Monzo Review: A Neo-Bank Offering Plenty of Positives

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	Monzo	8.4	Visitmonzo.com

Introducing Monzo

Monzo is one of the top-rated banks in the UK with over seven million customers. Its unique selling point is convenience, simplicity, and working alongside its community to improve products and add new ones. 81% of Monzo’s customers recommend the bank to friends and family.

Types of Accounts

Let’s look at the range of bank accounts that Monzo offers:

In the next sections, we’ll get into the different types of Monzo accounts and their associated costs. It offers three tiers- Free, Plus, and Premium, but even if you just go with the free bank account, you can still find plenty of things to appreciate about Monzo.

Although it’s an app-based banking solution, it's consistently been rated as one of the top banks in the UK.

Let’s dive in!

Free Monzo Bank Account

A Monzo current account is available to all UK residents over 18 — and it’s perfect for those who want to have more control over their budget.

Even with a free account, you are offered superb budgeting tools such as: Savings Pots, Salary Sorter (with automatic bill payments), and Trends — an analytics feature that lets you see how you use your finances over time.

With paid accounts, there is no maximum balance and you can have access to borrowing features. The fee-free ATM withdrawal limit is £250 in a 30-day period, with a 3% charge above £250.

Monzo Plus

Monzo Plus strikes the perfect balance between free and premium as you get access to almost all the perks and tools at an affordable monthly cost. This is the ideal personal current account for you if you’re enthusiastic about getting your budget under control (and fantastic overseas features).

For example, with Plus, you get an overview of all your accounts (from other banks, too) in your Monzo app. Credit tracker lets you view your credit file, which is great if you need to work on it (for example, to get a loan). You can also auto-export transactions into a Google Sheet and keep track of your expenses in another way. All considered, with Monzo Plus, you get the most out of a Monzo account.

Monzo Premium

Let’s be honest — Monzo Premium seems pretty expensive at first sight. It comes with an advanced round-up saving option (two, five, and ten times), but the option doesn’t cover the hefty price.

However, for frequent travellers, a Consumer Intelligence report found it could save around £64 a year on phone and travel insurance. And with all the budgeting tools of Monzo Plus, it lets you handle your finances on the go. The 1.50% AER on the balance is decent, but there are packaged accounts with higher rates available, such as Virgin Money Club M with 2.02% AER on up to £1,000 a year. Still, with Monzo Premium, you could earn up to £30 per year, whereas with Virgin Money, it's £20.

For all the reasons above, I can say Monzo Premium is worth it for people who are certain they will use all its perks. But for those who aren’t sure, I recommend Monzo Plus as the golden standard of Monzo’s bank accounts.

Monzo Business Account

Monzo offers two types of business accounts: Monzo Lite (free) and Monzo Business Pro (5 per month). Both accounts provide mobile and online access, payment links, invoicing tools, easy bank transfers, an instant access savings pot, budgeting tools, digital receipts, instant spending notifications, and international outbound payments (powered by Wise).

Business Pro is where you get the best features for a competitive price. They include automated 'tax pots,' which help you set aside a percentage of your income for taxes the easy way, access for multiple users, and integration with accounting software like FreeAgent, QuickBooks, and Xero (with six months of free access).

However, with both Lite and Pro, there is no credit of any kind — the main con of Monzo’s Business account should you ever need some wiggle room.

Monzo for 16-17-Year-Olds

Monzo’s account for older teens is an excellent way to learn how to manage money: it’s almost exactly the same as the adult current account, and it doesn’t give parents or guardians control over the account.

Instead, Monzo restricts unsafe transactions automatically, protecting its young users from inappropriate content. Also, it sets limits on cash deposits (with the six-month maximum two times lower than with adult accounts).

Finally, it doesn’t offer overdrafts although it won’t charge teens for overspending occasionally. However, unlike other teen accounts (like HSBC’s with 5% on balances of up to £3,000), it does not let you earn interest on your balance.

Monzo Joint Account

Monzo joint accounts win when it comes to simplicity: it takes no more than a few minutes to set up if both account holders are Monzo customers. Plus, you both get a digital card immediately.

