News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund by krn on Tuesday June 25, 2019 @05:52AM (#20272562)
Revolut offers lower ATM fees, lower foreign exchange fees, disposable virtual cards for online payments, and up to 1% cashback on all card payments.
Re:Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund by matthewmacleod on Tuesday June 25, 2019 @06:20AM (#20272689)
The point I was making is that none of those things are very interesting to me – I use a credit card when travelling, don't travel enough for banking to be a constraint, and don't need virtual cards.

Also, note that there are already zero ATM fees in the UK, Monzo does £200 of fee-free foreign withdrawals/month in line with the Revolut free account, and cashback is only 1% outside of Europe, if you are paying for the most expensive account. This is kind of what I mean – the offering seems to suffer from the same problems as older banks, in that it kinda looks good on the surface but mostly comes with a bunch of stuff I have zero interest in.

Re:Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund by krn on Tuesday June 25, 2019 @06:31AM (#20272741)
> Also, note that there are already zero ATM fees in the UK

That makes a big difference, and it's not the case in continental Europe. Monzo then seems to be optimized for a single market and a single type of user (who doesn't travel much). I totally understand your case now.

> and don't need virtual cards

Are you using the same physical debit / credit card for all online payments? I don't see how disposable virtual cards is not the best solution for private and secure online transactions at the moment.

Re:Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund by nothrabannosir on Tuesday June 25, 2019 @11:45AM (#20275371)
I have visited quite a few countries in Europe, but never found one where ATM fees are de rigueur. Actually in all my travels ever in the entire world, it was only the USA where I really couldn’t find a fee-free ATM no matter how hard I looked.

Ironically, the only European country where I ever even see some ATMs with fees, at all, is the UK.

Monzo has no surcharge over the network fee for foreign currency transactions, so it’s quite good. However, it’s a debit card, and credit cards still win for reliability when renting cars or buying airplane tickets.

When it comes to virtual cards: it’s a matter of taste. Personally I don’t care a single iota if my card gets defrauded; issue a chargeback, get a new one, done. Not worth giving up for the convenience of auto fill of C.C. in the browser.

Re:Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund by krn on Wednesday June 26, 2019 @07:14AM (#20283816)
> I have visited quite a few countries in Europe, but never found one where ATM fees are de rigueur.

At least in my EU country, every bank charges 2% (min. 2.9€) for using any local or foreign ATM that doesn't belong to its own network.

With Monzo, taking out 1000€ from any ATM in continental Europe costs 30€. With Revolut it's 20€. The difference alone buys one a Premium subscription at Revolut.

Re:Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund by matthewmacleod on Tuesday June 25, 2019 @12:07PM (#20275619)
Yes; Monzo is probably optimised for UK consumers who don't travel much – which is the vast majority of the UK market.

I don't have any real use-case for virtual cards, since both card provider and service provider still get to track everything. It's possible that it might be valuable to limit the amount that can be charged by a provider, or to allow a virtual card to be independently disabled in case of fraud, but I'm not particularly concerned about those given the ease of reclaiming funds generally.

Re:Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund by namdnay on Tuesday June 25, 2019 @10:47AM (#20274730)
Don’t you get hit by international fees when using your credit card abroad? As a regular business traveler living in europe, Revolut has saved me a fortune (I even turn a small profit with the Metal cashback)
Re:Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund by matthewmacleod on Tuesday June 25, 2019 @11:59AM (#20275511)
No; there are a good selection of credit cards available with no foreign transaction fees. I have a Barclaycard that has no fees, higher cash back than Revolut, and has no monthly fee.
Re:Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund by grey-area on Tuesday June 25, 2019 @11:13AM (#20275036)
Don’t you get hit by international fees when using your credit card abroad?

No. There are fees for withdrawing cash over £200, but not using the card abroad.

Re:Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund by nothrabannosir on Tuesday June 25, 2019 @11:36AM (#20275297)
Grand parent said they use a “credit card” abroad, implying they don’t use Monzo, or wouldn’t need Revolut. Monzo is a debit card.
Re:Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund by grey-area on Wednesday June 26, 2019 @04:30AM (#20282958)
Ah thanks, sorry I missed that.

