Customers turn their backs on Monzo and Revolut as fears mount over profitability

colsten

TheMightySwordfish said:

They need to pay people to keep money in their account. Charging people to have a Card and a bit of Interest at best will only work short term. The real money is made on Loans/Mortgages and they can't even think of that if people aren't leaving their money in the accounts.

I'm quite happy to switch for bribe. Actually got to point of switching my main account for an account with a fee as it paid me more than I was getting. People need to learn that Banks aren't worth their business if they don't earn from the Bank. Especially in times like these. 

I trust you have done the Halifax, Metro, RBS and Ulster offers?

TheMightySwordfish

Everything bar the Ulster. Ran out of accounts to switch 😕

Jlawson118

I think Monzo is a breath of fresh air to be honest. I'm 24 and I've banked with First Direct since 2014, opened my Monzo August 2019 and I love how flexible it is. 
I've always been quite good with money but if there's anything I struggled to do when I bought my home, was to budget. And Monzo with the ability to open pots and even 'pay from pot' has been a life saver.
I consider FD to be my main bank, and their main USP is great customer service, but then everything else with them just seems outdated, even though they are slowly trying to modernise it. Every time I want to make a balance transfer on my credit card for example, I have to phone them up and it's so long winded.
Monzo is built for more people my age and is so modern, clean and advanced. It's something I am starting to edge more towards considering my main bank.
It's a shame that people are putting less trust into it. But the things that keep banks mainly in profits are mortgages, credit cards and loans. As much as Monzo offer loans, it's like savings accounts, typically off the backbone of another company which isn't doing it many favours

6TD

It seems to be about Monzo specifically from as far as I can see it. Starling seem to be having a better time of it and will likely break even soon.

I think a big issue with Monzo is that they used to be a pre-paid spending card, and far too many of their customer base still treat them that way, they can't seem to shake that off, which is why they are now bringing in fees to try and force it.

Monzo have targeted the younger audience, the problem being that younger people generally have less money are less profitable, off the top of my head the figures are something like Monzo have about 5 million customers but only holding an average of £4/500 or so in the account, where as Starling have about 1.5 million customers that hold and average of around £1500 in the account, the figures might be slightly off but you get the point - Monzo are paying much more money to service accounts that give them less money but it can be done if you get the right type of customer.

They don't offer much in terms of actual financial products  and the new paid Plus offering looks desperate since you can get literally every feature for free elsewhere.

Add that to the bad press about closing accounts, and add the fact that their one big advantage - their great app, is now starting to be eroded away as the traditional banks are coming up hot on their heels in the race to catch up.

I had a Monzo account, and the app is great and was a breath of fresh air, but it's now not that much better than the best of the high street banks apps and I end up switching away, I bet I'm far from the only one. 

Tragen

6TD said:

I think a big issue with Monzo is that they used to be a pre-paid spending card, and far too many of their customer base still treat them that way, they can't seem to shake that off, which is why they are now bringing in fees to try and force it.

Monzo have gone a different way to Starling, which is quite interesting when you consider they both initially started their customer grab by promoting themselves as foreign spending cards with zero ATM fees abroad etc.

Monzo have slowly removed these perks, added fees and failed to become profitable so far, whereas Starling has kept true to their roots while apparently still growing and looking to be profitable very soon. I can still withdraw cash daily here in Thailand with no bank fees, up to 300 a day.  

I have both, but second Monzo is my backup, to Revolut (which is a visa card).

garmeg

Monzo seem to be "stealing" customer funds on a large scale given the membership of this facebook (yes, I know) group ...

colsten

I wonder how many of those 4,605 group members went to the Police to report that "theft"? How many of them took Monzo to Court?

garmeg

colsten said:

I wonder how many of those 4,605 group members went to the Police to report that "theft"? How many of them took Monzo to Court?

How many of them, like me, joined to have a nosey around?

TheEffect

I have a Barclays and Monzo account. 

I must admit, since Barclays have now updated their app to give live notifications on spending, debits, payments etc, along with the bad press about Monzo freezing accounts and potentially being in trouble, I’ve decided to stay with Barclays. 

I was contemplating moving everything to Monzo, but was worried if I moved my savings account, Monzo might get suspicious of large money going through the account and block it. 

Maybe I’ve read too many horror stories. 

penners324

The issue with Monzo closing accounts is they open accounts far too easily and a lot of their customers are young and naive.
Pretty obvious most people moaning about having their account shut down have been used as money mules so have brought it on themselves.