Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How we got customers to sign up to Monzo in the early years

tomblomfield.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 120 posts

Re: How we got customers to sign up to Monzo in the early years

#81

Post by jozvolskyef »

Nextgrid wrote: post #49
mojuba wrote: post #39

I was one of the early adopters. Monzo felt fresh and exciting back when it started, kind of like Google in its early days. But I later switched to Revolut and never looked back. I was driven purely by intuition and no particular reason. While trying to understand why, I thought it was probably because there was too much PR and fuzz around Monzo as an "ethical business" and little action. You don't just talk about be…

I wouldn't consider Revolut ethical though. Revolut allowed people to open accounts immediately with no (or very soft) KYC but then had to limit (by law) the amount of money they could transact before passing stronger KYC. This led to a lot of people opening Revolut accounts, going abroad and ending up stranded with no access to their money once they've exhausted the initial limit, sometimes with no way to complete K…

See my sibling comment for a counterargument. I do agree with the warnings though.

Re: How we got customers to sign up to Monzo in the early years

#82

Post by berdario »

ralphmelish wrote: post #74
lysergia wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s no mention of it being a strictly UK affair in the app description. I imagine 100s of people download it each day, fill in the form and then bail once they realize it’s UK only.

I've just checked the description in the Play Store and it says 'Open a full UK bank account'. Maybe that is new, but it is pretty clear.

That doesn't mean that it's closed to non-residents.

Re: How we got customers to sign up to Monzo in the early years

#83

Post by berdario »

ralphmelish wrote: post #69
lysergia wrote: post #58

I downloaded Monzo on the Play store and installed it. During registration it asked for personal data like my address etc then proceeded to tell me it’s a UK only app. I was shocked. I’m in the EEA and thought I could use the app. It should be clear in the app’s description that it’s a UK only affair. I imagine this has happened to many more people other than me.

It is not a simple app, it's a bank. Not sure how you expect to open a UK bank account not living in the UK... Edit: I've just checked the description in the Play Store and it says 'Open a full UK bank account'. Maybe that is new, but it is pretty clear.

Non-resident accounts exist (though they are generally more expensive), and several countries don't even require any proof of residence (i.e. you can open a bank account while on a tourist visa)

Re: How we got customers to sign up to Monzo in the early years

#84

Post by raesene9 »

oumua_don17 wrote: post #79
ralferoo wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The irony is that Starling is consistently the better bank, from my perspective. I started off getting Monzo when it advertised itself as a pre-paid debit card and it's big selling point was free foreign ATM transactions. I never actually used it all that much (I've been with them about 5-6 years, and maybe done about £1000 total foreign withdrawals). At some point when they introduced limits, there was a post on the…

>> It's telling that I've never felt comfortable trusting Monzo with my salary, because it always feels like it'll fold any moment Can you elaborate more on this, the fold part? >> from the old brick and mortar bank Which such bank/s you recommend? PS: I have been in UK for quite a few years now and only use Monzo. Edit: typo and query

Of the "traditional" banks First Direct generally have quite a good reputation. I've used them for a while and they've been fine. Customer service is good on the occasions I use it and the product's been reliable.

That said I'd be surprised to see a bank like Monzo just fold without warning. It's possible that one or more of the "challenger" banks won't last a long time, but the outcome there will most likely be them getting bought by someone else.

Re: How we got customers to sign up to Monzo in the early years

#85

Post by ascorbic »

55555 wrote: post #42
user_named wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it hard to believe that they struggle to make money off bank accounts. It's an intentional top of funnel strategy to offer free accounts.

Go look up how much money they have in deposits. When I checked in 2017/18 they had like 87mm USD total. That’s a single UHNW account at a “real” bank. Maybe it would earn 1-2mm in annual profits from AUM to cover a dozen staff? Idk I’m not an expert.

£4.4 billion in Feb, so about 6bn USD. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1118161/customer-loans-a...

