I have a new and somewhat alarming morning routine. For the first time ever I roll over in bed and scroll down, not through the nourishing comfort of my Instagram feed, but my spending patterns during the last week.
I browse, with pride, at the parsimonious early days of the week – Monday and Tuesday spent working at home, caffeinating myself at the hob in my own kitchen as opposed to at Pret, nipping out at lunchtime only for a frugal ham roll; the evenings spent staying in and sustaining myself on my housemate’s leftover gin instead of diminishing my funds via contacless in the pub. Total spend: £10.11
I continue scrolling and it becomes clear that, having heaved myself over humpday, things start to get slightly more riotous. Lunches from Nisa Local evolve into carafes of wine and salted cod croquettes at Moro. I’m can hardly bring myself to face the ugly truth behind my £11 spend at newsagents--- surely milk and newspapers, not fags? Can one pack really cost that much?
No, I’m not using my usual NatWest app, but thumbing through a new and exciting digital banking phenomenon called Mondo. When I overspend, Mondo knows. Mondo registers my transactions in real time. It knows exactly how much I'm spending, and what I'm spending it on.
Mondo has been dreamt up to combat frustrations at the inefficiencies of the traditional High Street banks, it's ‘for anyone that lives on their mobile phones’. It joins other start-ups, such as Atom and Starling in a spate of new digital-only banks amid news that bank visits have dropped by almost a third since 2011.
Users are issued with a brightly coloured debit card (the most neon coral, somehow the colour really matters) and purchase items with their card as they would with their normal credit or debit card. Your card is linked up with a mobile app which registers and categorises every payment you make as you make it.
Later in the day I travel into town, using my Mondo card for the bus, for an Amazon purchase I make during my journey and a coffee to prepare myself for tackling the Zara sale. ‘You spent £2.80 in Pret a Manger’, my phone alerts me, before I’ve even picked up the drink. ‘Total spend for the day £30.41’. The message arrives with charming cutester touches, a tiny ring of a cash register and an accompanying emoji—the wadge of bank notes with wings. Again, these really seem to make a difference. Earlier this year research found that a third of young adults are scared about checking their bank balance, I have certainly been one of them for as long as I can remember. Mondo, however, is the closest I've come yet to anything resembling 'mindful' finance.
As I head into the sale it’s enormously helpful to know, as basic as it sounds, how much money I have to spend. I’m amazed at how many of us, without this real-time nous, are spending blind to the up-to-date reality of our balances. Why, when we login online, are our recent transactions have to be three-days behind? It makes it difficult to keep track of your spending, even if you're the world's most scrupulous saver.
‘I find this super annoying’ says Tom Blomfield, the matter-of-fact founder of Mondo, tipping back on his chair. ‘It’s not malicious or evil, just the fact that banks built their systems before the internet existed, when you still received your statement at the end of the month.’
Mondo is still in its beta testing phase, operating as what's known as a Lean Startup) where developments are dictated and advised by its users. The team hope to obtain their full banking licence in order to offer overdrafts and direct debit payments in the next two months. At the moment, to get a card you have to join a waiting list – currently 170,000 strong, though this can be skipped if you recommend the app to other your friends. Lily Allen recently raved about Mondo on Twitter and skipped the queue in about 5 seconds. I mention this to Tom, he grins, ‘it’s good for marketing but also allows our team to prioritise the development of new features according to our customers’ needs and suggestions.’
Another neat feature, once you have reconciled your real-time shopping with your budget and you’re safely back at home, is the way the bank categorises your spending. I’m amazed at my travel spend and guilty at the dissolute sums I’ve managed to spend on eating out. From here you can segment your spend via retailer or merchant – this means you can examine which outlets are profiting most from your profligate behaviour. This is where you face the bile-inducing reality of your Uber spend (helpfully, the apps are linked) or the actual fiscal impact of your weekly whirl around Boots.
These bitter realities are important to face. A few years ago a study called 'Sorry Banks, Millennials Hate You' found 71 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds would rather go to the dentist than listen to what their bank says—arguably because what we are told is out of date, irrelevant or just plain unclear. This sense of clarity over your finances is the direction in which Mondo is heading. Until now young people rarely have an overview of how their funds trickle from the black and into the red—our bank statements simply list the owner of the retail space, and rarely the name of the establishment.
‘We’d like Mondo to be your financial control centre’, says Tom. ‘So it could link to other areas of your financial life; the credit card you’re struggling to pay off, your student loan.’ I imagine a world where I have proper visibility of my student debt, where I can check the tiny progress I’m making on the mountainous sum—the whole process suddenly seems less confounding and more organised. I feel calm descend over me.
Future developments will include advice to help users economise. ‘We can study your TFL use and suggest travel times outside of peak hours to help you save money, we can suggest cheaper grocery stores or electricity providers. When you arrive to a new country, not only will we not charge you to use your card or withdraw cash, but we give localised advice on tipping culture or the best exchange rates.’
My first month on Mondo shows that I have, for the most part, measured out my life in trips to Nisa Local and the Tube. But, I also find that I have fallen under my budget, perhaps because I'm more aware of what I'm spending and how much I actually have to spend for once. Normally budgets are anxiety-inducing and difficult to keep to. However, I've found that the process has been pain free; even delightfully satisfying. I have become a Mondo evangelist: get on the waiting list, shout about it on Twitter. Get your Mum involved, sign up your colleagues.
‘We all have to use banking and it’s broken.’ Says Tom, simply. ‘We want to make your money work for you.’ I'm sold.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.