Shameful expenses, payment habits, details of savings… The retrospective of a neo-bank makes people cringe

2023-12-27 14:19:34

By AR

Published 40 minutes ago, Updated 38 minutes ago

If these negative reactions are not necessarily representative of Monzo’s 7 million customers, they say a lot about the limits of personalized retrospectives, the new favorite of companies. fizkes / stock.adobe.com

Modeled on the Spotify retrospective, the “recap” launched by the British online bank was not unanimous among its customers. Some did not appreciate seeing themselves pinned down in their consumption habits.

On paper, the idea was good. Taking up the principle of “musical retrospective» offered by the streaming platform Spotify and many others, the neobank Monzo has decided to put together a little personalized summary for each of its customers. A fun bulletin in which the online bank sifts through its customers’ payment data to tell them where and when they spent the most money in 2023, but also the details of their savings… The aggregated results allow thus highlighting a peak in spending in cinemas on July 22, the release date of the films Oppenheimer et Barbie but also to highlight the very high rate of nighttime transactions in Leicester, sacred “party capital of England» by the bank. Except that according to the comments left on social networks, some customers would have done without these revelations.

While sharing the results of their retrospective, many Internet users were annoyed by the conclusions drawn by the online bank on X (formerly Twitter). “Why does Monzo think I need a rundown of all my shameful habits?”, squeaked a English customer upon learning that a good part of his annual income had been squandered in a London bar. Like him, dozens of other customers were moved by the image conveyed by the summary of their expenses. By discovering that she was among the 5% of customers who spent the most at the drinks and food vending machine, a British indicated with humor “that it was certainly the saddest thing» that ever happened to him. “Thank you Monzo“, she concluded ironically. A young American for his part, could not digest being called to order for his long orders placed at McDonald’s. “Who decided to let Monzo Bank design a retrospective? They just called me fat for no reason“, he railed on December 25.

Also read Spotify, Nintendo, SNCF… How to explain the crazy success of “retrospectives”?

Retrospectives, slippery slope for companies

If these negative reactions are not necessarily representative of Monzo’s 7 million customers, they say a lot about the limits of personalized retrospectives, the new favorite of companies. In an article that the Figaro had devoted to the subject on December 23, a marketing teacher believed that retrospectives are only of interest if “the brands in question have values ​​or positive affects to convey». «Young people, in particular, like to promote their responsible consumption», remarked the expert, citing the example of the Retrainspective launched by the SNCF. Conversely, polluting or unethical purchasing acts do not really make consumers proud. “It’s hard to imagine UberEat reminding us of all the times we didn’t have the strength to get up from our couch“, joked the specialist. It does seem that Monzo has fallen into this pitfall…

For Patrice Bernard, financial consultant and blog author «It’s not my idea», the misstep of online banking is due to the difficulty of its subject, money. “These demonstrations reflect the immense diversity of feelings of consumers when it comes to their money, multiplied when they are confronted with their behavior and their contradictions in this area», notes the specialist. Monzo’s mishap also demonstrates the increased lucidity of customers, now capable of discerning the marketing operation behind the personalized gift. “It’s a warning to the entire financial industry about the danger of viewing all customers as a homogeneous group, where personalization efforts only serve marketing purposes.“, he believes. Not to mention the hot topic of personal data, since each retrospective of this type recalls the colossal amount of data collected by tech giants. For neo-banks, the question arises with all the more urgency as financial data remains considered sensitive data.

For now, Monzo does not seem particularly concerned about the controversy arising from its operation. To those who are not satisfied with the results of their retrospectives, fintech suggests that the numbers are the numbers. “We’re sorry to hear you’re not a fan of your year in the Monzo era, but we can’t reanalyze your results», we read on his Internet. Against the “bad buzz”, Monzo is even counting on its end-of-year initiative to recruit new customers in 2024. “Start spending and saving on Monzo to get your recap next year», Encourages the neobank.