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Disclaimer: I work for Mondo. I was a big fan (and user) of Simple in the early days - I really admired their vision & UX focus. However, Simple wasn't able to

Disclaimer: I work for Mondo. I was a big fan (and user) of Simple in the early days - I really admired their vision & UX focus. However, Simple wasn't able to lend because fundamentally they were not a bank - they were a skin on Bancorp (and now BBVA). If you're relying on card interchange fees or net-interest income ("NII") without any real lending business, it's almost impossible to make the numbers stack up. As a bank, even if you pay close to 0% interest on account balances, you'll only make about 1% investing that money in government gilts, giving a net interest margin ("NIM") of 1%.

cmsj 11y ago
So, I get that you want to make the accounts free, but frankly, for the kind of service you're talking about, I would very gladly pay a monthly fee. I say that a) because I agree that all of the current UK banks suck and I'm willing to vote with my wallet, b) I haven't been overdrawn since my student days, nor do I typically carry any short term debt, thus making me a terrible customer for you, because I wouldn't be generating any revenue (beyond the interchange fees). Also, if I can throw some feature requests at you: * I want to annotate my Direct Debits. I have a bunch of them and it's very annoying to keep track of which DD relates to which tangible thing in my life (e.g. all the insurance products I have, which despite having been sold to me by visible brands, are billed directly by underwriters with inscrutable names) * I absolutely do not want a little two factor device I shove my debit card into, with its pathetic little LCD screen that fails every 6 months. I want my phone to authenticate me with TouchID and/or an APNS/SMS code. * I want my account visible via an (documented) API, so it integrates cleanly into iBank on my Mac (or similar apps). I currently keep my local archive of account transactions by manually exporting Quicken files from my bank's website. * I'd like to be allowed to access the account API myself, because maybe I want to write a Mac app that puts my live balance in an NSMenuItem * Search. Oh my goodness why can I not search my account history for merchant names, dates, or amounts. * Apply Pay support (duh) * Cheque deposit via my phone's camera * Instant setup/teardown of sub-accounts, so I can quickly open a savings pot for a particular thing I want to buy, then delete it when I hit my target :)
- abritishguy 11y ago
  The only one of them that is not doable is the cheque deposit as in the UK the bank needs the physical cheque.
  - tomblomfield 11y ago
    Rumours suggest this is going to change in UK law very soon.
- tomblomfield 11y ago
  I think you'll like what we're building :-) Drop us your email at https://getmondo.co.uk https://getmondo.co.uk and we'll let you know when you can try out the account.

cmsj 11y ago

So, I get that you want to make the accounts free, but frankly, for the kind of service you're talking about, I would very gladly pay a monthly fee. I say that a) because I agree that all of the current UK banks suck and I'm willing to vote with my wallet, b) I haven't been overdrawn since my student days, nor do I typically carry any short term debt, thus making me a terrible customer for you, because I wouldn't be generating any revenue (beyond the interchange fees). Also, if I can throw some feature requests at you: * I want to annotate my Direct Debits. I have a bunch of them and it's very annoying to keep track of which DD relates to which tangible thing in my life (e.g. all the insurance products I have, which despite having been sold to me by visible brands, are billed directly by underwriters with inscrutable names) * I absolutely do not want a little two factor device I shove my debit card into, with its pathetic little LCD screen that fails every 6 months. I want my phone to authenticate me with TouchID and/or an APNS/SMS code. * I want my account visible via an (documented) API, so it integrates cleanly into iBank on my Mac (or similar apps). I currently keep my local archive of account transactions by manually exporting Quicken files from my bank's website. * I'd like to be allowed to access the account API myself, because maybe I want to write a Mac app that puts my live balance in an NSMenuItem * Search. Oh my goodness why can I not search my account history for merchant names, dates, or amounts. * Apply Pay support (duh) * Cheque deposit via my phone's camera * Instant setup/teardown of sub-accounts, so I can quickly open a savings pot for a particular thing I want to buy, then delete it when I hit my target :)

abritishguy 11y ago
The only one of them that is not doable is the cheque deposit as in the UK the bank needs the physical cheque.
- tomblomfield 11y ago
  Rumours suggest this is going to change in UK law very soon.
tomblomfield 11y ago
I think you'll like what we're building :-) Drop us your email at https://getmondo.co.uk https://getmondo.co.uk and we'll let you know when you can try out the account.