You might have seen our ads on TV or posters plastered on bus stops. Maybe you read about us in the news. Or maybe you have an annoying friend who just won’t shut up about Monzo.
me: hi
— Jamie Ali (@JamieAli_) April 10, 2019
people with monzo: haven’t you got monzo?!
You’re considering signing up, but you’re still not completely convinced. So you came here to find out what everyone’s been banging on about.
Here are 11 totally unbiased reasons we think you should give Monzo a go.
1. Your money's protected by the FSCS
Because we’re a regulated UK bank, the money you put in your Monzo account is protected up to £85,000. It's protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) – an independent fund set up by the government to keep people’s money safe.
If Monzo (or any other bank or building society) goes bust, it means you won’t be left out of pocket. You can see Monzo in the list of banks that are covered by the scheme.
Find out more about what we do to make sure your money’s safe here.
2. You can talk to a human 24/7/365
We’re here to help, when you need us most.
Our customers gave us 5 stars for customer service and communication in Which?’s most recent survey, and voted us best bank for customer service in Money Saving Expert’s latest poll.
You can speak to real friendly humans over live chat through the Monzo app. We're here 24/7 for emergencies, and from 8am to 7pm for anything else. We've also got answers to most of your questions and problems in the app – so you don’t have to wait for help.
3. We help you see your money clearly
Your balance updates instantly and you get a notification whenever you spend, often before the receipt has even printed.
You can see how much you’ve spent, set yourself goals and keep track of your progress.
We’ll show you upcoming payments the day before they leave your account, to help you avoid any unwelcome surprises. And we’ll even tell you when a regular bill changes, so you don’t get caught out by price hikes or end up on a bad deal when your contract expires.
4. And make it easier to manage money with your friends
You can pay any of your contacts with Monzo in a few taps. You don’t need their bank details – just their phone number will do. We also have a thing called Nearby Friends. Which, thanks to the wonders of Bluetooth, lets you pay or be paid by people near you.
You can even pay and get paid by mates who don’t have Monzo, just by sharing a link. You never need to faff around with sort codes and account numbers again!
5. We take the stress out of spending abroad
We pass Mastercard’s exchange rate directly on to you. And we don’t charge you to pay with your card when you’re abroad.
If you want to withdraw cash, you can take out up to £200 for free when you’re in another country. If you withdraw more than £200 in 30 days, you’ll pay a 3% charge each time after that.
6. Even though we don’t have branches, you can still pay cash and cheques into your Monzo account
We believe we can give you everything you need from a bank without having branches. And because we don’t have branches, we can keep costs low and pass the benefits onto you.
You can post us cheques by writing your account number on the back and putting them in an envelope addressed to ‘Freepost Monzo.’
And you can pay cash into your Monzo account at any of the 28,000 convenience stores around the UK that show the PayPoint logo.
Find out exactly how to pay cash and cheques into your Monzo account here.
7. We work hard to protect you from fraud
Our financial crime and security teams are made up of dozens of analysts, engineers and other experts, who all work hard to protect you from fraud.
We have sophisticated rules that identify when transactions are unusual or suspicious, which means we can detect fraud quickly and take precautions to protect you.
We detected and warned Ticketmaster about a data breach months before they announced there’d been an issue. And acted quickly to replace our customers’ cards when British Airways suffered a similar breach. When Cloudflare had a security incident that affected websites and apps that use their software, we explained what happened and took steps to reduce the risk to our customers.
You can read more about how we protect our customers from fraud in The Guardian, the BBC, The Times, Quartz and on our blog.
8. We care about being open and doing right by our customers
We let our community have their say on things like new features, withdrawal limits when you’re abroad, and even our name.
We share everything publicly, like the products we’re building, our business plan, and how our technology works.
And we’re committed to communicating in plain, straightforward English that the average person can understand. Our terms and conditions are one page long, and take around three minutes to read.
9. Millions of people already use Monzo
2 million people are already using Monzo, and 35,000 more open new accounts every week.
They must be onto something, right?
10. It’s free!
We don’t charge any fees for signing up or using Monzo day-to-day. Payments and cash withdrawals in the UK, and payments abroad are all free, with no added fees.
11. And signing up takes less than 10 minutes
So what are you waiting for? 👇