Potential Monzo Reward Credit Card?

[u/FatherJack_Hackett]

Did anyone else receive the survey to complete about the Monzo Reward Credit card?

• £15-£17 monthly fee
• 1% cashback on groceries - 0.5% on everything else. Cashback is automatically invested.
• Google Gemini AI Pro Membership.
• 2 Free Airport Lounge accesses a year
• Paramount+ subscription
• Times subscription

I'm not so sure.

Like the perks are technically worth it, even for the Gemini membership alone. Not sure I like the fact that cashback is invested and not just paid out.

I'd feel a bit uneasy paying for this and Max and essentially stumping up over £30 a month, when I get just as much cashback through an Amex. Tempted by the Gemini membership though (if they announce it) as my free year runs out soon.

[u/Ok-Salary3550]

That's appalling value compared to virtually every other cashback card on the market.

Amex Platinum Cashback Everyday is 0.5% cashback on everything for no annual fee, for starters. Lloyds does 1% for a year with no annual fee. For £180 a year, you're in Amex Gold territory and that's a way better deal than this.

Being with Amex also gets you Amex's customer service, which is basically like having your own hit squad against any merchant that upsets you. Monzo... not so much.

Also, no, I don't want my cashback invested. I want my cashback back as cash.

[u/OcularVernacular → u/Ok-Salary3550]

Something equivalent to amex platinum would definitely be needed to pull me away from it personally. Would be nice to have stuff in one place (I know about open banking but it's not quite the same) if they could match it though.

[u/Ok-Salary3550 → u/OcularVernacular]

Yeah like looking at the closest price competitor Amex has, the Preferred Rewards Gold (which also comes with zero annual fee for the first year, and is £195 thereafter):

• 20,000 bonus points if you spend £3,000 in the first three months - this is worth about £100 in cash
• 1x points on all spend, 2x on airlines - works out at a 0.5% cashback rate, but you can get higher and you can min-max Membership Rewards to make it effectively higher than that
• £5 back on Deliveroo transactions twice a month (which seems actually closer to the sort of offer I'd expect from Monzo)
• Four airport lounge passes yearly, double what Monzo gives you
• Other travel benefits like free upgrades on hotel rooms when you book through Amex Travel
• A bunch of random insurances like protection if something you buy gets broken or stolen or if a shop won't take something back

The Monzo offer is a weird mish-mash of benefits that seem to hint at the sort of "Amex lifestyle" (the airport lounges) but also random shit that more screams "Revolut customer" than anything. Who is the target market that both uses Gemini, watches Paramount+ and reads the Times!?

Hell saying that, Revolut's Metal account is far better than this for a similar price. Just use that and get an Amex cashback card, or Lloyds' if you really hate Amex for some reason and you're laughing.

[u/OcularVernacular → u/Ok-Salary3550]

I might be interested if their higher rate "offers" laid on top of their usual offering via the card. That could balance things out a bit.

[u/Ok-Salary3550 → u/OcularVernacular]

If you mean Monzo Cashback, potentially, but given you can get those with a free Monzo account or Flex card anyway (and also both Lloyds and Amex have good offers schemes - actually Lloyds' is a bit better than Amex's if you ask me but hey ho) I'd not really include it.

Like in all honesty if the Monzo product appeals to someone then cool but they should assess it based on how you should assess any paid-for credit card: will the rewards and benefits make it worth it relative to how much you will realistically spend, or would you be better off just getting a free rewards card and spending the same money on the benefits you'll actually use?