You can now open an ISA through your Monzo app 🎉

Monzo Chat News & Updates
125

You’ve been listening to Martin Lewis again :joy:

126

Or best suited as what you want in the product with a competitive rate :smirk:

I never listen to Martin Lewis, he makes me want to throw things at the TV

127

There is some confusion on this point.

As I understand it, an ISA account is treated as active or inactive.

An inactive account is one into which you haven’t paid any money that would qualify as part of the current year’s allowance. So a flexi ISA from a previous year will remain inactive if you only take out and replace flexi funds. If you manage to open an account without adding funds, that cash ISA is also technically inactive.

An active account is where you have added money that takes you into the current year’s allowance.

You can technically add money to multiple cash isa accounts and indeed open lots of cash ISAs within the same year (though no idea why you’d want to!). You just have to make sure that you only go into your current year’s allowance with one cash ISA.

You are not autosubscribed. The account is just inactive until payments in make it active.

128

What other features are you thinking of?

Nope, that’s no good…

Of what other features are you thinking?
(That’s better):grinning:

129

On top of that, the key date is when you deposit money. It’s irrelevant when you open the account and indeed what year is actually given.

130

Ease of opening and visibility in app. But we both know the arguments on both sides of the debate

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131

Truth is, people who don’t subscribe to forums such as this rarely, if ever, end up confused. It’s only when we start poking around under the bonnet, that it all goes wonky.

(A straight lift from my book on ISAs) :rofl:

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132

Let’s lobby for an ISA dashboard.

I reckon the government could hash something together by 2030 at the earliest!

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133

And then scrap ISAs 3 months later

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134

Am I the only one that’s disappointed that they expect £500 to open it? :man_shrugging:t2:

Shame Monzo aren’t trying to encourage and include everyone into saving.

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135

There are more savings options coming soon but the ISA was priority because of the end of the tax year

136

That still doesn’t make any sense. ISAs at many other banks require only £1 to open them.

137

And OakNorth normally is ÂŁ1000 :woman_shrugging:

Larger initial deposit means higher interest levels

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138

It was probably imposed by the partner. I imagine as they offer more pot types there will be some without restrictions (maybe with lower interest). The other one was min ÂŁ1000. Would be nice to see more than one available at a time so we have a proper marketplace.

I do wish they imposed same day withdrawals on all partners though. I fear they have set a precedent now which means we’ll see slow withdrawals forever now.

139

For savings banks (i.e. those that don’t offer other products like current accounts and credit cards) a minimum balance requirement of £100 or more, or some restrictive notice requirement, does not seem unusual.

See some of the top accounts listed here
https://m.moneyfacts.co.uk/isa/variable-rate-isa

The third party provider here (OakNorth) is one such bank.

140

All I’m saying is if you look through that list that you’ve provided, there are a lot with a higher interest rate (marginally, I admit) and only £1 investment.

More initial investment definitely does not equal high interest.

Higher interest is normally only accompanied by stricter withdrawal rules.

My main point here is like a few other things that have crept their way into Monzo recently, this ISA launch doesn’t seem very “Monzo”-like. I’m just disappointed they haven’t stuck to their guns on being different, for the better.

141

So you think they should have held back the flexible isa until the £1 savings account (possibly cash isa as well but can’t check atm) was launched in a few weeks?

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142

I think it makes more sense to release something that all your customers can use OR to release all of the offerings at once.

I cannot see the marketing or product sense behind releasing one of the more restrictive products first.

I would have also like to have seen a bit of innovation. There really isn’t much separating Monzo from the crowd anymore.

143

I wouldn’t say a lot. Only 3 out of the top 10 have a minimum balance requirement of less than £100 and two of these accounts (the ones from Virgin) have withdrawal restrictions.

I agree that for high street banks (which I suppose is the reference point for most people) a minimum balance requirement over ÂŁ1 is unusual.

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144

There was a lot of pressure to release ISAs and I think they made the right call to start getting products out. Later they will expand the offering but it may take some time and this makes them some money in the meantime.

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