Monzo Debuts Tool to Ease Shared Expense Awkwardness

United Kingdom FinTech Monzo debuted a tool to help consumers share expenses with friends and family.

Monzo Split is aimed at solving what the company said is a persistent problem in the U.K. Consumers lose money because they feel too awkward to ask to be paid back after covering shared expenses, according to a Monday (March 24) press release provided to PYMNTS.

“We’ve all been there — trying to stay on top of costs on a group trip, managing ongoing household expenses or buying that round of drinks — and then awkwardly chasing people,” Monzo Chief Product Officer Andy Smart said in the release. “We don’t think splitting costs should come at a cost, so we built Monzo Split. Now, whether you’re a Monzo customer or not, we can take care of the tracking, the maths, and even the nudging, so you don’t have to.”

More than half of U.K. residents routinely cover costs for others, while over a third have fallen out with friends or family over asking to be paid back, the release said.

With Monzo Split, consumers can avoid these situations by splitting, tracking, paying and requesting payments from a single space, even if they don’t bank with Monzo, per the release. The tool offers two ways to manage expenses: Running Split, for recurring expenses like household bills, and Single Split, for one-time expenses like a shared cab ride.

The launch of Monzo Split follows the release of similar products designed to ease expense sharing among consumers.

For example, PayPal last year introduced Pool Money, a feature that helps customers and their friends and family pool funds for shared expenses like group gifts, travel and special events.

A few weeks later, financial platform Tribe Money Pools announced the launch of its mobile payments app, which lets organizations, teams and social groups streamline shared expenses.

Bill splitting is a widespread use for digital wallets, particularly among young users. The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Digital Wallets Beyond Financial Transactions: U.K. Edition” found that 19% of Generation Z consumers and 12.5% of millennials in the U.K. routinely turn to digital wallets for this purpose.

“As younger generations embrace this functionality, they’re changing how financial exchanges happen among peers, making digital wallets indispensable for everyday financial management,” PYMNTS reported in December.