Monzo Banking

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Discussion

Douglas Arfempty

Original Poster:

623 posts

186 months

Tuesday 9th January 2018
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A mate sent me a Whatsapp link to a 'new style of banking.'

Namely, https://monzo.com/

It does appeal to me, as someone who has a geeky spreadsheet for tracking all of my expenditure, however I'm sceptical about a completely new bank.

The mate who sent me the link has ordered his card and is going to experiment with sending a couple of hundred quid a month to it and seeing how it goes. Just wondered if any PH'ers have come across Monzo and how you're finding it?


randlemarcus

13,522 posts

231 months

Tuesday 9th January 2018
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Been a pre-paid card user for a while, and recently got the bank account up and running, though haven't made the big leap of transferring salary and DDs across there yet.

Yes, the spend tracking is nice, but I note that is starting to transfer across to Metro as well. At the end of the day, its just a money moving place with nice features in the app, not a revolutionary way of making magic money appear. Sadly smile

essayer

9,066 posts

194 months

Tuesday 16th January 2018
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I got my card then realised there isn't a huge amount I can do with it that I don't already do with my current bank.

I get more use from my Curve card - the instant notifications, ability to switch transactions between different cards etc.

Monzo, Revolut - what else do they bring to the table?

bitchstewie

51,207 posts

210 months

Tuesday 16th January 2018
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essayer said:
I got my card then realised there isn't a huge amount I can do with it that I don't already do with my current bank.

I get more use from my Curve card - the instant notifications, ability to switch transactions between different cards etc.

Monzo, Revolut - what else do they bring to the table?
Glad you said that as once I got beyond the whole cool/disruptor/app thing I found myself wondering the same.

Monza you can't even link to Apple Pay which seemed a bit arse about face i.e. new app-only bank that has to send you a debit card.

robsdesk

187 posts

132 months

Wednesday 17th January 2018
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I have Monzo and Starling accounts, solely for the overseas perks (no fees on cash withdrawals / card payments - Monzo now has a limit on the cash withdrawals), I don't use them in the UK.

williaa68

1,528 posts

166 months

Wednesday 17th January 2018
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I used Monzo for two things:

(1) All my contactless payments. I still get paper statements for my main (first direct) account and we have mandatory contactless in the office etc so it saves my bank statements being 10 pages long; and
(2) overseas. The exchange rate is excellent and you know instantly the GBP price, without having to be ripped off by dynamic conversion. As I travel a fair bit this is handy.

Otherwise its just a bank account. Am not sure i see much of a difference between when it was pre-paid and now it is a bank, other than presumably one can overdraw and pay monzo interest and fees. Difficult to see how they make money otherwise.

mikeiow

5,368 posts

130 months

Thursday 18th January 2018
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I had the prepay from their beta.....they are moving away from that now it is a 'regular' bank account.
I mostly got it for the no-cost cash withdrawal abroad (& no-cost, good exchange rate foreign debit transactions) ...those withdrawals are now limited (£200 pcm), which makes it less useful to me now....
Kids have them & use them to help budget: at uni, so move £x each week to spend: they find it easier to track (on phones, touch ID login so quicker than some...).
I still like being able to logon with laptop for proper 'reconcile', so I doubt I would move to it entirely.
Metro is another good account - free cash withdrawals in Europe....

sas62

5,655 posts

78 months

Thursday 18th January 2018
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I have current account but until they have proper joint accounts and apple pay I wont use it other than occasionally.

Craikeybaby

10,411 posts

225 months

Saturday 19th January 2019
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Bumping this, as 12 months on they do offer Apple Pay (and seemingly joint accounts).

I’ve just se up the account to see what it is all about and am impressed with the app. Are people moving away from “normal” banks, getting their salary paid in to Monzo etc?

Prohibiting

1,740 posts

118 months

Saturday 19th January 2019
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Been using Monzo as my primary account for 6 months now. Salary gets paid in, direct debits come out, etc.

Only hitch I've found is that you can't pay cash into it, so a few times I'll go to my NatWest highstreet secondary account to pay some cash in. Only had to do that 3 times though.

williaa68

1,528 posts

166 months

Saturday 19th January 2019
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You can now pay cash in via PayPoint:https://monzo.com/blog/2018/11/21/deposit-cash/

JM

3,170 posts

206 months

Saturday 19th January 2019
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I opened an account with Monzo a couple of months ago.

I currently use it as a petty cash account. I just add £50 or so to it and use it throughout the week for small purchases, instead of using cash. I also use it if going out for a night for a few drinks so not as worried about it getting lost or stolen/cloned due to the low balance on it.

essayer

9,066 posts

194 months

Saturday 19th January 2019
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After my post last year I should add that it was very useful when we went abroad - I could exchange money at a better rate than my bank, pay in the native currency, then return the money to my current account, at a much better rate than your typical travel money place. So it’s been worth it for that alone.


chris4652009

1,572 posts

84 months

Monday 17th June 2019
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essayer said:
After my post last year I should add that it was very useful when we went abroad - I could exchange money at a better rate than my bank, pay in the native currency, then return the money to my current account, at a much better rate than your typical travel money place. So it’s been worth it for that alone.
I used mine for exactly that. Very handy

595Heaven

2,412 posts

78 months

Monday 17th June 2019
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I got one for use whilst on holiday in Europe. I drip feed money to it every month for holiday spending money.

It’s accepted everywhere I’ve tried it, exchange rate is great, app works perfectly, and all without any charges.

When I was in Italy, I transferred some extra money to it from my main current account - the app signalled the money was there within less about a second of me confirming on my other banking app - technology is great isn’t it!

Greshamst

2,061 posts

120 months

Tuesday 18th June 2019
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I find it’s useful to have as a ‘play’ money account if you want keep a track of your spending. I use monzo for things like meals out, coffees, pub, impulse purchases. Transfer over a set amount each month and it’s easy to see if I need to reign in my spending day by day, or if I can splurge a bit on amazon etc. Plus very handy abroad obviously.

strudel

5,888 posts

227 months

Tuesday 18th June 2019
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I've got two, one for my play account and one for the joint. It's dead useful for the joint as we don't have constantly communicate as you get notifications on spend, plus can easily see remaining budget accounting for expected recurring spending. It's made life much easier.

Another feature I like is the ability to round each transaction up to the nearest pound, with the excess building to a nice healthy penny pot smile

Tempted to pay the salary into it and keep the high street bank purely as a backup.

mikeiow

5,368 posts

130 months

Tuesday 18th June 2019
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Greshamst said:
I find it’s useful to have as a ‘play’ money account if you want keep a track of your spending. I use monzo for things like meals out, coffees, pub, impulse purchases. Transfer over a set amount each month and it’s easy to see if I need to reign in my spending day by day, or if I can splurge a bit on amazon etc. Plus very handy abroad obviously.
You sound like me: I call it my “beer card”. Handy ‘cos it is so bright it gets spotted by bar staff when you’re thirsty!!

p4cks

6,909 posts

199 months

Friday 21st June 2019
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Hi all, bit of a resurrection as I'm looking at some potential solutions.

I'm going to be taking in some lodgers from a local football club and the club are paying me a weekly amount to cover expenses and costs of feeding them etc. I'd like to keep this separate from my own banking where my salary is/will be paid in to so that I can keep track of spending a little easier than my own bank account

I've been on Monzo's website for some time but can't find the answer to this.. do they require a minimum monthly deposit amount to be able to open an account? If so, what is it?

Greshamst

2,061 posts

120 months

Friday 21st June 2019
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No, there’s no monthly deposit requirement, or need to open it with any amount.