Monzo Cash Deposit

Monzo Cash Deposit Charge
Cash Deposit Rates
Monzo Cash Deposit Credit Cards
Monzo Cash Deposit Account

Dec 17, 2020 Free cash deposits Another perk of the Premium account is the ability to make five cash deposits a month completely free. The free Monzo account charges £1 per deposit. Again Monzo loses out here as cash deposits are free with Starling, and have always been free with the traditional branch based banks. Tap the Home icon in the menu bar Tap the Account button under your Monzo card (if you can't find this button, swipe down on your list of payments) Tap Limits and allowances. Monzo Cash deposit It says online that I can deposit up to £300 in “one go” with cash via a pay point. Is this a daily limit or can I do this multiple times like say I want to deposit £600 in cash.

Monzo ended its £5 refer-a-friend bonus at the start of this month, as the mobile bank crosses the three million customer mark.

Monzo told us 100,000 people had encouraged their friends to sign up for an account in the past two months alone, and that they’re closing the program in order to ‘grow in a controlled manner’.

Some Monzo fans have expressed disappointment that a feature they like is going away, but is this part of a wider trend?

Here, we take a look at how Monzo, and fellow challenger banks like Starling and Revolut, have changed what they offer as they’ve grown.

How big are mobile banks now?

Although most mobile challengers started out as apps with a small but dedicated user base, these banks have grown rapidly over recent years.

Monzo’s three million users are joined by over 775,000 Starling customers, three-and-a-half million N26 customers and seven million Revolut users, according to the brands’ official figures (although not all of these users are in the UK).

None of them rival the high street – Barclays, for example, boasts 24 million customers – but the numbers are impressive for organisations that didn’t exist a few years ago.

As they’ve grown, their customer offerings have also changed, sometimes expanding their perks, in other cases scaling back.

So here’s a rundown of what these card providers once offered, and what you can get now.

Keep in mind that these are not complete lists of all of these banks’ features. For more details, see our in-depth guide to challenger and mobile banks.

Monzo

How did it start?

Launched in 2015, the first Monzo customers actually signed up to a company called Mondo – the brand changed its name to Monzo in August 2016.

In its early days, it offered:

Prepaid cards: the start of Monzo’s trademark ‘hot coral’ colour, they were not full current accounts, so customers couldn’t set up direct debits or have their salaries paid in.
Unlimited fee-free overseas spending and withdrawals: a key draw for many Monzo customers, you were able to use your card abroad, anywhere that Mastercard was accepted, with no charges.
App-based spending insights: as well as the fee-free overseas spending, many people signed up for Monzo cards to track their spending in the app.

How has it changed?

These are a few of the key features Monzo has added in the years since its launch.

Full current accounts: Monzo secured a banking license in 2017, and prepaid cards were phased out in 2018.
Overdrafts: Monzo has offered overdrafts since 2018 to customers who apply for them. Using one will currently cost you 50p per day, but that will have to change when the new FCA overdraft rules which ban daily charges kick in next April.
Loans: launched earlier this year, Monzo’s loans start at a competitive 3.7%. You can borrow between £200 and £15,000, but only if you’re deemed eligible.
Savings: Monzo has partnered with other banks to offer interest-paying savings accounts, though none of its rates are market-leading.
Overseas ATM fees: the fee-free model was scrapped in 2017. Customers can now withdraw £200 abroad per month, with a 3% charge on foreign withdrawals thereafter. Transactions on card remain fee-free.

Starling Bank

How did it start?

Founded in 2014 by CEO Anne Boden, a former Allied Irish Bank executive, Starling launched publicly in 2017.

Early Starling customers received:

Full current accounts: unlike Monzo, Starling started life as a bank, calling itself the UK’s first mobile bank. Accounts allow direct debits, and you can switch to Starling through the current account switch service.
Spending insights: a staple of mobile banking, users could see breakdowns of their spending in the app.
Fee-free international spending: Starling had (and still has) no fees and no limits for any overseas spending or ATM withdrawals.
Overdrafts: up to £5,000, charged at 15% EAR with no daily fees. This is already compliant with the FCA’s upcoming rule change.

How has it changed?

Here are a few of the newer features Starling has added.

