akashgoswami_’s Twitter Archive—№ 1,671

I've been seeing a lot of complains about @monzo shutting down the prepaid card from people who don't understand why Monzo NEEDS to do this. I'm not an expert but I guess I'll try and explain all these changes in this thread for people to refer to in the future @monzo/953954099174821888
Permalink On twitter.com ♻️ 3 Retweets ❤️ 9 Favorites 2018 Jan 18 Mood -2 🙁

…in reply to @akashgoswami_
First of all, just as a disclaimer what I'm writing is NOT 100% correct. Most of it is what I think is true but I could be wrong (mistakes are likely as well)
Permalink On twitter.com 2018 Jan 18 Mood -2 🙁

…in reply to @akashgoswami_
The prepaid card is being phased out, why? Firstly, it's expensive to run. When I say expensive what I mean is the topping up. Topping up your account from a card is the same as when you make a purchase in store.
On twitter.com 2018 Jan 18 Mood 0

…in reply to @akashgoswami_
Usually a percentage of the purchase (in this case a top up) goes to the card processor (Think Visa and Mastercard) . For example if you bought something for £15 and paid via card. Roughly 0.03% if that money would go to the card processor.
Permalink On twitter.com 2018 Jan 18 Mood +2 🙂

…in reply to @akashgoswami_
This doesn't sound like a lot but let's apply this percentage to an example. Let's say there's half a million Monzo users (a true stat) and they each top up £100. That's £50 million! Applying the 0.3% charge to this means that approximately £150,000 is being 'lost'
Permalink On twitter.com 2018 Jan 18 Mood +6 🙂

…in reply to @akashgoswami_
By lost, I mean Monzo is absorbing this cost for each of its users. Monzo is actually LOSING money for each day they runs the prepaid beta. This is probably the main reason for moving everyone over to current accounts.
Permalink On twitter.com ❤️ 1 Favorite 2018 Jan 18 Mood -6 🙁

…in reply to @akashgoswami_
You can transfer hundreds of pounds through Faster Payments and the charge is only something like a couple of pennies (not 100% sure about this, but it's certainly cheaper). Faster Payments is only available to current accounts.
Permalink On twitter.com 2018 Jan 18 Mood +2 🙂

…in reply to @akashgoswami_
For tops ups to work in a way that wouldn't lose monzo money, would be to take a percentage of each top up to cover the card charge. Doing this would actually reduce the number of people joining Monzo (because who wants to lose money to beta test a product?)
Permalink On twitter.com ❤️ 1 Favorite 2018 Jan 18 Mood +4 🙂

…in reply to @akashgoswami_
Compared to other banks that do not charge you to put money in your account, if Monzo had a charge for topping up your account during the beta then no one would really see a reason to try it out
Permalink On twitter.com ❤️ 1 Favorite 2018 Jan 18 Mood -1 🙁

…in reply to @akashgoswami_
Secondly, the prepaid card was running on a third party card processor. This was due to Monzo not having a banking license. Now that Monzo has this licence it makes sense to do everything in house, thus reducing the amount of downtime for customers while improving their services
Permalink On twitter.com 2018 Jan 18 Mood +2 🙂

…in reply to @akashgoswami_
In a lot of ways Monzo is very open with their approach to banking and how to take the next step. They even asked their users how to proceed with cash withdrawals outside the UK (another thread for another day). Monzo's customer service is an example for all other banks to follow
Permalink On twitter.com ❤️ 2 Favorites 2018 Jan 18 Mood 0

…in reply to @akashgoswami_
That's all I have for now but if anyone wants to ask me anything then feel free to tweet me. @monzo maybe you can let me know if I've got some things wrong.
Permalink On twitter.com ❤️ 1 Favorite 2018 Jan 18 Mood -1 🙁