Millions of Monzo users nationwide will experience a major change to their app in the days leading up to Christmas. The digital bank has announced it is removing one of its most popular features and introducing an entirely new service in its place.

The Summary feature within the Monzo app allows customers to quickly view their current financial position whilst making budgeting more straightforward. It operates by consolidating a user's income, scheduled payments, bills, ongoing expenditure, and funds held in pots or savings accounts, then displaying an overview of their available spending money.

Normally, users can view their Summary for various spending periods by tapping a small pie chart icon located in the top corner of their app. Below the overall summary, the application also calculates an estimate of how much money a person might have remaining at the conclusion of their Summary period, or whether they risk running short of funds.

Nevertheless, Monzo is now informing customers via the app that Summary will be discontinued on 21 December. In a notification to users titled 'we're saying goodbye to Summary', the app states: "On December 21, we're retiring Summary. You'll find simpler, smarter spending insights in Trends."

While Trends will provide services akin to Summary, it will lack certain key features that customers may depend on.

Monzo confirmed in an app notification: "For now, unfortunately, you won't be able to set weekly or 4-weekly spend periods, or exclude transactions that aren't categorised."

The bank added: "That said, we're already busy making upgrades to Trends - to make it work for everyone."

In a post on its own community site, Monzo stated that new customers from March 2023 would not have access to Summary. The bank also suggested that very few of its customers actually utilise Summary to monitor their spending, preferring instead to use Trends.

Despite this claim, many customers have expressed their displeasure at the idea of losing summary. One person on the community forum said: I loved summary. I find trends difficult to use and understand, overcomplicated, and basically never use it to try to set or monitor budgets."

Another added: "No oooooo Summary is very useful. I've always struggled with trends, while I'm sure it's fine for some, I could never get it to work and present information in a useful and meaningful way.

"I'm really disappointed."

A third said: "Sorry but disagree, trends is over complicated. It serves a purpose but so did the summary. I just want a nice simple view of what I've spent and whether I'm over spending. With trends I have to remove my other accounts, look at different views etc.

"I really miss the simplicity of the earlier versions of the app."

While some are outraged at losing one of Monzo's hallmark features, others have pointed out that Trends can be better if set up correctly. One customer on the forum said: "Summary's left to spend was the number 1 thing that helped me to get my finances on track and make sure I was spending within my limits.

"It was a great feature but I get that it has been outgrown by improvements such as connected accounts. At first I struggled with trends as it took a while to get the right setup to make sure my "left to spend" and "total upcoming" figures were right.

"Once setup right, trends gives a much richer picture. Id love to see some AI embedded into trends to help provide further insights into spending habits and patterns."