easy access saving account that pays 1.44% so in comparison the rate is low. Iā€™ve notice this with quite a few companies which offer the convenience of having your money all in one place quite often means youā€™re get a poor rate and could get better going direct.

So, disclaimerā€¦ I donā€™t use any of the Monzo savings products because I can get a better rate elsewhere, and I donā€™t need my money to be in one place. Plus, I donā€™t like to fix my money away for a length of time (especially with rates that are equivalent or better that offer non fixed terms).

Butā€¦ By this point, how are we still talking about the lower rate Monzo offer over the bank that is offering the actual product?

Did anyone really think Monzo would simply pass on the exact same rate, or that OakNorth (or whoever), would offer Monzo a better rate than anyone else?

This is literally, integration 101 - Youā€™ll nearly always be able to get a better rate going direct, no matter what industry itā€™s in (although, granted, the comparison sites for certain things makes finding the best rate much easier).

The we come back to the unpopular truthā€¦ What difference does the nought point whatever, actually make to your savings?

Realisticallyā€¦ Itā€™s very little (pence per month probably, maybe a quid or two). For some people, that alone would be justification for using the Monzo savings products.

Does anyone know of a bank that offers the best everything? Itā€™s just not going to happen, and certainly not from a bank who have yet to turn a profit, and have been operating for a fraction of the time as everyone else.

I thought the initial savings pots were poor, just from the process stand point (next working day withdrawal, Ā£1000 minimum etc).

But these ISAā€™s are probably about as good as Monzo can get right now - Plus, an ISA was always designed for long term savings (Iā€™m not sure when the thought process on that changed to be honest?)

There are definitely better (lower rate), options out there, and if you donā€™t mind dealing with multiple banks/savings accounts, youā€™d be wise to use whatā€™s available to you.

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Santander have just dropped their 123 eISA rate for new issues from 1.5% to 1.0%.

If the rates from other banks have not increased significantly since I created this table it means Monzoā€™s easy access ISA now has a better rate than every bank classed as a major current account provider (according to the CMA customer satisfaction survey) except Coventry Building Society.

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Iā€™m sure this is a very silly question so sorry in advance! :woman_facepalming:

Reading the blog about ISAs it says youā€™ll be able to see the interest youā€™ve earned on the first day of each monthā€¦does that mean the interest is paid monthly?

If it shows a monthly amount earned but is only paid annually how would this account for money being withdrawn?

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Interest gets paid monthly :grin: - More specifically, on the first working day of each month :raised_hands:

If you withdraw before any interest is paid, youā€™ll receive the interest youā€™re owed in your monzo account :grin:

Often Iā€™ve seen interest accumulate daily but only display as ā€œearned this monthā€. If withdrawn, your daily interest would decrease slowing down the accumulated interest - but the total interest accumulated over the total 365 days will be paid out. Hope that makes senseā€¦

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So is there a consensus on how this isa pot works?

I opened mine and paid into it only in the last tax year, but Iā€™m unable to open a new one now this tax year?

Just keep adding to it. You donā€™t need to open a new pot, it continues

Same as any other ISA as far as I can see. Pay money into no more than 1 ISA a year and only open a new one if you want to change provider for the current yearā€™s deposits.

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Would be good if it showed you where you are in relation to this yearā€™s limit

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Would be a nice addition, I wonder if you could fashion something with goals to make this work.

It would be even nicer if you could manually tell it how much youā€™ve put into other isas. Otherwise, the figure is not very helpful.

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Well at least if they all tell you, you can add them up. Tracing the Monzo figure is currently tough.

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