Expanded marketplace: Starling’s ‘Marketplace’ feature has grown to include a number of different financial products and services from other companies, including savings, insurance, investments and mortgages.
Euro accounts: launched earlier this year, Starling’s Euro Account lets you store and spend euro currency.
Loans: Starling introduced loans in 2018, but with comparatively high 11.5% interest rates.
Post Office deposits: you can deposit cash into accounts from most high street banks at Post Office branches.
Current account interest: Starling was the first branchless bank to introduce interest on current account balances. It pays 0.5% AER on up to £2,000, and 0.25% on £2,000 to £85,000.

Revolut

How did it start?

Founded in 2015, Revolut has a primary focus on foreign currency exchange. Without no banking licence, Revolut is not actually a bank. This means it can’t offer FSCS protection for deposits.

Early customers were offered:

Prepaid currency cards: which supported spending and ATM withdrawals in 90 currencies.
Fee-free international spending, ATM withdrawals, and transfers: Revolut stressed that its card was completely free for all these features.

How has it changed?

Though it still focuses on currencies, Revolut’s offering has still changed.

Overseas ATM fees: Revolut now has a similar overseas ATM fee structure to Monzo. You can take out £200 a month with no fees, and you’ll be charged 2% on anything above that.
Support for 150 currencies: up from 90 at launch. Not all of these are free to use anymore, though. A ‘flat mark-up’ of 0.5% could apply to certain currencies on weekends.
Support for cryptocurrencies: 29 of them.
Fees for spending large amounts: if you spend over £5,000 a month, you’ll be charged 0.5%.
Spending insights: like the banks we’ve looked at, Revolut’s app now includes money management features.
Packaged accounts: Premium and Metal accounts are available for monthly fees, offering a number of additional features.

N26

How did it start?

German mobile bank N26 was founded in 2013. It only launched in the UK last year, so it hasn’t had time to change that much.

This is what it is currently offering:

Full current accounts: it already had a European banking license, so direct debits and salary payments were available from the start. But your money won’t be covered by the UK’s FSCS. (Up to €100,000 will be covered by Germany’s BaFin scheme instead.)
Free ATM withdrawals in euros: with no monthly limits.
Premium accounts: two different premium accounts with various additional features.
Spending insights: like every other mobile bank in this article, you can use the N26 app to track your spending.

_{Editor’s note: This article has been updated to clarify details of N26’s current offerings.}

Change is afoot in the world of challenger banks, as two of the UK’s biggest names – Monzo and Starling – introduce new fees and charges for some of their current account features.

From forking out for cash withdrawals to covering the costs of extra cards, the free ride many users have been on for the past few years may have reached the end of the road – but, in many cases, this will depend how you use your account.

Monzo customers who come under the new charges will have to start paying from 31 October; Starling’s fees are being introduced from 4 November.

Here, Which? explains what the new challenger bank fees will be and reveal whether the big high street banks are likely to follow suit.

Monzo and Starling introduce new fees

Monzo and Starling rose to fame and popularity with their new banking features – slick apps, free spending abroad and real-time transactions are just a few of the favourites.

However, both brands have started to explore what services they think it’s ‘fair’ for customers to pay for – for Monzo, that’s based on whether you use its services as your main current account; for Starling, it’s whether you want to take advantage of its additional features.

Monzo’s new fees

From 31 October, Monzo is introducing the following fees on its current accounts for some customers:

£5 fee for card replacements in the UK – unless you’re a victim of fraud, your card is stolen or it expires
3% fee on cash withdrawals of more than £250 in the UK and EEA countries.

Based on spending behaviour from last year, Monzo estimates that 21% of its customers will be affected by the fees; so roughly 840,000 of its four miillion customer base.

It says the average Monzo customer withdraws £36 a month in cash, 90% of people have never had to order a replacement card and 99% of people have never had to request more than two in a year.

You won’t need to pay anything if:

You pay in at least £500 to your Monzo account every 35 days and have at least one active direct debit from that account
You get a payment such as Universal Credit or state pension paid into your account every 35 days
You get a student loan payment into your Monzo account every eight months
You share a joint account with someone who does one of the above
You have a Monzo Plus account
You don’t lose your card more than twice a year.

The minimum spend and requirement to have at least one direct debit is to show how reliant someone is on their Monzo account; if you don’t have any direct debits and you’re paying in less than £500 a month, it’s likely you’ve got another bank account you’re using more – and therefore you could make free ATM withdrawals with that account, rather than Monzo footing the bill for them.

Monzo says any customers struggling financially should get in touch to discuss being exempted from the new fees or refunded.

