Is Monzo worth it? A review after 9 years as a customer

Affiliate disclosure: this post contains a Monzo referral link. If you use it, we both get the same randomised £10, £20 or £50. It doesn't change anything about your account.

I opened my Monzo account in May 2017, back when it was still a prepaid card with a coral-coloured debit card and a waiting list. Nine years later, it's my primary bank account. I pay my rent through it, sort my salary into pots on payday, use it abroad without thinking about exchange rates, and referred enough friends under the mystery reward to know it almost always lands on the lowest tier, which is now £10.

The question I want to answer here isn't whether Monzo is a good bank; it is. The question is whether it's worth switching to, or whether you're better off staying with whatever you already have.

Two things I'd tell you up front

1. The free account is the product. No monthly fee, instant notifications, pots for budgeting, salary sorting, no foreign transaction fees on card spending, and FSCS protection (government-backed cover if a bank fails) up to £120,000. After nine years, it's still my primary account, and I've never seriously considered switching away. Most people never need Extra, Perks or Max.
2. The paid plans are situational, not essential. Perks (£9/month) pays for itself on its 0.50% savings boost once you hold around £21,600 in instant-access savings, or sooner if the partner perks fit your habits. Max (£19/month) is worth it if you travel enough to need the insurance.

What the free account actually gives you

The free current account includes:

• Instant spending notifications: every card payment triggers a push notification within seconds, showing exactly where and how much
• Pots: separate savings buckets within your account for ring-fencing money (bills, holidays, emergency fund)
• Salary Sorter: automatically splits your salary into pots on payday
• No foreign transaction fees on card payments abroad (Mastercard exchange rate)
• Free ATM withdrawals: unlimited in the EEA (the EU plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein), £200/month free outside it (then 3%)
• Savings pots at 2.75% AER (annual equivalent rate: the yearly rate including compounding): instant access, no lock-in
• Bill splitting and instant Monzo-to-Monzo transfers
• A full UK banking licence, with deposits FSCS protected up to £120,000

The paid plans: are they worth it?

Monzo's paid tiers are Extra (£3/month), Perks (£9/month) and Max (£19/month). Every tier lifts the instant-access savings rate: 3.00% AER on Extra, 3.25% on Perks and 3.50% on Max, against 2.75% on the free plan. Extra adds tools (virtual cards, connected accounts), Perks adds lifestyle perks, and Max adds the insurance bundle. Max's quarter-point over Perks is worth its £10/month premium only above about £48,000 of savings, so its case still rests on the travel, phone and breakdown cover.

My take: I was on the top-tier plan for a year when I was travelling more frequently. The insurance and travel extras made it worthwhile. When travel slowed down, I dropped back to the free account. Monzo makes it easy to switch: no penalty, no commitment (Max's 3-month minimum aside).

For the full plan-by-plan breakdown with worked maths on each tier, see Is Monzo Max worth it? Max vs Perks vs Extra →.

Savings rates in context

Monzo's savings rates are competitive but not market-leading: the free plan's 2.75% AER sits above most high-street accounts and below the best-buy tables. The convenience factor matters here. Monzo savings pots are instant access, set up in seconds, and visible alongside your spending. If you'd otherwise leave money in a 0.5% high-street account because you can't be bothered opening a separate savings product, Monzo's 2.75% is a massive upgrade for zero effort.

Spending abroad

This is one of Monzo's strongest features and the reason I always take it travelling.

Card payments: no foreign transaction fees. You get the Mastercard exchange rate, which is consistently close to the mid-market rate (what banks themselves trade currency at, before any markup). I've used Monzo in Europe, the US, and Southeast Asia. The rate has always been fair.

ATM withdrawals: unlimited and free within the EEA. Outside the EEA, the first £200/month is free, then Monzo charges 3%. For most trips this is fine. If you're withdrawing large amounts of cash in non-EEA countries regularly, Starling or Chase may be better choices.

Compared to traditional banks: most UK banks charge 2.75–3% on foreign transactions. On a two-week holiday with £1,500 in spending, that's £37–£45 in fees you'd avoid with Monzo.

Borrowing: overdrafts and Flex

Overdraft: Monzo offers arranged overdrafts at 19%, 29% or 39% EAR (equivalent annual rate: what it costs over a year if you stayed overdrawn), and which of the three you're offered depends on your credit score. Monzo's representative example is 39% APR. Starling undercuts every tier by four points, and all of them are expensive in absolute terms. Monzo does one thing well here: it shows your overdraft cost in real-time in the app, so you always know exactly what you're paying. No surprises.

Monzo Flex: a buy-now-pay-later feature built into the app. The 3-month plan is 0% interest and genuinely useful for spreading a larger purchase; the longer plans charge interest and get expensive. I've covered Monzo Flex in detail separately.

