28 Mar 2025

Monzo launches bill splitting feature: how it compares to other banks and money apps

Not sure who owes what? These apps could help

Whether it's an evening out or a weekend away, confusion over who owes what – or someone failing to pay their share of the bill – can quickly sour the event.

The challenger bank Monzo is hoping to fix that with Monzo Split, a new bill splitting feature it says takes the hassle out of shared spending.

Here, we explain how it works, how it compares with tools offered by traditional banks and the best alternatives if you’d rather not rely on memory or mental arithmetic.

How does Monzo Split work?

Monzo Split lets you share the cost of purchases and track what others owe, all within the app. It’s free to use and available to all Monzo customers.

It offers two main ways to manage shared spending:

Single Split is best for one-off costs such as a taxi fare or dinner. You enter the total, choose who to split it with and Monzo calculates what each person owes.
Running Split is aimed at ongoing or group expenses, such as a shared holiday or household bills. You can add multiple payments over time and settle up when you’re ready.

You don’t need to be a Monzo customer to take part as anyone can be invited to join a split as a guest via a link. They will be able to add their share and mark payments as paid.

Monzo also offers automatic reminders to nudge people who haven’t paid.

Customers on the bank's paid plans can connect other bank accounts to manage expenses across different cards.

Find out more: best bank accounts 2025

How to track expenses with Monzo Split

To access Monzo Split, go to the payments tab in the Monzo app and look for the 'Split' option. From there:

Choose Single Split or Running Split Decide whether you're splitting a one-off payment or managing ongoing costs. For Running Splits, you can keep adding costs over time.
Add people to the group Select Monzo contacts from your phone or send a link to people who don’t use Monzo.
Enter the amount and what it was for You can add a description, divide the cost equally or adjust amounts if needed.
Track payments The app shows who's paid and who hasn’t. Participants without Monzo can mark their payment as complete manually.
Send reminders if needed If someone hasn’t paid, you can send a reminder through the app.

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How does Monzo Split compare with other banks?

Most banks allow you to send and receive money through their online and mobile banking platforms.

Some have introduced extra features to make this process smoother. For example:

NatWest and RBS include a 'split the bill' option in their mobile apps. After making a payment, you can divide the cost with up to nine people, with a maximum of £500 per request and send each person a secure link or QR code. You can send up to 10 split requests in 24 hours.
Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland offer a 'request a payment' option. You can generate a personalised link or QR code with a set amount and reference, and send it by message. You can request up to £150 at a time, with a daily limit of £500.
Starling Bank has a 'settle up' feature. This lets you create a payment link and send it to anyone. You can receive up to £250 per day.

While these features are useful for simple one-off payments, they don't go as far as Monzo Split. They don't track multiple expenses, keep a running total or send reminders to people who haven't paid.

What are the best alternatives to Monzo Split?

Of course, you don’t need an app to work out who owes what. There’s nothing wrong with using a calculator or simply asking the server at a restaurant to split the bill. But if you're juggling multiple expenses, these apps can help:

Splitwise

Splitwise lets you log shared expenses, track who owes what and calculate the simplest way to settle up.

You can create groups, such as for a holiday or house share and assign costs to different people.

Free accounts are limited to adding three expenses per day. To enter more, you’ll need to wait until the next day or upgrade to the Pro version.

In the UK, you can also pay friends directly in the app using the Pay by Bank feature, powered by open banking provider Tink.

Splid

Splid is designed for travel, group events or shared households. You enter who paid for what and it works out how much each person owes.

It supports more than 150 currencies, works offline and lets you export a summary as a PDF or Excel file.

Tricount

Tricount lets you create a group, record expenses and automatically calculate who owes what.

You can split costs unevenly, assign expenses to different people and track everything in one place. It also supports multiple currencies and summary downloads.

PayPal

PayPal allows you to send or request money from friends using their email address or phone number.

You can include a note to explain what it’s for, but it doesn’t offer any tools for tracking shared costs or managing group spending.