Monzo plus review: Is it worth it ?

You’ve been using Monzo’s account for a while. Now, you’re thinking of upgrading to Monzo Plus. But is Monzo Plus worth your hard-earned money?

I have been using Monzo Plus for the last 6 months to find out if the Plus account is worth the fee. Here’s our honest review to help you decide if you should stick with the free account or start paying for Monzo Plus.

What is Monzo Plus?

Monzo Plus is a paid subscription plan from Monzo Bank. It will give you extra benefits for a £5 per month fee. You will get £400 ATM withdrawals abroad, 1% AER on your balance, and exclusive offers from brands. You can open your Monzo plus account here.

Monzo Plus benefits

Monzo Plus has some solid benefits.

1. Interest rates

With Monzo Plus, you’ll earn 1.00% AER variable interest on balances up to £2,000. It means you can earn up to an extra £20 per year by putting your money in Monzo Plus.

2. Round-up rules

Monzo Plus offers advanced round-ups. You can choose higher round-up amounts and caps. You can choose to multiply the spare change by 2, 5, or 10. These customisable round-ups help to save extra cash without even noticing.

For example, if you buy a coffee for £2.50 and you have an advanced multiplier of 2, then Monzo will round that up to £5.

3. One free deposit

Each month, Monzo Plus gives you one free cash deposit at any PayPoint location. Just go to your nearest shop and deposit up to £250 without any fees. For frequent cash users or people who can’t always get to an ATM, this perk alone might make the upgrade worth it.

4. Exclusive offers

Monzo Plus also gives you an offer from different brands. Currently, you will get exclusive offers from Laka, Patch, Babylon Health, Fiit and RAC Breakdown Cover. All these brands give you a 10% to 15% discount on their products.

5. Cash Withdrawal

Monzo Plus offers free withdrawals abroad up to £400. It means you can withdraw cash from ATMs without any fees. This is a significant benefit if you travel abroad often.

6. Virtual Cards

In Monzo Plus, you can get up to 5 virtual cards on your physical card. It’s an excellent option to avoid online fraud. For example, if someone hacked your virtual card, then you can easily close the virtual card through the Monzo app. It will save your money from fraudsters.

7. Custom categories

With Monzo Plus, you can create custom spending categories and split one transaction into more than one group. It will help you to budget and track your spending more accurately. You can also export your Monzo transaction data to a Google spreadsheet.

8. Credit report

Monzo Plus also saw your credit score in the Monzo app. You can see TransUnion and Credit Karma credit reports in the app.

9. Holographic card

Monzo Plus also offers you a holographic card. It is exclusive to Monzo Plus members only. The holographic card is not a metal card. It’s a plastic normal-style debit card.

10. Balance Visibilaty

Monzo Plus allows you to add your accounts from other banks to your Monzo account. It helps you to see all your balances in one place.

How much is Monzo Plus?

Monzo Plus is £5 per month and over the year, it will be £60. For £5, you’ll get all the benefits of Monzo Plus.

To start Monzo plus, you will need to commit for three-month. During those first three months, you’ll pay the £5 monthly fee. After that initial period, you can cancel anytime. If you find Monzo Plus isn’t for you, just let Monzo know before your renewal date.

Is Monzo Plus worth it?

In my opinion, Mono Plus is not worth it. Monzo Plus offers mostly found elsewhere for free. Yet, if you are looking for convenience, then it’s valuable. But before writing Monzo Plus off, let’s give it a fair chance by looking at their offers. Here’s our honest take on the good, the average, and the bad.