Starling’s new fees

From 4 November Starling customers will be charged the following:

£5 for card replacements (the first one is free)
Minus 0.5% AER on deposits of more than €50,000 held in euro accounts, which means savers have to pay to store higher funds.
£20 for CHAPS transfers.

Additionally, Starling is launching some new products soon, which will be charged as follows:

£2 a month for new Connected cards – the original version remains free to those who have already signed up
£2 a month per card for its new Kite kids’ cards
£2 a month to hold an additional personal account (the first one is free)
£2 a month to hold an additional joint account with the same person (the first one is free).

You won’t need to pay anything if you don’t use the features listed above.

Starling’s Connected cards first launched as a way to support vulnerable customers during the coronavirus crisis, allowing customers to request an extra card that can be given to a friend or neighbour if they’re shielding or self-isolating and can’t get to the shops. The new version will allow wider use – for example, parents can give a card to a childminder when they take their kids out for the day.

The Starling Kite kids’ cards present a new option for parents of under-16s. Each card can be used online, in store and for cash withdrawals. Parents also receive notifications whenever a child spends money and can also set daily transaction limits.

How do customers feel about the new fees?

We asked Which? Money Twitter followers whether they’d be willing to pay for some services in order to keep their Monzo or Starling current account.

How do you feel about challenger banks, such as Monzo and Starling, introducing fees? Would you be willing to pay for some services to keep your account?

— Which? Money (@WhichMoney) 8 September 2020

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the vague idea of paying new fees proved unpopular – however, as we’ve explained above, many people won’t need to pay any extra charges.

Challenger banks have proved to be increasingly popular over the past few years.

According to BACS switching data, Monzo and Starling were two of the biggest winners for attracting new customers last year, and both banks were in the top three customer-rated banks in the most recent Which? customer satisfaction banking survey.

Are challenger banks struggling?

One of the biggest problems faced by challengers is how to become profitable. There’s a delicate balance between attracting a large customer base and getting those customers to earn you money. Offering perks and freebies is obviously attractive, but costs banks money.

August saw the release of annual reports of Monzo, Starling and Revolut – all of which are trying to find this balance.

Monzo’s £113.8m losses hit the headlines, while Revolut stacked up £107.4m and Starling lost £52m. Much of this was due to increased investments required to help the companies grow and should be weighed up against how much revenue each bank made, what its revenue streams are and the size of its customer base.

Monzo Cash Deposit Charge

For instance, Revolut has the most customers – counting 13 million in September 2020, which presents a huge opportunity to make money. Starling, by contrast, has 1.08 million customers (as of November 2019), but it reportedly has more diverse sources of revenue, including charges for its business bank accounts.

What may prove to be a sticking point is the effect of coronavirus on lending. Revolut is not a UK-registered bank and therefore doesn’t offer loans, but Monzo and Starling both do. If a lot of customers aren’t able to pay back their loans due to financial difficulty, it could have a negative impact on their balance sheets.

Some of the services Monzo and Starling plan to charge for already have to be paid for by Revolut customers.

Revolut’s existing fees

Those who opt for a standard Revolut card will have to pay the following:

Delivery fee for your first Revolut card
£5, or currency equivalent, for each replacement card, plus delivery
2% on cash withdrawals of more than £200 each month.

If you use Revolut to transfer money abroad and/or to make a currency exchange to invest in cryptocurrency or precious metals, there are also additional charges.

Those who opt for the Premium or Metal card receive free delivery on their first card, as well as two free replacement cards and free delivery. Further replacements will cost Premium customers £10 per replacement card, while more Metal cards cost £40 each.

Revolut told us it does not currently have plans to introduce any new fees or charges.

Find out more:challenger and mobile banks

Are other banks likely to bring in similar fees?

We asked the major UK high street banks whether or not they had plans to introduce new fees for current account customers.

Of those that got back to us, none reported any plans to do so.

Cash Deposit Rates

However, it’s worth bearing in mind that major high street banks have far more options for both saving money and raising revenue than smaller, online-only operations.

Over the past six months, we’ve seen banks withdraw low deposit mortgages, reduce their savings rates to an all-time low and continue to close bank branches.

Monzo Cash Deposit Credit Cards

There are also far fewer credit cards and loan deals to choose from, and some of the most popular current accounts such as Nationwide’s FlexDirect and Santander’s 123 have had their interest more than halved.

Monzo Cash Deposit Account

So, while the big banks may not be planning to levy current account charges right now, it’s worth weighing up the other things that are being cut back on.