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Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund

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Re: Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund

#71

Post by shawabawa3 »

benj111 wrote: post #13
munchor wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe their plan revolves around lending money and then charging interest on that (like typical banks). They already support overdrafts[1] on their app. [1]: https://monzo.com/features/overdrafts/

Right, but every other bank offers overdrafts and still don't make much money from current accounts. Additionally new regulations are coming in (in the UK) banning you from charging a daily overdraft charge [1], torpedoing it's one source of income, which doesn't jive with it's doubling in value in less than a year. [1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48553193

That bans fixed fees - (e.g. you get charged £1 a day when in overdraft)

Monzo has never had fixed overdraft fees, and can still charge a daily % interest rate as usual

Overdraft fees are also not their "one source of income"

Re: Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund

#72

Post by hakanensari »

OJFord wrote: post #45
hakanensari wrote: post #28

Not to be dismissive, but would these challenger banks (Monzo, Revolut, N26, TransferWise) survive once the regular banks and AmEx stop adding fees on top of foreign-currency charges and withdrawals? I personally don't see any other differentiating factor, and frankly, maintaining multiple cards and having to top up, etc. are a hassle.

> maintaining multiple cards and having to top up, etc. are a hassle. So don't do that? I think I still have a 'regular bank' account open, but I don't use it at all. Salary goes into Monzo, and payments go out. It's the only debit card in my wallet and that I use.

> So don't do that?

I didn't switch wholesale because I'm not fully convinced. I feel these new banks and bank-like offers will for some time search for a right fit and may change or disappear in the next few years.

Also, no-fees-abroad is a great feature, but perhaps not the 10x to spur (my) wholesale adoption.

Maybe I'm just not an early adopter (although I use them abroad, so in a way, I am).

Re: Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund

#73

Post by nmca »

randomvectors wrote: post #14
RickS wrote: post #6

I'm very hopeful for Monzo, with some caveats. They have a lot of fascinating and useful DNA having gotten started in the UK before the US. The UK's regulatory environment for digital banking is leagues ahead of America's, w/r/t data access, APIs, etc. If they can persist UK style data features through their American rollout, they'll have something no other American bank currently offers. While my strong suspicion is…

This is where they actually bring value right? - Delivering a good banking product outside of the UK. Because as a UK customer I see no reason to switch after trying Monzo for a couple of months. Positives: - a nicer mobile banking app Negatives: - no credit cards and no option to top up using a credit card from another bank - no physical branches Everything else is comparable to most other banks in the UK. Which isn…

Customer support. It's absolutely light years ahead of HSBC etc

Re: Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund

#74

Post by Matsta »

morrbo wrote: post #43
jhuckestein wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

hey, i work at monzo we're currently making money from interest charged on loans that we make to our customers, from interest that the central bank pays us on our deposits, as well as from interchange that we earn when our cards are used. this is what most banks do (except they also make lots of money from fees that we don't have) there are several other ways we'll make money and we just started experimenting with a…

Any plans to be able to hold money in a different currency like the Forex features of revolut? On another note, I love monzo and do use it, and don't want to offend but I just had a look at the monzo plus offering and it's a bit crap. A different colour card and (later this year, and not specified) interest on your account?

I imagine they are doing a sort of soft launch. It sounds like Monzo has lots of features lined upcoming in the future. The die-hard Monzo fans will all sign up (and will give good feedback).

A soft launch is a better idea compared to other companies launching new premium products, like the CityMapper Travel Pass, which is more like an Alpha than anything, and there have been lots of issues from the get-go.

Re: Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund

#75

Post by krn »

matthewmacleod wrote: post #70
krn wrote: post #23

I wish Monzo was available in continental Europe as an alternative to Revolut before expanding to the US. As a product, I find Revolut to be much better thought-out offering for both, private customers[1] and businesses[2], but as a company I trust Monzo a way more. [1] https://www.revolut.com/our-pricing-plans [2] https://www.revolut.com/business-accounts-made-easy

Aside from the obvious horror stories circulating about customer service and culture, I don't see Revolut's offering as more compelling at all. They seem to offer all that stuff that I don't want from a retail banking service – "instant access to 5 cryptocurrencies" or "overseas medical insurance" or "LoungeKey Pass access" are just distracting noise. Each to their own of course, but the thing that really attracted m…

Revolut offers lower ATM fees, lower foreign exchange fees, disposable virtual cards for online payments, and up to 1% cashback on all card payments.