The budgeting features let you do everything you can in the personal accounts: setting budgets for everyday expenses like date nights, groceries, creating categories, and locking/unlocking pots.

You get notifications each time the other person spends money from the joint account so you should be aware of who bought what, where, and how much it cost.

Other Costs That Affect All Customers

For receiving money in EUR from outside the UK: 1% currency conversion fee

For withdrawing cash in a foreign currency outside the EEA: First £200 in 30 days free, 3% charge after that

Monzo Cash Deposit Limits

For all accounts: £5-£300 in one payment, a maximum of £1,000 every 180 rolling days.

For 16-17-year-old teens: a maximum of £500 every 180 days.

Benefits & Additional Features – 9/10

This is where the real treasure is — the tools that have made Monzo famous and some other perks:

Monzo also supports a very lively forum where users can discuss issues regarding development and recommend new features/capabilities.

What I like about it is that the development seemed consistent, with regular feedback from members of the team to comments and tips from other customers.

Now let’s get into offers and features.

Benefits

• The Monzo referral deal gives you and the referred person £5.

• RAC Breakdown Cover: Cover from £4.75 a month including free Legal Care Plus.

• Laka: At least 10% off cycle insurance every month for a year for new Laka customers

• Patch: 15% off all plant and plant pot orders over £50.

• Naked Wines: Over 50% off 6 bottles of wine when you sign up

• Babylon Health: 10% off your annual virtual GP subscription and 15% off your first PAYG appointment.

• Fiit: 25% off a home workout membership

• Travel insurance on Premium

• Phone Insurance on Premium

• Discounted airport lounge access on Premium

• Cashback on up to £25,000 of international transfers (Plus and Premium)

If you’re not a frequent traveller, you may want to add up the benefits to see if Premium pays off (there are other packaged accounts with slightly better offers). For that reason, we give Monzo 9/10.

Features

Here’s an overview of the current Monzo tools that made the bank so popular.

• Salary Sorter: Monzo's Salary Sorter feature organises your salary once you get paid, helping you allocate money for expenses, bills, and savings.

• Bills Pot: With bills pot, you add the money into a designated pot, and have the bills automatically paid. Voila!

• Trends: An analytics tool that gives you insight into your spending patterns over time.

• Credit Tracker: Powered by TransUnion, it lets you monitor your credit file.

• Saving pots: A tool that lets you set aside money and even lock it or hide it so you can achieve your financial objectives more easily.

• Safety net: A personalised savings journey based on trends data that lets you save for emergency one-month expenses.

• Split bills: Easy bill splitting without any need for a calculator.

• Round-up saving: This feature rounds up your transactions to the nearest pound, adding the spare change into a savings pot.

• Savings Marketplace: Apart from Monzo’s savings products, you can use savers from other banks such as OakNorth and Investec.

• Open banking: With this feature, you can view your bank accounts in the Monzo app and get an overview of your finances.

• Managing mortgage in the app: An optional tool that takes your mortgage details from TransUnion and lets you track your payments and mortgage balance in the Monzo App.

Saving & Interests Earned – 9.3/10

Instant Access by Monzo

The 3.70% AER Instant access is offered by Monzo and visible in the app. It’s joined by an Easy-Access saver from OakNorth at 3.75%, one by Shawbrook at 2.50%, and one by Paragon at 3.45%.

However, there are higher interest rates on the Instant and Easy-Access market:

For example, Chip lets you earn a 4.51% AER (variable) paid monthly with deposits of up to £250,000, while Skipton also comes with an Instant Access account with a high-interest rate of 4.45% AER.

On the other hand, Monzo is still on the more lucrative end of the savings accounts spectrum, with Barclays offering 1.51% AER on its Everyday Saver, and Paragon offering 2% for example.

So Monzo does get a point for its savings rate, which is not the best on the market, but it’s certainly not bad.

Fixed Rate Saving Accounts

All Fixed accounts in Monzo are powered by other banks but are connected with the Monzo app. The highest rate is 5.82% AER, provided by OakNorth, and lasting 12 months.

I dug through many fixed savers, and this seems to be one of the highest offers at this term, with only a few exceeding 6% AER (Vanquis Savings and Atom Bank, not as established as Monzo).

