Monzo for main account

colsten

ozaz wrote: »

In my opinion the main advantage is what Monzo would term real-time banking. Your account gets debited instantly when you use the card instead of after a lag of hours/days. This helps keep track of your spending in a similar way to cash (you always know exactly what you have left).

Your account cannot get debited until the Retailer informs Monzo of the transaction. If the Monzo card only works in online mode, this would be achievable but it could leave you high and dry if the Retailer doesn't have a working connection to Monzo at the time you want to make your purchase.

jonnygee2

Your account cannot get debited until the Retailer informs Monzo of the transaction. If the Monzo card only works in online mode, this would be achievable but it could leave you high and dry if the Retailer doesn't have a working connection to Monzo at the time you want to make your purchase.

Nonsense. Where did you get that from? Monzo works like any other bank, if the retailers terminal is not online, the transaction is authorised offline through the card chip.

colsten

jonnygee2 wrote: »

Nonsense. Where did you get that from? Monzo works like any other bank, if the retailers terminal is not online, the transaction is authorised offline through the card chip.

Please explain how the transaction will show immediately in your Monzo bank account if the Retailer has no connection to the network, or if they batch up their takings and only transmit them to the bank at certain intervals.

BTW, "any other bank" has two lots of debit cards - online and offline ones. I don't know whether Monzo do indeed do have the two types, too. Perhaps you do?

jonnygee2

Is anybody using Monzo as their main current account.

Yes, have been since they started doing current accounts.

It's great. The best part is that it tracks your spending (automatically removing regular payments etc), and lets you know when you are on track to overspend in any month. It's so intuitive. Also, I like being able to manage everything through the app.

I would prefer it if my main account had some humans on a high street I could go and visit if I needed to...


it makes things THAT much easier to deal with problems face to face than via an online chat/call centre

One reason people want a branch is that they are used to shocking customer service over the phone.

Monzos customer service have resolved every problem/question I've thrown at them in minutes. No need to even get up off the sofa. I've also sat in the local Barclays for hours waiting for someone, only to be given incorrect information and no real help.

jonnygee2

Please explain how the transaction will show immediately in your Monzo bank account if the Retailer has no connection to the network, or if they batch up their takings and only transmit them to the bank at certain intervals

It wouldn't show immediately - offline authorisations would take 2-3 days to show on your account (the same amount of time as every other bank). But they would be approved as normal.

BTW, "any other bank" has two lots of debit cards - online and offline ones.

What? Please take a photo of your barclays offline debit card, I'm intrigued!

Like every other bank Monzo's standard debit cards are programmed to authorise transactions online, and if that fails authorise them offline as a fallback, according to certain rules programmed into the chip. Every bank card I've ever owned has worked like this so I'm a bit flummoxed why your bank is sending you two cards for online and offline transactions?

colsten

jonnygee2 wrote: »

It wouldn't show immediately - offline authorisations would take 2-3 days to show on your account (the same amount of time as every other bank). But they would be approved as normal.

Exactly. So the claim by ozaz, to which I responded, is wrong.

jonnygee2 wrote: »

What? Please take a photo of your barclays offline debit card, I'm intrigued!

Like every other bank Monzo's standard debit cards are programmed to authorise transactions online, and if that fails authorise them offline as a fallback, according to certain rules programmed into the chip. Every bank card I've ever owned has worked like this so I'm a bit flummoxed why your bank is sending you two cards for online and offline transactions?

My Barclays debit card? Why do you think I have one of those? I have not mentioned Barclays, nor have I said "my bank" is sending me two cards. Please do read before you respond.

jonnygee2

Exactly. So the claim by ozaz, to which I responded, is wrong.

You said you would be left 'high and dry' if the terminal could not connect to Monzo. But actually the transaction will authorise as normal and just take a bit longer to show on your account.

nor have I said "my bank" is sending me two cards

Okay, so you say other banks have 'offline' and 'online' cards. If they do not send you two cards how do you make both online and offline transactions with only one card??? Does your bank send you an online card or an offline card?

ozaz

colsten wrote: »

Your account cannot get debited until the Retailer informs Monzo of the transaction. If the Monzo card only works in online mode, this would be achievable but it could leave you high and dry if the Retailer doesn't have a working connection to Monzo at the time you want to make your purchase.

As has now been mentioned, Monzo cards work online and offline. Obviously real-time debiting of your account can only happen when the card terminal is online. My personal experience - as someone who avoids using cash as much as possible and therefore uses card payments a lot - is that for 95% or more of the transactions I make the account is instantly debited (and therefore online terminals seem to be the norm). The only offline transactions I experience regularly are pay at pump petrol stations and Tfl journeys.

Unless my experience is grossly different to the norm, it seems extremely pedantic to dispute the claim of real-time account updating just because a few transactions will be offline and therefore take a bit longer to update.

jonnygee2

The only offline transactions I experience regularly are pay at pump petrol stations and Tfl journeys

As it happens, these are both online (mainly, although TFL has a handful of offline terminals).

With these, the problem isn't that the terminal isn't online / can't connect but that at the time you authorise, they don't know how much they will charge you. So they do an online authorisation check for a small amount (TFL = 10p, petrol pumps usually £1) and then present the full amount later on settlement.

The only actual offline terminals are normally found on places like planes where there's no posibility of internet, I would guess they account for far less than 1% of transactions.

jmatt81

roadblock15 wrote: »

Is anybody using Monzo as their main current account.

I currently use Barclays and Halifax, but want to open a Monzo account and close either Barclays or Lloyd’s.

But has anyone else used Monzo as their main account for their wages etc?

Do I have any need to feel nervous about moving to a new app only bank?

Even though deposits are protected, guessing Monzo is less likely to exist in 5 years compared to Barclays.

Switched from Halifax to Monzo last month. Been using it for a while only when I go abroad. Decided to make it my main account as I will be spending more time abroad, I like the app with the real time updates and support has always been helpful.