Re: How we got customers to sign up to Monzo in the early years

#86

Post by raesene9 »

jozvolskyef wrote: post #80
mojuba wrote: post #39

I was one of the early adopters. Monzo felt fresh and exciting back when it started, kind of like Google in its early days. But I later switched to Revolut and never looked back. I was driven purely by intuition and no particular reason. While trying to understand why, I thought it was probably because there was too much PR and fuzz around Monzo as an "ethical business" and little action. You don't just talk about be…

I would try Monzo, but all I get from them is > Unfortunately we can't offer you a Monzo account > We're afraid we can't go into more detail about why we can't offer you an account. > We assess every application using details you've given us, and any information we get from the credit reference agencies we use (Experian and TrnsUnion) or from anti-fraud services like Cifas. Starling is the same. As a debt-free UK res…

The problem of lacking credit history has been around for a long time, I remember getting a credit card, which I paid off in full every month, just to increase my credit score ~ 20 years ago.

For people without a good credit history in the UK there is meant to be "basic bank accounts" which don't require credit checking as they don't offer overdrafts (https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/everyday-money/banking/bas...)

That said, you will still need proof of identity/address. If a bank is taking you on without those, I'd struggle to see how it's meeting KYC (Know your customer) requirements.

Re: How we got customers to sign up to Monzo in the early years

#87

Post by ascorbic »

blibble wrote: post #71
willyt wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was surprised by this and it turns out its a bit of a misrepresentation as you get unlimited fee free withdrawals if you meet one of these criteria which, in the UK, pretty much anyone except a teenager with no job will meet: At least £500 was paid into a Monzo account in your name over the last rolling 35-day period, and you have at least one active Direct Debit on the same account in the same period. You’ve recei…

it's not misleading, it's true if you lose your job, you're now being charged 3% to pull your own money out (and regardless: they still charge you to deposit your own money, unheard of for retail customers)

The criteria seem to be mostly designed to ensure that people who aren't using it as their main account can't do things that cost Monzo lots of money. That said, if you want to deal mostly with cash then Monzo probably isn't for you, and I think they're ok with that.

Re: How we got customers to sign up to Monzo in the early years

#88

Post by nly »

antihero wrote: post #72
nly wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Revolut app is a hot mess though. Monzo have kept theirs clean l, focus and and useful.

The Monzo app lags and chokes swiping between accounts on my brand new iPhone 13 Mini.

Works fine on Android

Re: How we got customers to sign up to Monzo in the early years

#89

Post by calcifer »

jozvolskyef wrote: post #80
mojuba wrote: post #39

I was one of the early adopters. Monzo felt fresh and exciting back when it started, kind of like Google in its early days. But I later switched to Revolut and never looked back. I was driven purely by intuition and no particular reason. While trying to understand why, I thought it was probably because there was too much PR and fuzz around Monzo as an "ethical business" and little action. You don't just talk about be…

I would try Monzo, but all I get from them is > Unfortunately we can't offer you a Monzo account > We're afraid we can't go into more detail about why we can't offer you an account. > We assess every application using details you've given us, and any information we get from the credit reference agencies we use (Experian and TrnsUnion) or from anti-fraud services like Cifas. Starling is the same. As a debt-free UK res…

> the only bank that is willing to do business with me is Revolut.

That's because Revolut isn't a UK bank. Until very recently (less than a year ago), it wasn't a bank at all anywhere. Unlike Monzo, Starling et al. (which are UK banks) Revolut is an "electronic money institution" and hence your balance isn't protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).

Re: How we got customers to sign up to Monzo in the early years

#90

Post by jonatron »

robertlagrant wrote: post #46

> First, a note about the context. We started the company in the UK in February 2015, when “digital banks” weren’t yet a popular idea. BankSimple had launched in 2012 with some big plans, but sold to BBVA in early 2014 with about 100,000 accounts, having struggled to raise sufficient funding to continue. N26 started development in late 2013, initially as a card for kids, while Revolut was founded a few months after M…

I thought the first internet bank was Smile https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smile_(bank) , but it looks like the claim is "first fully digital bank".
Post reply on HN