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Organising joint finances - Monzo Plus alternative anyone?

4 replies

Hollyontherampage · 30/03/2022 22:20

DH and I are trying to organise our finances a bit better in the light of cost of living increases. At the moment we each have separate account where our income goes, and then two joint accounts; one for bills and the other for groceries and daily spending. We use Monzo for the daily spending account.

I have been really keen to get Monzo Plus because it allows you to create infinite number of your own personalised categories which are additional to the normal pots that a basic Monzo account has. So eg we could have specific pots for hobby, nursery fees, takeaway coffee or anything wise we choose. They also offer virtual debit cards so that you can keep spending separate eg all utility bills on one virtual card, all subscriptions on another etc. I think this would really help us budget, but for some stupid unknown reason Monzo say you can only upgrade to Plus for a single account, and not for a joint one. It's really annoying and seemingly daft - surely plenty of couples want to manage their joint finances using these features?!

Anyway, I'm trying to find another clever solution. Does anyone use any clever tech to help organise specific spending categories? Or found a loophole to access Monzo plus with your partner?

OP posts:
Hollyontherampage · 01/04/2022 16:22

Bump

OP posts:
Cervinia · 02/04/2022 07:02

Can’t help but bumping for you as I’m looking for a new account and considered Monzo.

WelshyMaud · 02/04/2022 10:09

I have been really keen to get Monzo Plus because it allows you to create infinite number of your own personalised categories which are additional to the normal pots that a basic Monzo account has. So eg we could have specific pots for hobby, nursery fees, takeaway coffee or anything wise we choose. They also offer virtual debit cards so that you can keep spending separate eg all utility bills on one virtual card, all subscriptions on another etc. I think this would really help us budget

How many pots do you need though? Because I don't know what the limit is but I have 18 at the moment and it's plenty.
I have about 10 where I split my bills, grouping some together (so Rent, Council Tax & Water, Car Insurances & Car Tax etc). Then I have After School Club, Holiday 1, Weekend away, Xmas 2022, Clothes and some others.

I like to keep my automated card payments seperate too - but instead of Virtual Cards I just use a Monzo personal account. So all of our income goes into our Monzo Joint Account and we spend from there. Then each month I transfer some to my personal account and have all my automated card payments come from there (2 x kids Xbox memberships, Now TV, Amazon Prime etc). And that's the only thing my personal account is used for, I don't use the debit card in day to day life so never get mixed up and my regular card payments are kept ring fenced.

I looked at Monzo Plus but it wouldn't be worth the money for us. Not sure if that helps at all lol.

Hollyontherampage · 02/04/2022 12:43

To clarify, I'm talking about categories rather than pots. When you analyse your monthly spend using Monzo basic, it automatically allocates each spend your a different category, eg you buy bananas and it allocated as groceries. Which is fine. However, I wish to analyse our spending in a more personalised level. Eg it allocates takeaway coffee to groceries, but I want it to recognise it as a separate category of "takeaway coffee" so I can work out how much we mainly my husband actually spend on takeaway coffee each month (without adding those all up by hand). Similar with baby items, items needed for hobby etc etc.

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