Monzo

[Hugglespuffed]

Please can someone explain tbe pros and cons of monzo? Worth it or not?
Do you have it as an extra bank account? Is it a credit card or debit?

We have monzo. It’s a bit annoying.

You get a MasterCard debit card.

You can only have a joint account if you also have a sole account. So we’ve both got unused pointless sole accounts with them.

The app works quite well generally. We don’t like all the weird features designed to break down his much each of you spends and on what. And we never use the bill splitting function.

Monzo are annoyingly paranoid about everything. It’s often hard to set up direct debits and have them actually pay out. I can’t understand why, but it’s a recurring issue. And you often have to keep going to the app to approve online purchases for even tiny values. That’s irritating too.

The sign up process is weird and involves making videos of yourself.

Monzo is a normal current account, with a debit card. You can also open a savings account or a joint account on it.

I’ve used it for about 3 years and would highly recommend it. I currently use it as an additional account, but I am planning to start using it as my main bank account soon and get my salary paid into it.

You have the ability to create ‘pots’ for savings/sinking funds and also for your monthly direct debits. This makes it really easy to keep track of your monthly budget. It’s honestly revolutionised my financial mindset.

Although it’s all on an app, their customer service is good and they will send you statements etc if you need them. You can pay in cheques via post. The ONLY thing that I’ve struggled with is that there’s a daily cash withdrawal limit, so if you did ever need to access a large amount of cash at short notice (very unlikely) that might be more difficult than with a normal ‘high street’ bank.

On the whole though I love Monzo, and I’d definitely recommend it!

Been using Monzo since 2017, it's now my main account. My partner also uses it as his main account and we have a joint account for mortgage and expenses too.

I love being able to set aside spending pots, it helps to keep me in check through the month and I can see at a glance what I have left in my account. I've never had any issues with direct debits or with my account at all actually. Any time I've needed help, customer services are very god and have sorted me out straight away.

Would definitely recommend!

I use it as my day to day spending account, so I get my salary paid into my normal account and all my DD come from there, and then I transfer my monthly "allowance" for food/living into my Monzo.

My main reason for liking it so much is there are no delays, if I spend money it's instantly taken out, not three days later like my other account!

wish id got one sooner. its really helped cap my spending as it makes it much more clear when youre nearing your daily or weekly spending limit (that you set yourself). helps me pull back a bit if ive had a extravagant day before etc.
its too easy to just tap and go these days with normal cards and not notice all the little pounds adding up quickly.

I'm another who loves it.

We find the pots feature really helpful - especially the fact that you can set payments to come out of specific pots.

We've never had any problems with direct debits. The approving online purchases on your phone is an excellent security feature (and it doesn't require approval after the first time you use a vendor)

@User0ne It’s not true that you don’t have to approve things if you’ve used the vendor before. I get a sainsburys delivery every single week and I have to approve it every single time. Same with lots of other stuff I buy regularly. It’s very annoying after months of it.

Both DH and I consistently have issues with monzo just not paying direct debits. It’s never clear why either. It happens with about 50% of any we try to set up.

It may not affect your decision, @Hugglespuffed. But the debit card is an alarming dyno-rod orange colour. It makes it hard to miss.