Dozens bank account?

londoninvestor

sendu wrote: »

Thanks, that was really useful.

Welcome, your post this morning made me clarify my own thinking on this

FlyBoy

My experience so far. Trying to be balanced, but criticism is normal when deserved.

Well, I've received my dozen's card and all is set up. I have as yet not given them any of my money.
Everything is App based, and I use Android.

Of note is the following:
1. The 5% Bond is shown inside the yellow savings icon; I consider this somewhat misleading as the bond, in my humble opinion, is not a safe savings product as most average knowledge retail banking customers would understand it. In any event they are not offering an issuance at present. The advertising of this is a great eye-catcher, but this is again misleading because if customers can't benefit from it they will soon, like me, realise it's a dead wet fish, pointless, and leave a sour taste(pun intended). Direct quote "...it's a loss leader..." it may well be, but not actually offering it benefits.................... them!
2. To get any money into the Bond is a rather convoluted procedure. First you must put the money into your pseudo current account, then you have to put it into your "prize is the only benefit" savings section/account, and only then can you try to buy bonds by bidding for them when they are offered.
3. There is also a separate turquoise icon titled "investments", which further reinforces, in my humble opinion, the misleading placing of the 5% Bond in the "savings" section.

So, at the present I will not be putting any money it.

I have also detected that their website descriptions have subtly changed. It would appear to me, based on how it was about six weeks ago, that a few more warnings have now been put in, which I believe infer less protection than about six weeks ago:


Wondering about protection?

We are not a bank. We are authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as an e-money institution (FRN 900894) and also as an investment firm (FRN 814281). This means we can offer a range of financial products, which each have different levels of protection.
Current account

Your current account money held in the Spend section of the app will be securely held in segregated client accounts at a UK high street bank in accordance with the FCA requirements and the Electronic Money Regulations 2011 (not FSCS protected), which means that dozens has no access to your money for its own purposes.
Cash savings

Separately your cash savings of up to £85,000 held in the Save section of the app are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). This protection does not cover the money used to invest into bonds.
5% fixed interest bonds

The bonds are not FCA regulated products, and FSCS protection does not cover the bonds themselves. The interest offered by our fixed interest bonds, in the Save section of the app, will not fluctuate even in different market conditions. However we understand that you will still need to be comfortable that as a new company, dozens will be able to meet its financial commitments. Because of this, and to help build your trust in us we will place all of your money to be invested plus the full 12-months interest, in a separate trustee-controlled account on your behalf. This would be used to pay you in the event of any default on our part. The bond programme currently has a maximum limit of £7m, with expected issuance volumes of between £100k-£1m a month. For individual limits please check our website.
Investments

When putting money into any investment products, there are two main factors for you to consider – whether the company you made the investment with can meet its financial commitments, and whether the investments you made will fluctuate in different market conditions.
When investing in a strategy through the Invest section of the app, your investment is exposed to fluctuations in the market, which means that the value of your investment may go up as well as down.
One final point

Dozens does not give financial advice, you should speak to an expert if you are unsure about investing.

janesmith

Interesting thread. IMHO dozens.com is beyond awful.

This financial institution (can't call it a bank, as it legally isn't one as stated above) is a farce. It is run by hairy young hipsters wearing t-shirts who can't get anything done.

Customer service is shambolic and unprofessional : when you ring them up the guys speak to you as though you're chatting at a bar.

They advertised a bond, but, despite *several weeks* this hasn't been released! No professional organisation would be so extremely overdue and keep messing about customers like dozens with their bond.

In the absence of that bond, you are losing money every single day your money is held in any account at dozens, as you get no interest. With actual inflation being c. 2.5% - 3% you are being taken for a ride.

Complete shambles of an operation. With 9 out of 10 small businesses failing within the first five years, I certainly won't be risking transferring a penny more of my money to these rank amateurs.

CavendishWobble

For what it is worth, here is my two cents

I spent several hours trying to find out how Dozen can turn create the 5% interest rate. They do not call it out on their website but more of a 'we will pay you 5%'. For myself I assumed they must do some re-investing etc to create this, but eventually I saw on a Monzo community forum that a rep from Dozen confirmed that they; do not re-invest the funds elsewhere; they do not touch your money; the interest is funded by themselves (via they parent company Imagine Project LTD).

I can see a company who wants to be a bank doing this to try and gain market share / customers, but without a banking license to allow them to lend money back out it is an expensive way to attract customers.

I saw they have had no issuance of shares recently and this being due to 'regulatory' requirements taking longer than expected. Which doesn't surprise me from their website and that my application is still pending 4 days after trying to open an account.

Maybe put £100 into this if you can spare it just to see what happens, but write the money off IMHO

janesmith

Dozens plastered the London Underground with their 5% bond marketing campaign at the start of the year as their number one benefit to entice customers.

They promised it'd launch nearly six months ago and, with excuse after excuse and delay after delay, it still hasn't launched!

I wouldn't trust this entity with my money as they are an inexperienced start-up. They actually brag about the fact that their staff are different to other banks and are trendy folk from other backgrounds etc. That doesn't give me any confidence whatsoever, as I feel much more comfortable saving my hard-earned money with banks where, for instance, staff have decades of robust expertise in banking.

londoninvestor

janesmith wrote: »

Dozens plastered the London Underground with their 5% bond marketing campaign at the start of the year as their number one benefit to entice customers.

They promised it'd launch nearly six months ago and, with excuse after excuse and delay after delay, it still hasn't launched!

They must be burning through the VC funds they've raised, without much revenue to show for it. Though arguably an earlier launch of the 5% loss-leader bond could have made that problem worse rather than better...

londoninvestor

Also I note the emerging market bonds are no longer mentioned on the website. Sounds like they were overambitious with their product pipeline and are having to focus on getting the basics released:

Dozens wrote:

Article amended 28 January 2019 — Detail added on the difference between Trust bonds and EM bonds.

Article amended 20 March 2019 – Detailed added about bond protection.

Article amended 25 July 2019 – Detail of EM bonds removed so as to focus post on 5% p.a. fixed interest bonds

https://www.dozens.com/our-5-bonds-everything-you-want-to-know/

eskbanker

GastonSmith wrote: »

Dozens are proposing their customers to be “the new home for your money”. With the launch of the Dozens app, this bold claim could definitely become a truth for a great number of people. They are joining the ranks of new challenger banks like Monzo and Revolut, part of the Fintech scene. All these pure digital players want to compete and supersede the more established banks with a plethora of innovative financial products and services.

How is life in the marketing department - plenty of work for those who enjoy recycling cliche-laden buzzword-heavy press releases?

And for the record, https://www.dozens.com/ confirms that the statement made in an earlier post still applies in that:

We are not a bank

MonaLisaSmile

Do not allow these cowboys anywhere near your money!

Mustong

Yea they have a good offering!

They new on the scene and are moving in the correct direction which is important.

Very good for encouraging good habits I find.

M