It’s no secret that travel is better with Monzo. Whether it’s the lack of fees for paying in the local currency, fuss-free cash withdrawals, or the ability to split bills with travel buddies, if you originally got Monzo for a trip abroad, you’re not alone.
But don’t let positive financial habits fall by the wayside as soon as you touch down on home turf after a holiday.
Make them last longer than a holiday romance – use Monzo to budget, curb your spending, save, split bills with your friends and lots of other things that’ll make life easier.
So, if you’ve returned from a trip and are wondering how to make the most of Monzo back at home, here are some ideas to get you started.
1. Learn about your spending habits
Not knowing how much you’re spending and saving (if anything) each month can be stressful. The Trends tab gives you visibility over your spending, helping you to track your progress and stay motivated to stick to a budget.
Here’s how to get started:
Go to Trends in the bottom navigation bar
Balance shows a total of the money coming in and out of your account. This can help you pace yourself throughout the month. It also tells you how much you’ve got left to spend after bills and upcoming payments, so you don’t find yourself short.
Spending shows a breakdown of your transactions separated by category or merchant. Tap each category or merchant to see the individual transactions.
2. Set spending targets
Looking to get your spending under control after a few too many Aperol spritzes, beers, margaritas, wines, mocktails or all of the above, while on holiday?
Set realistic spending goals that take into account how much money you make, your essential costs and the lifestyle you want to live. This might be saving £5 a week until you’ve got enough for the new jacket you’ve been eyeing up, or spending no more than £100 each month on entertainment.
Here’s how:
Go to Trends in the bottom navigation bar
Tap Target and Get started
Choose the accounts, spending categories and monthly start date you’d like to track
Set a monthly spending target
Use the interactive graph to track your spending
Scroll down to see a breakdown of your spending by category
3. Use notifications to demystify your spending
Turn on instant spending notifications to make you more aware of your daily spending. Like handing over cash and watching it diminish, spending notifications make it easier to see your money going down.
This means fewer nasty surprises when you open Monzo. It might even make you less likely to impulse shop.
Choose which notifications you get from us in your settings:
Tap your display photo in the top left corner of the Home tab
Tap the Settings cog in the top right-hand corner
Tap Notifications
Enable notifications for Transactions and payments
4. Sort out your savings with Pots
Separate your money into different Pots which each have a purpose. Make one for rent, bills and other expenses, for monthly savings (like an emergency fund and a Future You Fund), and anything else you’re aiming towards (like another holiday!). You can create up to 20 Regular Pots.
This way, you know you’ve got your basics covered before you start spending on nice-to-haves. It’ll also make you less likely to feel bad when you do treat yourself, because you know you can afford it.
To create a Pot:
Tap your display photo in the top left corner of the Home tab
Tap Create Pot and choose a Regular Pot
Name the Pot and add a fun custom image that will motivate you to contribute to it
5. Earn interest on your savings
Open an Instant Access Savings Pot and earn up to 3.20% AER interest (variable), paid monthly into your Pot. It only takes a few seconds to set up - head to Create Pot, and tap Savings when choosing the type of Pot you’d like to open.
With the new Instant Access Savings Pot, there’s no minimum deposit and you can access your money straight away.
6. Schedule payments into Pots to help you save
It can be tricky remembering to put money aside every month for different things, especially given the rising cost of living.
After setting up scheduled payments, you can sit back and watch the money move into your desired Pots by itself, rather than having to do it manually each month.
To set it up, when you create a Pot:
Tap Set scheduled payment
Under Pot Transfers, tap Schedule deposit
Select the amount, start date and how often you want to repeat the deposit
Tap Schedule
See all your scheduled payments in one place under the Payments tab.
7. Sort your salary automatically on payday
Use Salary Sorter to separate your wages between spending money, savings and bills, without having to think about this.
You’ll need Pots already set up. Simply tap the payment once it hits your account and select Salary Sorter.
Tell Monzo to remember these preferences when you’re paid from the same sender again. You can always edit the amounts at a later date.
8. Save spare change using round-ups
Every little helps when it comes to saving money. Enable round-ups to automatically round up your purchase to the nearest pound and save the spare change into one of your Pots.
For example, if you bought a coffee for £3.50, we’ll round up this amount to £4 and put 50p into your chosen Pot. People save an extra £129 on average every year with round-ups.
To turn on round-ups, just create a new Pot and select Round up transactions.
If you've already got a Pot you want to add round ups to, go to your Pot's settings and tap Round up transactions from there.
These are just a handful of ways to get started using Monzo to make managing your money easier in your daily life.
Once you’ve put them into practice, you’ll forget that you ever considered it “just a travel card”.
To apply for a Monzo current account you must be a UK resident, Ts&Cs apply.