The good

• Monzo Plus allows you to create custom spending categories. I love this feature. It allows me to create my spending categories and I can also split one transaction into multiple categories. These custom categories help me find more accurate spending insights.
• Monzo Plus allows advanced roundups on spending. One of the best features of Monzo Plus. This feature rounds up your transaction price to the nearest pound. For example, if you buy a coffee for 1 pound 80, that transaction will get rounded up to 2 pounds. The 20p will be put into one of your pots with advanced roundups. Now you can add a multiplier of 2, 5 or 10 times to the spare change. So in this example, if you set a multiplier of 2 you could round the 20p spare change to 40p. For me, this is a beast.
• Monzo Plus gives you 5 virtual debit card, and each card has its own unique set of details. These virtual cards are great when it comes to protecting yourself from online fraud. When you buy something online, you can use one of your virtual cards instead of giving your physical card. If a fraudster stole your physical card details, you can cancel the card without the hustle of cancelling your physical card. This feature is value for money.
• Monzo plus allows up to £250 free deposit. It is a good feature, because free Monzo account charge you £1 for every deposit.

The average

• Monzo Plus gives you 1.00% interest in your balance up to £2000. If you have £2000 in your account, you’ll earn around £20 per year in interest. That’s why, it can reduce your cost from £60 to £40 pounds. Earning 1.00% interest is not too bad or too good a feature. Because some banks give you more than 1.00% interest.
• Monzo Plus gives you special discounts with some companies. These discounts can be useful for you if you already use these companies’ products. For me, it is not useful because I’m not using these companies’ products.
• Monzo Plus allows you to see your credit score in the app. Currently, you can see only the TransUnion credit score. It could be a dominant feature if they saw all three credit agencies’ scores. Therefore, it is an ok ok feature for me. Not too bad or too good.

The bad

• Monzo Plus allows free withdrawal abroad up to £400 every 30 days. This feature does not add any value to my life. Because I use online banking most time. Also, £400 is not enough to spend in a month. Therefore, this feature is not value for money in my opinion.
• Monzo Plus allows you to add your accounts from other banks to your Monzo account. It helps you to see all your balances in one place. It is an excellent feature, but most street banks give it for free. That’s why, I don’t feel this feature is a value for money.
• Monzo Plus gives you a holographic debit card, which is exclusive to Monzo Plus members only. But having a fancy card does not add any value to life. So, I don’t think this feature is valuable.

How to cancel Monzo Plus?

So you’ve given Monzo Plus a try but decided it’s not for you. No problem, cancelling your subscription is easy. Here are the steps to cancel Monzo Plus:

1. Tap the menu button on the Monzo app
2. Select “Settings”
3. Tap “Monzo Plus”
4. Tap “Cancel subscription”
5. Tap “Yes” to confirm

Your Monzo Plus subscription will remain active until the end of your current billing cycle. But, before cancelling the subscription, you should know the Monzo cancellation rule. Otherwise, they will charge you.

• Cancelling within 14 days

If you cancel your Monzo Plus subscription within 14 days, then there is no cancellation fee. But if you order a holographic blue card within 14 days, then they will charge you £5 for the card.

• Cancelling within the 3 months

If you cancel your Monzo Plus subscription between 15 days to 3 months, then they will charge you £5 as a cancellation fee.

• Cancelling after 3 months

If you cancel your Monzo Plus subscription after 3 months, then there is no cancellation fee.

Monzo plus vs premium

Monzo Plus and Monzo Premium are two paid subscription model of Monzo Bank.In the following we discuss main differences between Monzo plus and premium.

	Monzo Plus	Monzo Premium
Fee	Monzo plus monthly fee is £5.	Monzo premium monthly fee is £15.
Subscription period	Monzo plus minimum subscription period is 3 months.	Monzo premium minimum subscription period is 6 months.
Card	Monzo plus gives you a holographic card.	Monzo premium gives you a metal card.
Interest	Monzo plus provides 1.00% AER on balance.	Monzo premium provides 1.50% AER on balance.
Cash withdrawal	Monzo plus allow free withdrawal upto £400.	Monzo premium allow free withdrawal upto £600.
Cash Deposit	Monzo plus allow 1 free cash Deposit every month.	Monzo premium allow 5 free cash Deposit every month.

Conclusion

So there you have it, my honest take on Monzo Plus after using it for over 6 months. At the end of the day, only you can decide what offers matter most and whether the annual fee fits your budget. I hope my experience at least gives you a better sense of what you can expect as a Monzo Plus customer. Let me know if you have any other questions related to Monzo Plus.

Also read

• Monzo Flex review

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