Three Months On – Monzo Plus Review

If there’s one thing I can’t stop talking about when it comes to saving and managing your money better it’s Monzo. And I talk about it a lot including Monzo Joint accounts and the newly released Monzo Flex. But today I wanted to talk about Monzo Plus which I’ve now had for three months.

I’ve never paid a monthly fee on a bank account before as I’ve never seen one worth the payment to me. But Monzo Plus swayed me with some of its offers.

What does Monzo Plus include?

There’s a lot of things that are on offer if you get Monzo Plus including:

• Having all your accounts and credit cards in one place
• 1% interest on balance and regular pots
• The ability to create custom categories
• Advanced roundups
• Cashback on international transfers
• Credit score that you can see in the app
• Virtual cards to use online
• The ability to auto-export transactions
• A free cash deposit each month
• Up to £400 fee-free withdrawal each month when abroad
• Offers available
• A holographic card

How much does Monzo Plus cost?

If you upgrade to the Plus account it costs £5 a month and you have to commit to a minimum of 3 months.

You can also get Monzo Premium which is £15 a month. That includes all of the above perks alongside phone and travel insurance, a higher withdrawal limit abroad and the highest level of interest on savings.

The things I have used and loved the most

There are always going to be some perks that you use more than others and there are six that I loved the most.

All accounts in one place

Having all of my other bank accounts and cards in one place makes managing my money so much easier. I have attached two credit cards, our Monzo joint account and other bills current account in one place. This way I can categorise transactions from all of my accounts and get a better idea of how our money is being spent. I can also move money easily between accounts which makes managing things much better.

Custom categories with Monzo Plus

Categories in Monzo are great so you can see how much you spend on bills vs shopping vs eating out. But with Monz Plus you can create as many custom categories as you need. I created categories for our cats, Christmas presents, books and so much more. So then when I review spending I can see exactly how I have spent my money.

You can divide single transactions into multiple categories to group spending together. And if you want to review your spending you can auto-export transactions to Google Sheets for more detail.

Interest on money

Not a lot of accounts are offering interest at the moment so I jumped at the thought of getting some. Monzo Plus offers 1% AER/ Gross (variable) interest and you can earn interest on up to £2,000 in your account balance and regular pots.

You’re not going to get rich on the interest but the few pounds and pence each month can add up. I’ve earned about £7 in the first few months of having the account which is better than nothing.

Virtual cards with Monzo Plus

The majority of my spending happens online so keeping myself safe is really important.

You can keep your physical card details safe with a virtual card. When you choose a virtual card Monzo will give you card details totally different from your account so if your details are hacked, or you shop from somewhere dodgy you’re safe.

When creating a virtual card you can have up to 5 active at once and you can even select the payments to come from a particular pot in your account.

Additional round ups

I love my roundups as it’s an easy way to save money without noticing it. It usually works that if you spend £2.75 you’d save the extra 25p into a pot. But with Monzo Plus you can put 2, 5 or 10 times as much spare change into savings each time you spend.

If you changed it to 2 times you’d save 50p in the above example, or 5 times it would be £2.50. This is a great way to up your savings little by little. I’ve currently got mine set to 2 as it’s still a small enough amount that I don’t notice it coming out when I spend.

Better cash withdrawals abroad with Monzo Plus

With a normal Monzo card you can withdraw £200 fee free each month when you’re abroad. But with Monzo Plus this is doubled to £400.

We went to Crete a few weeks ago and although we didn’t hit the normal Monzo limit it was good to know we could withdraw more fee free if we needed it.

Have you ever paid more for benefits with your bank account?

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