There are also shorter-term accounts from Charter, Paragon, and OakNorth, giving you great choices within one app.

ISAs

There are three ISA offers at Monzo, powered by Investec at 3.49% AER, OakNorth at 3.10% AER, and Shawbrook at 1.01% AER. They are all Easy Access ISAs. Again, these are not the highest interest rates on the market, with the Principality BS offering 4.2% and being the highest-interest easy-access ISA on the market at the moment.

Still, its (almost) winning rates and functionalities such as viewing everything in one app make these savings accounts worth your time. So,we’re giving Monzo 9.3/10.

Overdraft Limits & Fees – 7.5/10

Depending on your credit score, Monzo charges three variable rates for its arranged overdrafts:

• 19% EAR variable

• 29% EAR variable

• 39% EAR variable

When it comes to overdraft limits, you can set up your own in the app with Monzo approving overdrafts of up to £2,000. You can see and calculate everything in the app which is convenient, just like Monzo’s spending notifications.

What about unarranged overdrafts? If you go over the arranged limit or in the red while you don’t have an arranged overdraft, this is what you can expect from Monzo:

• Monzo will reject payments (for free), but it cannot reject ‘offline’ payments

• A £15.50 monthly cap on unarranged overdraft charges (lower compared to other banks with caps usually being £20 to £30)

• You’ll get a notification instantly which will stick to the top of your app feed.

• You’ll have until midnight that day to pay in some money or be charged interest at 39% EAR.

How does Monzo stack up with other banks? When it comes to interest rates on arranged overdrafts, I can't complain. With the exception of a few building societies and Starling’s 15%, 25%, and 35% AER, Monzo is a rare bank that provides its customers with a rate lower than 30%.

However, we removed a point for Monzo of not having an unarranged overdraft buffer, which some of the banks offer, like First Direct (with 0% interest under £250).

Other Borrowing Options

Here’s a brief summary of Monzo’s other borrowing options:

• Monzo Flex: A borrowing product which is a mix of BNPL, credit cards, and overdrafts. It lets you spread payment in three monthly instalments with 0% interest, or six and twelve instalments at an interest rate of 29% APR.

• Loans: Monzo offers eligible customers loans at two rates depending on the loan size:

  1. For loans over £10,000: The representative APR is 13.8%.

  2. For loans up to £10,000: The representative APR is 27.0%.

Monzo has a limited range of borrowing products compared to most traditional banks. Its maximum loan size is £25,000 which cannot be compared with traditional banks and lenders.

This can't be held against Monzo, as the bank’s focus is on current and business accounts. Anyway, we have to give it a lower score of 7.5/10 in this section.

Overseas Usage – 9.5/10

Usability – 7/10

Monzo packs invaluable features and services into its app – but I don’t see a good harmony between form and function as I’ve seen with Revolut. The features in themselves are indeed useful, but the navigation and design hardly do justice to its versatility.

Monzo App Review

Monzo Design and Navigation

A homepage featuring your latest transactions and upcoming payments greets you when you open the app. With one click, it's possible to freeze the card, access card details, and add money.

Via the manage tab next to the feed, you can adjust your limits (contactless, gambling controls, etc), generate bank statements, and access account details.

You can access your pots by swiping right, and will find that the Pot management is fairly easy: you can view your deposits, withdrawals, and round-ups at a glance, set up scheduled payments, and add your pot to your Apple Pay or Google Pay (which is an ingenious feature – you can set up your bill payments to get out from Pots directly, making budgeting easier).

By clicking on your profile picture at the right corner at the top of your screen, you can view the services available to you, and get a holistic view of your accounts and pots. This dashboard is fairly bare and doesn’t include the budgeting features (called Targets) or your spending insights.

You need to travel to the Trends tab by navigating through the bottom bar. Categorised into Balance, Spending, and Target – The trends tab keeps all the golden functionalities Monzo has at its disposal.

One of Monzo’s biggest caveats appears here – something as basic as setting spending categories which would help to organise spending habits is reserved for Plus and Premium users.

That being said, it’s fairly easy to set spending targets (or budgets) for a range of categories: at a glance, you can see how much you’ve spent so far in each category, and how much you have left.