The app experience

I've used Monzo daily for nine years, and I've tried Starling, Chase, Revolut and Nationwide's apps alongside it. Monzo's is faster, more intuitive, and more useful for actually managing money day-to-day. What I use most:

• Search across every transaction by merchant, amount or category, which is how I find a payment from three months ago
• Automatic spending categories, right about 90% of the time and correctable when they're not
• Trends: month-by-month breakdowns that actually help you spot patterns
• Connected accounts, so other banks (Starling, Chase, traditional banks) show up in the same app

What doesn't work as well: customer support wait times vary. In-app chat is usually fast (under 10 minutes in my experience), but I've had waits of 30+ minutes during busy periods. Phone support exists but isn't Monzo's strength.

Who Monzo is best for

Best for:

• People who want to actually manage their money, not just store it
• Frequent travellers (no foreign transaction fees)
• Anyone currently paying fees or getting poor rates at a high-street bank
• Freelancers and small business owners (see our Monzo Business review)
• Couples who want a Monzo joint account with good budgeting tools

Less ideal for:

• People who need branch access regularly
• Anyone who prefers phone support over app-based chat
• Heavy cash users outside the EEA (ATM limits apply)

If you fit one of those but otherwise like Monzo, the cleanest move isn't to switch. Keep Monzo as your primary and open a second account for the gap: Chase for cashback (the full head-to-head is in Monzo vs Chase), Starling for cheaper overdrafts and non-EEA ATMs, Nationwide for branches, Revolut for multi-currency. The best second UK bank account to pair with Monzo post walks through the maths for each.

The referral bonus

Monzo's refer-a-friend scheme gives both you and the referrer the same randomised amount: £10, £20 or £50, on published odds of 94%, 5% and 1%. You need to sign up using a referral link and make any card payment within 30 days. The reward lands in your account within a few days. Every tier dropped one step in August 2026, and the Monzo mystery reward covers the odds and what they average to.

£10.90 on average for opening a free account is still free money, but it is no longer the biggest referral any UK bank pays: we've compared every scheme we've tested in our best UK bank referral bonuses roundup.

Get your Monzo referral code here →

Monzo FAQs

Is Monzo worth it in 2026?

Yes, for most people. The free account gives you instant spending notifications, budgeting pots, salary sorting, no foreign transaction fees, and FSCS protection up to £120,000, all with no monthly fee. The paid plans (Extra at £3/month, Perks at £9/month, Max at £19/month) are harder to justify unless you specifically need the higher savings rate or travel insurance.

Is Monzo safe to use as a main bank account?

Yes. Monzo holds a full UK banking licence, is FCA-regulated, and your deposits are protected by the FSCS up to £120,000. Monzo says more than 16 million personal and business customers bank with it, and it has been operating since 2015. The lack of physical branches is the only structural difference from a traditional bank.

Is Monzo better than a traditional bank?

For everyday banking, yes. The app is faster, spending notifications are instant, pots make budgeting easier, and there are no foreign transaction fees. Where traditional banks still win: branch access, cheque deposits (Monzo now supports this via the app, but it's slower), and some mortgage providers prefer to see salary going into a traditional bank account.

Is Monzo Extra, Perks, or Max worth paying for?

Monzo Extra (£3/month) adds virtual cards, connected accounts and 3.00% AER instant access against the free plan's 2.75%, a boost that covers its fee at around £14,400 in savings. Perks (£9/month) takes the rate to 3.25% and adds lifestyle rewards; its 0.50% boost over the free plan covers the fee at around £21,600. Monzo Max (£19/month) pays 3.50% and adds worldwide travel insurance, phone insurance, breakdown cover and discounted lounge entry: worth it if you travel frequently and would otherwise buy those separately. The worked break-even maths for each tier is in our plans review.

What are the downsides of Monzo?

No physical branches. Free ATM withdrawals outside the EEA are capped at £200/month (then 3% fee). Arranged overdrafts run at 19%, 29% or 39% EAR depending on your credit score. And if you rely on phone support, wait times can be longer than in-app chat.

The bottom line

Switching to Monzo doesn't mean closing what you already have: you can open the account, run it alongside, and move your salary over when you're convinced. It takes about 10 minutes.

Sources

• Monzo plans (opens in new tab): the monthly price of Extra, Perks and Max, the savings rate on each tier, the fee-free non-EEA ATM allowance per plan, and Max's minimum term
• Monzo savings (opens in new tab): the free account's instant-access rate
• Travel without fees (opens in new tab): no foreign transaction fees, the Mastercard exchange rate, unlimited EEA cash withdrawals, and the non-EEA allowance and the fee past it
• Monzo overdrafts (opens in new tab): the arranged overdraft rate and its representative example
• Monzo Flex (opens in new tab): the representative APR and the interest-free three-month plan
• About Monzo (opens in new tab): the customer count
• FSCS: check your money is protected (opens in new tab): the deposit protection limit
• Monzo refer a friend (opens in new tab) and the referral scheme terms (opens in new tab) (v4.0, 13 August 2026): the qualifying card payment and its window, and the £10/£20/£50 reward table with its 94/5/1 odds
• My own Monzo account: the app behaviour, the support wait times, the plan I ran while travelling, and what my referrals have paid out