Monzo scraps Monzo Plus subscription service, replaces development team
UK challenger bank Monzo has pressed the reset button on its Monzo Plus subscription service, replacing the 11-person team in charge of it in the process.
The news arrives just five months after the bank launched Monzo Plus, a premium service which charged users up to £13 per month for product bundles which included additional ATM withdrawals, travel insurance, airport lounge access and merchandise discounts.
UK challenger presses the reset button on five-month old premium offering
Announcing the reshuffle on the Monzo community forum, product marketing director Tom Davies says that the bank is “going back to basics and starting from the beginning”. The team responsible for Monzo Plus will be “finding other impactful areas in the business to work on”, while a new “more nimble” team will take over.
“For a number of reasons, things just haven’t gone the way they should have with Monzo Plus so far this year,” writes Davies. “I know this is frustrating, but it was a tough decision that we had to make our team smaller so we can focus on delivering a paid offering you can really be proud of.”
Existing Monzo Plus customers will be refunded, while the challenger will hold weekly updates on its subscription services going forward. The Monzo Plus name will also be changed.
“We’re taking our first steps based on what’s most irreversible,” wrote Davies. “So, right now, we’re focusing less on the exact cards, the exact name, the exact features, or even the number of plans we have. That’s because we think we can change these later.”
According to Monzo’s 2019 annual report, Monzo Plus was one of the bank’s two main sources of revenue, alongside user overdrafts. Losses at company level for the challenger rose 55% in the same period, to £47 million.
Despite the bank making a loss of £50-65 per customer in 2017, its move away from pre-paid cards now means that its annual incremental revenue per customer sits at £4 for regular users and £30 for those using Monzo as their main bank.