On the whole, I think Monzo’s main dashboard serves to showcase its products and services, rather than easing financial management. I believe the app can benefit from having a more integrated dashboard that includes personalised benefits (cashback, discounts, insurance, etc), spending insights, latest and upcoming transactions, as well as a holistic view of the accounts and pots.

Login and Security Features

On paper Monzo is on par with competitors in terms of the security measures they employ: biometric login, virtual cards, SSL encryption, and so on.

Yet, it's not readily available. You have to set up the biometric login manually, and as with many useful features, virtual cards are reserved for Plus and Premium users – I should note that Revolut and Starling offer it free of charge.

Money Transfers

There’s much to celebrate about the money transfers – once you set a payee, it takes three clicks to send money and if you allow access to your contacts, you can see who has a Monzo account and start sending funds straight away. You can also deposit cash from your other bank accounts and set up direct debits with ease.

The split bill feature is a blessing – you can split a payment either equally or manually set the amounts. The biggest caveat is that everyone that pays must have a Monzo account. The same thing applies to shared tabs (which are used for ongoing payments).

While having “nearby friends”, which allows including nearby Monzo users automatically to the tab, is a nice touch, these features are useless to share payments or splitting bills with people that don’t have a Monzo account.

How to Open an Account With Monzo

Opening an account with Monzo takes minutes once you download the app.

Here’s what the data says. Monzo customers get an account number and are able to start paying into the account:

• On the same day, 91% of customers

• On average, in one day

• Within 9 days, 99% of customers

Customer Satisfaction & Reputation – 9.1/10

In this section, I will look at Monzo’s reviews, its customer relationship, and how well it employs security measures.

Customer Reviews

The most common complaints about Monzo include customer support: repetitive questions, futile attempts to reach an agent, and accounts closing for no reason. However, the bank does have an excellent rating, especially compared to traditional banks (typically have half of the score).

There are also some complaints about the new interface and people having trouble getting used to it.

On the other hand, people praise its customer service, ease of use, budgeting and saving tools, as well as the bank's transparency about costs.

What’s actually concerning about Monzo is that it replies to only 3% of negative reviews on Trustpilot and takes a few days, while some banks respond in a matter of hours.

Customer Service

The first line of support is in the app, with live chat available from 7 am to 8 pm for non-critical matters. In addition, there is an urgent 24/7 live chat option, a phone line, and email. The phone line is especially useful as it is the only way you can contact the people behind the bank in a more personal way.

Most reviews speak in favour of the bank’s customer service as well.

In addition to this, there are two specialist customer support teams: one for financial concerns, helping customers manage their money, and a specialist team for more sensitive topics (major life events, health issues) and financial health.

Security

As Monzo is an app-based banking solution with no physical branches, you may be curious about its functioning and safety.

Monzo is a fully-regulated UK bank, meaning it’s regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and your money is protected up to £85,000 by the Financial Services Protection Scheme (FSCS). When it comes to the app, here are some other measures it takes to protect your account:

• Virtual cards (on Plus and Premium, great for online subscriptions)

• Unlocking and authorising with a Face/Fingerprint ID

• Security PIN

• Desktop version in case of a phone going missing

Alternatives

Starling

Starling may be a suitable alternative if the following differences are important to you:

• Cheques can be scanned in the app with Starling (Post-only with Monzo)

• Starling supports Google, Apple, and Samsung Pay, as well as Huawei App Gallery

• Current accounts for teens under 16

• It has a multi-currency account but for businesses only.

Starling may not be what you’re looking for if this is a concern:

• You can’t see other bank accounts in the app.

• It doesn’t provide insurance.

• It doesn’t offer BPNL or personal loans.

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	Starling Bank	8.5	Visitstarlingbank.com

Revolut

Revolut may be a suitable alternative if the following differences are important to you:

• Multi-currency accounts

• Trading and investing in stocks, commodities and shares

• It has kids’ accounts

Revolut may not be what you’re looking for if this is a concern:

• Unlike Monzo, Revolut is not a fully-regulated bank

• No FSCS protection

• It has no borrowing features

• No overdraft

• No personal loans

• No interest on current balance

• No joint account

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	Revolut	8.5	Visitrevolut.com

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