If you don't mind using a debit card abroad though, Monzo gives you a good rate, not sure why you'd need to use a credit card.

Re:Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund by mantap on Tuesday June 25, 2019 @07:26AM (#20273075)
Not everybody wants a credit card, or is able to have one. Revolut et al provide many of the features of a credit card without having to borrow money and pay it back.
Re:Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund by slavoingilizov on Tuesday June 25, 2019 @06:02AM (#20272614)
Only for their Metal subscription, which is paid, not free. Irrelevant comparison.

https://www.revolut.com/introducing-revolut-metal

Re:Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund by krn on Tuesday June 25, 2019 @06:16AM (#20272676)
> Only for their Metal subscription

False. Monzo's ATM fee is 3%, Revolut's 2%. Monzo gives MasterCard's exchange rate, Revolut gives real exchange rate.

If you take out at least 600 EUR / GBP monthly, the Revolut Metal subscription with all the benefits becomes essentially free.

Re:Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund by TazeTSchnitzel on Tuesday June 25, 2019 @09:43AM (#20274056)
Is Revolut offering lower but less sustainable costs to attract more customers?

Monzo's approach, if they are to be believed, is to try to make charges cover their costs but be small, fair and simple.

Re:Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund by krn on Tuesday June 25, 2019 @09:59AM (#20274215)
> Is Revolut offering lower but less sustainable costs to attract more customers?

Revolut broke even on monthly bases in December 2017[1], and Monzo was still loosing money in April 2019[2].

[1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-fintech-revolut/fintech-r...

[2] https://metro.co.uk/2019/04/08/monzo-set-100m-funding-despit...

Re:Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund by easytiger on Tuesday June 25, 2019 @10:12AM (#20274357)
This is the second post that you've made that isn't true. Revolut is not profitable. It reports an operating loss.

What's your reason for such inaccurate information?

Re:Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund by krn on Tuesday June 25, 2019 @10:41AM (#20274667)
> Revolut is not profitable. It reports an operating loss.

It reported an operating loss for 2017, because it stopped losing money on monthly basis only in December 2017.

Re:Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund by easytiger on Tuesday June 25, 2019 @10:47AM (#20274740)
> It reported operating loss for 2017, because it stopped losing money on monthly basis only in December 2017.

What are you talking about? That's gibberish. It lost about £15million in 2017

Re:Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund by krn on Tuesday June 25, 2019 @11:10AM (#20275013)
> It lost about £15million in 2017

If a company was losing money for the first 11 months out of 12, that's an expected result.

Re:Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund by easytiger on Tuesday June 25, 2019 @11:28AM (#20275196)
> If a company was losing money for the first 11 months out of 12, that's an expected result.

I dunno what you think you are trying to achieve. Revolut is not profitable

Re:Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund by TazeTSchnitzel on Tuesday June 25, 2019 @10:08AM (#20274308)
Interesting. Maybe Revolut's paid accounts work out well for it or it's able to earn profit from certain services.
Re:Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund by JustFinishedBSG on Tuesday June 25, 2019 @05:07PM (#20278957)
> lower foreign exchange fees

Except the weekend. Gotta read fine prints.

> up to 1% cashback on all card payments.

Except in Europe, its market.

Re:Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund by easytiger on Tuesday June 25, 2019 @10:07AM (#20274289)
> and up to 1% cashback on all card payments.

No it doesn't

Re:Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund by krn on Tuesday June 25, 2019 @10:27AM (#20274522)
It's a feature for Revolut Metal subscribers[1].

[1] https://www.revolut.com/introducing-revolut-metal

Re:Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund by easytiger on Tuesday June 25, 2019 @10:46AM (#20274726)
It's 0.1% for most uses and it's subject to very vague usage requirements they don't let you read until you sign up, as far as I can tell.

So you need to spend £15k a month to recoup your monthly fee.

Natwrst have more generous cashback for their bill payments scheme alone.

Re:Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund by krn on Tuesday June 25, 2019 @10:56AM (#20274839)
I think it's pretty clear to everyone that 1% cashback can only be offered in North America and other markets, as the interchange fees for Visa and Mastercard consumer debit cards are capped at 0.2% of the transaction value in the EU.