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

tomblomfield.com

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

#101

Post by Nextgrid »

nsteel wrote: post #95
calcifer wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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).

I didn't realise this. Why would anyone accept this risk and use Revolut as anything more than a place for pocket money while abroad?!

People who have no choice or don't know any better.

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

#102

Post by Nextgrid »

oakesm9 wrote: post #73
shantnutiwari wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I gave up on Revolut after scandals about its CEO and financial shenanigans; and the many customer service nightmares. In banking, boring is better

I tried boring with TSB. Their botched IT migration which left with me with no access to money for a few days and seeing other customer full account details when I signed in online causes some to switch to Monzo. They’re not perfect, and their app is getting noticeable worse for the fundamentals as they add more money making features like loans and flex, but I’ve still had no major issues in years.

You want "boring" but modern, competent "boring" such as Starling. It's modern but otherwise boring code (a Java monolith if I remember correctly), a modern app and is backed by a profitable, sustainable business with no "growth & engagement" smell.

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

#103

Post by Nextgrid »

nly wrote: post #64
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…

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

Monzo's initial UI used to be amazing. I find their V2 UI terrible, and of course the various "growth & engagement" shenanigans don't help - feels more like a bullshit social media app than a tool that's supposed to hold & manage my money.

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

#104

Post by Nextgrid »

nly wrote: post #88
antihero wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Works fine on Android

They are using native apps so 2 different codebases, that would explain why you're not experiencing iOS-specific bugs.

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

#105

Post by Nextgrid »

nsteel wrote: post #96
berdario wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Don't all UK banks require a UK address?

But that's not something you'd expect a non-resident to know. Making account opening criteria transparent wouldn't hurt anything and would save everyone time.

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

#106

Post by blibble »

heurisko wrote: post #94
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 In which case you will be protected up to £85,000 by the FSCS.

as long as you've got another account to pay it into?

and don't mind being without your money for some time

(personally I wouldn't have my salary paid into a bank that's losing ever increasing sums of money)

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

#107

Post by blibble »

danpalmer wrote: post #5
substation13 wrote: post #2

How do they make money?

The short answer is that they don't really. UK retail banking is notoriously low margin, and all of the major banks struggle to make anything from their consumer businesses. Charging for bank accounts is not something the UK market accepts. They'll likely cover costs in the long term, and their business banking will probably do fine, but I suspect the valuations aren't justified. The main way that the major players m…

> The short answer is that they don't really. UK retail banking is notoriously low margin, and all of the major banks struggle to make anything from their consumer businesses.

I do wonder why the VCs wanted into this market at all

intense competition snuffed out the margins of retail banking 30 years ago

and the "legacy" (read: profitable) banks are more that capable of putting together a shiny looking app

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

#108

Post by hitekker »

Nextgrid wrote: post #6

Good old Monzo times. Sadly, in my opinion the company took on too much investment and was now bound to deliver tech-company returns with a product that fundamentally isn't compatible with them. This led them to become yet another bullshit "growth & engagement" operation and ultimately killed the appeal of the product, all while competitors such as Starling Bank stepped up their game and delivered a very similar prod…

What defines a "growth & engagement operation"? Is it when the goal is to grow as much as possible, while engaging users without actually meeting users needs or retaining them?

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

#109

Post by physicsguy »

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…

Revolut still doesn’t have a UK banking license, so you’re not protected up to £85k like you are with a normal bank.

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

#110

Post by nsteel »

Nextgrid wrote: post #101
nsteel wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't realise this. Why would anyone accept this risk and use Revolut as anything more than a place for pocket money while abroad?!

People who have no choice or don't know any better.

I hope @mojuba is now aware of this. This is not a good "bank if you have other options. Going back to Monzo would be a better choice.
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