Monzo Bank

[Halwynd]

I recently opened a Monzo account because I'll likely benefit from some of their cashback retailers. I've been quite impressed with their App so far, but I wouldn't leave my current 'full service' bank.

I know Monzo is mentioned here from time to time, particularly regarding the LNER cashback, but from what I've read generally the majority of Monzo customers only use it as a spending account rather than their main bank account.

I was wondering whether anyone would like to share their own thoughts or experiences about Monzo as a bank?

 

[iknowyeah]

Their paid service is good for the cost, a bump in your interest rate, a greggs every week and a cinema ticket every month, plus phone and travel insurance for £7

 

[m0ffy]

I’ve been with them a couple of years and my wife has both personal and business accounts with them, and we are both on the ‘Perks’ tier. The app is absolutely superb, and of the high street banks, only Lloyds comes close. I can see all my other accounts in a single pane of glass, and see my combined real-time balance across current accounts and credit cards.

 

[GregSRHST]

I have used Monzo for quite a number of years now. I use it as a "spending" bank account when spending cash to keep my spending separate from my "main" current account (where my wages get paid).

What I liked about Monzo is that is was very easy to open a joint account. My wife and I have a joint Monzo account which we pay into every month and all our household bills, food bills and holiday fund etc are taken from this joint account. Their app is great for keep track of spending and for budgeting.

 

[sor]

Of the so called "neobanks" I prefer Starling as they actually have a proper online banking website & you can also use the app on a tablet. I do not want to do everything on my phone.

But like you I have no intent of moving away from my existing bank for most of my payments.

 

[Halwynd]

Thanks for all of your thoughts...

Of the so called "neobanks" I prefer Starling as they actually have a proper online banking website & you can also use the app on a tablet. I do not want to do everything on my phone.

But like you I have no intent of moving away from my existing bank for most of my payments.

Yes, I also think it would be useful if they had a proper website. You can use the Monzo app on a tablet, but it only replicates the smaller format of the smartphone which was a bit disappointing.

What I liked about Monzo is that is was very easy to open a joint account. My wife and I have a joint Monzo account which we pay into every month and all our household bills, food bills and holiday fund etc are taken from this joint account. Their app is great for keep track of spending and for budgeting.

I've just started to look at the spending and budgeting feature. I use a spreadsheet at the moment, but at times it becomes a little tedious so I I'll probably make more use of this feature. The only thing I've noticed is that you can't export the data, something I'd find useful.

I’ve been with them a couple of years and my wife has both personal and business accounts with them, and we are both on the ‘Perks’ tier. The app is absolutely superb, and of the high street banks, only Lloyds comes close. I can see all my other accounts in a single pane of glass, and see my combined real-time balance across current accounts and credit cards.

I'm liking the app more and more, particularly the transaction information which shows maps, which so far have proved quite accurate, time of purchase, the ability to add notes etc. I'm probably not ready to upgrade, but there are some features I'd be interested in, the customisation of spending categories and virtual cards for example.

Their paid service is good for the cost, a bump in your interest rate, a greggs every week and a cinema ticket every month, plus phone and travel insurance for £7

It looks like the insurance benefits are part of the top tier package which is £17pm - but I am partial to a Greggs sausage roll every now and again!

 

[styles]

I don't use it as my main bank, but I would certainly consider it. I have some direct debits set up, some standing orders, and I use it for my day-to-day spending. I also have a savings account with them (incentivised by their 1p savings challenge prize offering admittedly).

Their Perks account for £7/month gives a 1 year railcard, a weekly Greggs, and a monthly cinema ticket. If they're the kind of things you'd use often anyway, then well worth the monthly fee.

The main downside is potentially the lack of bricks-and-mortar branches. But you can do cash deposits at Post Offices, and personally I can't think of the last time I went into branch with my high street bank for anything else. Must be over 10 years?

I used to work for Monzo's payment processor. Monzo seemed very well switched on as clients go, and apparently from the outset had said to us that when they develop the ability to process payments in-house (the software takes a long time to build as it's full of hacks), they'd part ways and do it themselves - and sure enough, that's what they did. Their techies know their stuff, and I think the app and payment experiences reflect that. I've had some high street bank accounts before with terrible payment and app experiences.

 

[Halwynd]

The main downside is potentially the lack of bricks-and-mortar branches. But you can do cash deposits at Post Offices, and personally I can't think of the last time I went into branch with my high street bank for anything else. Must be over 10 years?

From what I read, Monzo's customer service is possibly not great when you run into problems. I haven't used a bank branch in a long time either, but when you have an issue or problem I think the ability to either use a branch or pick up the phone and speak to a human is important. Having said that, Monzo always seem to rate highly in the Ipsos biannual customer satisfaction surveys.

I think the only feature Monzo doesn't offer is a chequebook. I hadn't written a cheque for around fifteen years, but last year I had to do so for a company that wouldn't accept any other method of payment - yes, they still exist!

 

[styles]

From what I read, Monzo's customer service is possibly not great when you run into problems. I haven't used a bank branch in a long time either, but when you have an issue or problem I think the ability to either use a branch or pick up the phone and speak to a human is important. Having said that, Monzo always seem to rate highly in the Ipsos biannual customer satisfaction surveys.

I think the only feature Monzo doesn't offer is a chequebook. I hadn't written a cheque for around fifteen years, but last year I had to do so for a company that wouldn't accept any other method of payment - yes, they still exist!

I've found their in-app customer service to be fine. They do also have a phone number though I haven't had cause to use it.

I shredded my cheque books years ago thankfully!

 

[route101]

Of the so called "neobanks" I prefer Starling as they actually have a proper online banking website & you can also use the app on a tablet. I do not want to do everything on my phone.

But like you I have no intent of moving away from my existing bank for most of my payments.

Applied for Starling but was not accepted for whatever reason. Due to law they cant tell why.

 

[Halwynd]

Applied for Starling but was not accepted for whatever reason. Due to law they cant tell why.

The Financial Conduct Authority have recently fined Starling £29m for failings in its systems relating to financial crime and account opening for sanctioned individuals, and I read somewhere that they have been turning down lots of new applications this year whilst they undertake a review of their systems, so probably not any reflection on you.

 

[mimoma]

I use Monzo as my spending bank, just so all the little daily transactions don’t clog up my main bank account. I like how easy it is to toggle what each transaction is so I can track the categories each month, have a few saving pots on the go, and the free Greggs/cinema ticket are always used.

Also a bonus for cash deposits at the Post Office, as Nationwide don’t accept that.

 

[route101]

The Financial Conduct Authority have recently fined Starling £29m for failings in its systems relating to financial crime and account opening for sanctioned individuals, and I read somewhere that they have been turning down lots of new applications this year whilst they undertake a review of their systems, so probably not any reflection on you.

Yes, I was wondering why. I was only opening a Starling Bank account for use abroad.

I have already opened a Monzo account so may have to use that.

 

[GregSRHST]

I see Monzo have just increased their interest paid on their savings account from 3.35% to 3.5%. Obviously still not as good as other providers (Trading212), but better than nothing.

I also noticed that you can have a savings pot with a joint account. My wife and I have a pot for our "holiday fund" which we add to every month. It always annoyed me that I didn't get any interest on these pots but it's looks like we can have a joint savings pot for this now (you maybe could have done this before but I didn't think you could).

Obviously gotta be careful with joint savings accounts for tax implications etc.