Monzo.. Your opinion?

EarthBoy

ozaz wrote: »

If you are getting instant account updates from Nationwide CC with that setup, perhaps it is something to do with the way Curve charge Nationwide. My Nationwide CC doesn't get instant updates for card transactions direct to retailer.

Mine neither. Transactions always take several days to show on my Nationwide credit card account.

bobblebob

ozaz wrote: »

Are you sure about Halifax and instant updates for card transactions? I don't have a Halifax account so not saying you're wrong but it is notable for me that they don't highlight it on their mobile app web-page. What they highlight is notifications for regular payments, incoming payments and spending summaries. The most important one - card transactions - isn't mentioned.

Which other mainstream banks have instant balance updates for card payments? I have accounts with four and none of them have it so I don't think it is yet a common feature among mainstream banks.

Yup definitely updates. Its handy feature. Ive tested it a few times when buying something small on contactless, and the balance of my account is deducted straight away to show how much i do have in once it comes out a few days later

Nic246

I don't have Monzo myself, but a lot of my friends/family do and i've only ever heard excellent reviews.

It's great for categorizing your spend so you can see.

gblox

Although a quick search indicates that you recommend banking with Monzo, all articles are from 2019. Customer feedback during COVID has consistent themes [1] if defrauded they refuse to help [2] they don't respond to contact if you have problems [3] your account is shut with loss of all App access, or suddenly closed with no transparency (one of their claims). Any help please? I'm unclear what the current situation is before I open the account I was planning. TIA

ozaz

When you say "customer feedback" what do you mean? People venting online? All banks suffer from this.

I’ve been a customer since 2017. Haven’t  experienced any problems and am still very happy with the app (the app is the main benefit of a Monzo account IMO when compared to traditional banks). 

Chat based customer support is slower than I'd like. At present it's not live chat - you sometimes have to wait several hours for a response, so I think of it as somewhere between live chat and next day email support. Other issue is first level customer support staff seem to have limited knowledge and you sometimes get passed to a 'specialist' for relatively simple queries, which also slows down support experience. These issues are due to Monzo being unable to scale customer support provision as rapidly as they've scaled customers and are the things I'd most like to see them improve on.

If I ever need urgent help i'd try the phone support but I haven't needed this yet in my 3 years as a customer.

mortimer89

Another vote for Starling here. I did look briefly at Monzo but after reading lots of reports of accounts being closed/blocked randomly I choose Starling. This time last year me and my partner had joint bills, spending and savings accounts with NatWest as well as an individual account each. This was difficult to manage each month and as I dealt with the finances my partner would often spend without knowing if we could afford it. I opened a Starling account in October to replace my individual account as I liked the idea of an app based bank and all the functionality it could offer over a traditional bank. I was blown away with the instant notifications, how it displayed the balance etc. I looked into the 'spaces' feature which has been life changing. After a few months I persuaded my partner to open a Starling account and we got a joint account too. We closed all of the NatWest accounts bar the bills account where the bills for the month come out of. We have lots of joint spaces which we can both see and now if he wants to spend and has run out of money, he knows what money is earmarked and what money he can use. This has helped us massively and reduced our spending as we can make more informed decisions on whether we can afford something. Over the last 6 months we have paid a credit card off and are now saving each month because we are now much more aware of our spending. That's a few of my favourite things but being able to pay cash into the post office rather than trying to hunt down a bank has been great too! If you're not sure I would advise to just try it, it's free, and if you like it then move over later. As soon as starling have an option for direct debits to come out of a 'space' we will close the remaining NatWest account. 

Emmia

I opened a Monzo account a couple of years ago, but closed it quickly (2-3 weeks) as I was unhappy with it's reliance on my phone's own security - rather than having a separate log in (as Barclays, HSBC, Moneybox and Chip all do) I told them this as the reason for closure, but they told me then that they didn't see this as a problem.

I don't use the fingerprint scanner on my samsung phone as I don't seem to be able to set it up to work reliably, and I like to change my passcodes on a regular basis... its difficult to change your fingerprint.

ozaz

Emmia said:

I opened a Monzo account a couple of years ago, but closed it quickly (2-3 weeks) as I was unhappy with it's reliance on my phone's own security - rather than having a separate log in (as Barclays, HSBC, Moneybox and Chip all do) I told them this as the reason for closure, but they told me then that they didn't see this as a problem.

I don't use the fingerprint scanner on my samsung phone as I don't seem to be able to set it up to work reliably, and I like to change my passcodes on a regular basis... its difficult to change your fingerprint.

 Just to expand for others. You can set up the app to require biometric security to unlock the app independent of security settings to unlock the phone.

Although I appreciate some may rather have PIN or password unlock option on the app instead of using biometric security on the app (not currently supported).

janb5

I was happily using Monzo for the past 6 months and ran into a problem yesterday and was advised to reinstall the app.  Since then I cant use it at all and customer services cut you off after 5 minutes.  I`ve wasted 5 hours trying to sort it out so I`m moving to Starling.

Fighter1986

I've banked with Monzo for six months but personally have made the decision to move back to a good old brick and mortar Building Society; my switch to Nationwide completes tomorrow.

Monzo are a useful tool for spending abroad, but for this purpose I prefer TransferWise; being able to keep funds in different currencies especially in times of economic questionability is well worth the sub-1% conversion fee TransferWise charge.

As an actual day to day bank, Monzo is limited. No branches, no cashpoints, no chequebooks, only way to pay a cheque in is posting it to them.

No credit cards, no mortgages.

Loans only available upto £3,000 at an astronomical 26% Representative APR

Savings accounts very limited.

Staff have limited understanding of the banking regulations that govern them - trying to perform an indemnity claim against an incorrect DD under the direct debit guarantee was like pulling teeth. I had to baby their representative through how the DD Guarantee actually works and what their  obligations actually are. 

They don't report account conduct to Equifax and therefore some lenders think you don't have a bank account if this is your only account.

Their social media presence is utterly juvenile. Incredibly immature posts; they try to be edgy and modern but frankly they're just embarrassing. Certain posts spring to mind where they try to incite arguments between partners in a relationship, showing that when you buy a coffee your other half gets an instant push notification and gives you a lambasting. Dangerous territory, tantamount to coercion. I found it utterly embarrassing to have my banking with an institution which conducts itself this way. 

It's none of my business what my OH spends his money on. It's his money, his life, and I trust him. These are the values a banking institution should be publicising, if any; not the opposite. If they want to be the new face of British banking they have a responsibility to society to push good values if they're going to push any. 

I'm sure there's a market for Monzo, and those who want to go "Full Monzo" exist, but I think their market segment is quite small, and definitely doesn't contain me. 

I'm very very happy to be back with a brick and mortar building society and will be staying firmly put. I really like the way Nationwide do things, and I have TransferWise for overseas spending.