Re: Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund

#76

Post by samwhiteUK »

matthewmacleod wrote: post #67

I know there's a bit of scepticism about Monzo in particular, but here's the deal from my perspective as a customer and crowdfunder: it's a straightforward banking service, and has a great app (which is where I do basically all banking anyway). That's basically it. Fee-free foreign transactions are a nice positive too, though I'm not that bothered. Some of the larger banks have begun introducing features to compete –…

Bingo.

The fact that I can see all my transactions, automatically categorised, in an app that is much prettier, full-featured and simple than the crap that Halifax put out, is brilliant.

Combine that with a simple setup process, never having to interact with humans or call centres, and add tha bility to automatically save, interact with IFTTT etc and you have a very compelling package and I hope they continue to do well

Re: Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund

#77

Post by benj111 »

matthewmacleod wrote: post #51
benj111 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't believe it offers most of those services, overdrafts in the UK are being restricted so be much less profitable [1], I believe one of its sell points is no commission on foreign currency, so no money there. So are they planning on launching (their own) savings, or insurance? [1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48553193

It offers literally all of those services.

Its savings products are other peoples, they are just a reseller. And the only insurance I've seen is travel insurance as part of a packaged bank account. Or did I miss something?

Re: Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund

#78

Post by maccard »

randomvectors wrote: post #42
maccard wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> no option to top up using a credit card from another bank Can you top up your HSBC account with a credit card from another bank? A Monzo account is just another bank account. > no physical branches Is this really a con? Last time I visited a branch (Nationwide), I was told to just go online and fill in the forms. Monzo let you deposit cash and cheques at the post office - my post office has better opening hours, sh…

> Can you top up your HSBC account with a credit card from another bank? A Monzo account is just another bank account. That's a good point. But with the low exchange rate and a modern app, they're also (willingly or not) competing with Revolut. I can top up a Revolut account with a credit card.

That's also a fair point - the idea of a bank account has been muddied. Monzo had "pots" which all gain interest, and they come from the same account. I'm not aware of any other bank accounts that offer embedded savings accounts.

I do think that comparing a bank account to a prepaid card is a little too much of a stretch thoigh.

Re: Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund

#79

Post by unfunco »

loriverkutya wrote: post #3
thomasedwards wrote: post #2

I had assumed that Monzo would sell to one of the big banks that forgot (or couldn’t be bothered) to make their consumer experience better. But this feels more like they could publicly trade at some point, although they might need to make a profit sooner than in 10 years’ time.

They always stated, they have no intention to be sold to a big bank.

https://blog.whatsapp.com/245/Why-we-dont-sell-ads

https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/whatsapp-ads-to-appear-in-...

Re: Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund

#80

Post by lordnacho »

Scirra_Tom wrote: post #29
lordnacho wrote: post #12

The UK bank space could do with some fresh players. Currently I'm looking for a new bank for my business, because: 1) I need to have foreign currency accounts. My bank has them, but I'm unable to see the accounts when I log in. They've known about this for 4 months now, and I keep getting sent in circles by the Indian call centre. They've sent me to branch twice, with no coordination, the people in the branch can't h…

We use Barclays and have EUR and USD accounts with them which we can see online and make transfers/payments online with. Allows us to have a USD Amex, and do a lot of our Forex with Transferwise. Saved tens of thousands over the years on Forex with this method, and expensing some of our USD infrastructure costs on Amex helps as well. Last pain point for us is getting a USD account in USA so we can cashout Paypal USD…

I use Barclays. I have a USD account that I can't see, but all the operators can see. Really quite frustrating.
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