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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

#161

Post by anarchitect »

maccard wrote: post #35
randomvectors wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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…

> Monzo let you deposit cash and cheques at the post office

Not quite. You can deposit at any PayPoint location (mostly corner shops and the like), not Post Offices [0]. They also charge £1 for each deposit and the maximum deposit is £300. This is not an issue for me (I rarely see or use cash), but it would be for some.

Having made my first deposit at the weekend, the main issue is that the shopkeepers have no idea how to accept a deposit. I tried four places, and only managed to succeed in the end because I instructed the shopkeeper how to do it.

[0] https://monzo.com/blog/2018/11/21/deposit-cash

Re: Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund

#162

Post by jl6 »

tommypalm wrote: post #152
rchaud wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article was very light on details, so I'd appreciate if could you elaborate on the technical capabilities of the app. I get suspicious when I see comments like: > One reason that led Y Combinator to invest, Hariharan said, “was the traction with which they hit 2 million users in the U.K., with engagement metrics that almost look like a social network.” It's a bank app. I can't speak for most people, but I don't o…

> it's to pay my CC bill Most people in the UK don't put regular spending on a Credit Card. Nearly everyone will use their Debit Card for day to day spending. A lot of the traction it has got has been with the 18-30 age bracket who are wanting better budgeting tools than what larger banks have offered.

Are you sure? All the best cashback offers are with credit cards, not debit cards.

Re: Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund

#163

Post by sambe »

Jonnax wrote: post #131
sambe wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know what the MasterCard exchange rate is. However, someone recently told me regarding their credit card: "they give me the wholesale exchange rate, which is great". It turned out not to be so great (~1% wide market). It's good not to pay an additional fee/spread on top, but it can still be a poor deal overall.

This is their convertor below. $10000 dollars cost £7,867.91 I googled $100 USD to GBP and it comes out as: £7,859.50 Percentage difference: 0.106947% https://www.mastercard.co.uk/en-gb/consumers/get-support/con...

Google isn’t really an authority. The Google rate could be bad and MasterCard 0.1% worse. They could be from different times. Also, the MasterCard site says indicative only - if I convert the amount back again, MasterCard claims they are giving me free money.

GBPUSD spot is 0.002% wide (so you’d expect to pay ~0.001% for a single, instant transaction up to several million). It’s not actually too difficult to access this through a brokerage.

That said, if you could really get 0.1% from them it’d probably be considered good at retail.

Re: Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund

#164

Post by JustFinishedBSG »

krn wrote: post #75
matthewmacleod wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> lower foreign exchange fees

Except the weekend. Gotta read fine prints.

> up to 1% cashback on all card payments.

Except in Europe, its market.

Re: Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund

#165

Post by IshKebab »

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…

I've opened a joint account with Monzo and with 1st direct. Guess which one took an hour on the phone and which one took 10 seconds in an app.

I've switched all my banking to them. So much better than high street banks and I haven't had to talk to a single person.

Re: Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund

#166

Post by maccard »

anarchitect wrote: post #161
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…

> Monzo let you deposit cash and cheques at the post office Not quite. You can deposit at any PayPoint location (mostly corner shops and the like), not Post Offices [0]. They also charge £1 for each deposit and the maximum deposit is £300. This is not an issue for me (I rarely see or use cash), but it would be for some. Having made my first deposit at the weekend, the main issue is that the shopkeepers have no idea h…

My bad - it's actually starling [0] who do post office.

[0] https://www.starlingbank.com/blog/post-office-deposits/

Re: Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund

#167

Post by [deleted] »

rdlou wrote: post #133
randomvectors wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

For me, having no physical branches has been ace. When I was with barclays, I could call them up, spend 45 minutes on the phone to someone, only to be told I have to go to a branch to get a statement (or something stupid like that). I'd then walk to a branch, stand in line for 20 minutes, to be told they can't do that at that branch and I'd have to ring up some other number. That sort of thing happened regularly enou…

[deleted]

Re: Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund

#168

Post by gamblor956 »

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 –…

It's weird to see the hype for Monzo, since other than a somewhat-nicer UI and data exportability, all of its features have been done before in the US. Some of the features have been around for more than a decade stateside...

It seems everything old is new again. At least with a normal CC I have access to a bank branch so I can talk to a real person if I need to.

Re: Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund

#169

Post by hittaruki »

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 –…

Monzo has a proper API[1] that you can use to get transaction and other info without going through some third company like plaid.com. Obviously better long term solution would be for all banks to agree on a standard API and easy access to it. But given that is not going to happen, this seems like a welcome improvement.

[1]:https://docs.monzo.com/#authentication

Re: Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund

#170

Post by grey-area »

nothrabannosir wrote: post #140
grey-area wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t you get hit by international fees when using your credit card abroad? No. There are fees for withdrawing cash over £200, but not using the card abroad.

Grand parent said they use a “credit card” abroad, implying they don’t use Monzo, or wouldn’t need Revolut. Monzo is a debit card.

Ah thanks, sorry I missed that.

If you don't mind using a debit card abroad though, Monzo gives you a good rate, not sure why you'd need to use a credit card.

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