Our mission is to make money work for everyone, and that means we can’t just stay in the UK forever. Our next stop is the USA, and for the past few months we’ve been exploring how we can launch here, and what a US version of Monzo would look like.
If you’re not familiar with Monzo, hello!
We started Monzo in 2015 because we believe that banking should be better, and we think we’re onto something special. Today, we’re the UK’s fastest growing bank – over 2 million people bank with us and 40,000 more open a current account every week. We recently won Best Banking App at the British Bank Awards 2019, and our community of customers quite literally build the bank with us: they chose our name, they suggest new features on our community forum, and they help us test and refine everything we do. Now we want to bring that across the Atlantic.
Our long-term vision
We want Monzo to be the center of your financial life, moving mountains in the background to give you a simple, straightforward way to manage your money. Imagine being able to instantly move any money you have left over at the end of the month from your Monzo account into a savings account of your choice, that suits your needs and situation. You could see and manage those savings, all from within the app.
Or let’s say you go to a jeweller to buy an expensive gift, and pay for it using your Monzo card. Imagine being able to insure it from within the app in a single click, so you have peace-of-mind before you even leave the shop.
All your accounts visible in one place, effortless savings and investments, fair and flexible borrowing, and access to products and services to make your life easier. Sometimes these products will be provided by other companies – for example we’re helping customers in the UK get more from their savings by offering them Savings Pots powered by another bank.
We’re starting with a light version of Monzo
In the next few months, we’re going to start rolling out Monzo accounts, with a Mastercard debit card and mobile app. The first version of the app will let you use some of the same features as Monzo in the UK, like:
Instant spending notifications
Person to person payments
Pots to split your savings from your spending money
Friendly, 24x7, human customer service
Fee-free spending abroad
We know that American customers’ needs won’t be exactly the same as in the UK, so we’re starting simple. We want people to use Monzo, tell us what works and what doesn’t, and collaborate with us to make Monzo the ideal bank account for the US. We’ve always built Monzo alongside our strong community of users, who test things out and give us plenty of feedback – and we’re confident it’s the right approach in the US too.
We’re rolling out slowly
We’ll be opening the first Monzo accounts in the US in summer 2019. Like we did when we first got started in the UK, we’ll host face-to-face events in major US cities, a few hundred people at a time. This will let us meet and speak to our early users, and gives you a chance to meet the people behind the product. Anyone can sign up to come to our events. All you need to do is join our waitlist and we’ll let you know when the next event near you is happening.
Once we’re happy that Monzo’s working well with these early users and we’ve made improvements based on your feedback, we’ll let more of you sign up directly through the app.
We’re not a US bank… yet
Monzo isn’t a bank in the US yet, so we’ll be working with a partner bank to make sure that your money’s safe (it’ll be fully FDIC-insured). We’ve also started to build a small team in LA. Longer term we’ll apply to become fully licensed as a US Bank. But because that’s a long process we want to start serving the US sooner, so we can learn and iterate fast.
We’re here because we believe that banking can be better. We’re tired of hidden fees and charges, endless paper forms, and nothing quite working the way it should. So we’re trying to build a bank that we’d want for ourselves, our friends, and our families. This is your chance to be a part of that mission. We’ll listen to your feedback and suggestions, and we’ll regularly release new features you actually want.
While we do that, we’d love to hear your feedback and ideas, and answer your questions. So get in touch with us via our community forum, where there’s an area dedicated to this new adventure in the US. Or tweet us @monzousa!