Monzo

[aspiringnurse]

Looking at getting a Monzo account to kerb some spending and get saving.

I know about the feature of setting a weekly amount to spend and only allowing that much.. what else is there that can be done on it?
I don't get many benefits with my Barclay card such as save the change etc and wandered if Monzo was the way forward?

I use monzo and I like/use the following features:

Instant notification when you pay in money or money leaves your account
Free transactions abroad
Really easy to make payments to people
The pots feature , where you can create specific pots for different reasons and ring-fence your money in them
Auto Rounding up transactions so you save money by stealth!

I don’t use any of the categorising spending features, or the setting a spending limit, as I don’t use it as my main account.

Monzo has shown me what I spend. I just transfer a set amount every month to it and that’s my limit. It’s life changing.

I just signed up after reading about it on here and loved it so much we have switched our joint account to it too. Budgeting tools are great, everything is so easy to do in the app, instant notifications when money enters or leaves your account, great support. And the cards look amazing

I use Starling, which is the same. I transfer my monthly spending money to the account from our joint account as does my DH. We only use these accounts for personal spending. Whatever's left in our joint account at the end of each month gets transferred into our savings account.

I like how you can hashtag purchases to track how much you spend on anything - e.g any booze I buy in a shop/pub/whatever, I hashtag as alcohol and then it's really easy to see how much I spend on it in any given time period.

I leave enough for my direct debits in my main account, and use Monzo for all other transactions.
I like the categories to see where I’m overspending, but also love the roundup feature.
If you have that switched on, it rounds every transaction up to the nearest pound and pops it in a pot for you. Since Sep, I have £73 just in roundups.

I bloody love Monzo! I think my favourite thing (that I've only noticed recently) is that refunds are much quicker than other banks. Usually next day rather than 3-5 working days.

Not great if you need to deposit cash though. I have starling as well and I put cash in that account via the post office and transfer to monzo. I think with monzo you need to use paypoint and there's a charge a bit of a wait (maybe 10 mins?). Starling I get the cash in the account before I even get my card back.

Ooh thanks for this I was thinking about getting an account but def will now.

You can also get incoming money a day early with Monzo too! I withdrew some money from my premium bonds and I got the option to have it a day early.

I use monzo for my spending money. I really like it for all the reasons already said.

I have noticed the quicker refunds too.

Sorry to jump on your thread OP, but for those that use Monzo aren't you just tempted to transfer more money across from your current account? I had Revolut and it didn't stop me from transferring more money to spend

I love Monzo SO MUCH!!

And yes @Icyb obviously you can just transfer more money over, same way as you could just withdraw more cash if using cash so it’s not a miracle worker if you really are struggling with your spending but I find it an easier way to spend and like spending money being separate.

Love Monzo!!

for those that use Monzo aren't you just tempted to transfer more money across from your current account?

I use it as my main account so this isn't an issue for me. Where I find it helps with spending is that there's none of the 'available balance' / 'pending transaction' crap that used to wind me up. What my balance shows is exactly what I have and transactions show up within seconds. I was a terror for forgetting that I'd spent £20 somewhere and then being confused that I was £20 short the next day.

Getting money at 4pm the day before it's actually due is definitely helpful on weekends. If I'm due to get paid on a Monday I can always access it Friday evening which is lovely.

Do be aware that standing orders will always go out on the date you've specified NOT the next working day! I got stung by that once thinking a payment set up for a date that landed on a Saturday would go out the following Monday (which is how it worked in my previous bank). It will go out and get to the recipients bank account on the Saturday/Sunday/bank holiday

I was thinking about getting an account but then I did a search online and on Facebook and there seems to be a lot of groups and posts about people having their money taken and being unable to get it back which makes me a bit worried...!

I think the pots and spending limits features should be on all bank accounts! And so should the instant card freeze.

Your balance is a highly misleading number, highly time-dependent on what order transactions come in and out. Whereas if you know you've saved for (eg) a holiday in a pot, it doesn't matter what your balance is, you just know you've got the money there and you can afford the holiday, so go ahead, and if not, don't!

A word of warning tough; I got stung for debit interest by Monzo.

I accidentally drunkenly paid for something just before closing time in a pub using contactless before I'd got Monzo set up as a payee on my bank account, so I was straight into a debit balance on the Monzo card. I got the notification and then drunkenly forgot about it. The transaction was £35ish but Monzo were charging me £15 a month interest; I had a devil of a time setting up monzo as a payee on the other account (card reader issues etc) and the balance had got to -£80ish by the time I could settle it.

Partly my fault, partly the other bank's fault, so not worth complaining to them, but Monzo's debit interest rate is absolutely punitive if you're a light but ongoing overdraft user. I think Starling is better in that respect. I've never let Monzo go into the red since.

Also I wouldn't put all of my money in there; I doubt it's anywhere near as well capitalised as the big banks.

Does anybody bank fully with Monzo? I'm thinking of doing the switch

@Fairylea I've never had an issue with not being able to get my money. In fact I was accidentally charged twice in Tesco a few weeks ago (they said the transaction hadn't gone through and I was in a rush so didn't double check - issue with Apple Pay that day) and once I noticed half an hour later I sent a message to customer service via the app and had my money back within 3 minutes.

Never had any issues with charges because I don't use the overdraft facility so nothing to charge me for.

Like I said in a previous post my only issue is with cash - being charged to deposit and a small delay. Also, cheques need to be posted which seems silly now that a few banks let you do it via their app.

Oh, another feature I like is that you can set up direct debits straight from pots. You can transfer your total amount due for bills for the month and all dd's will come from there leaving your 'main' account as spending money.

No, I don't work for monzo but I probably would if they'd have me

[a few weeks later]

As a postscript to this for the record, I've just had an email from Monzo saying they're restructuring my (and presumably others') overdraft terms to a straight 19% EAR. By my calculations, that would have cost me about £1.50 over three months I was overdrawn at most, nothing remotely like the amount I was charged.

Much more reasonable, well done Monzo for doing the right thing eventually.