The complaints are that customers’ accounts become frozen and customers can’t pay bills, pay their rent or even feed their children. Check out what 12,109 people have written so far, and share your own experience. Explore Monzo Premium Monzo Plus. Blocking accounts is a legal requirement, and helps protect you from crime. Check out what 10,742 people have written so far, and share your own experience. We might receive a report from the police or another bank that confirms the money has come from authorised push payment fraud. I have to wait for a dispute for the next few weeks when I’ve sent in evidence and it’s in plain sight what has happened! It sounds as if automated processes are misidentifying accounts as being used for suspicious activity and that humans at Monzo are not reactivating the accounts … Part of a statement from Monzo was read out at the end of the Watchdog report. I don't think we're out of line with any of the big banks.”. Mr Blomfield said seeing those messages made him “wince”. This only happens very rarely, and most customers will never even know it’s happening. The advice came from a good place, but I’m sorry if that caused any upset or distress. monzo close. Monzo denies unfairly freezing accounts in wake of BBC Watchdog claims Chief executive Tom Blomfield said Monzo was no 'more or less exposed than any other bank' Credit: Monzo/PA M onzo … Monzo are all over Watchdog right now! To detect financial crime, we have a set of automated rules that flag any activity that might be suspicious, and sometimes block the account. Do you agree with Monzo’s star rating? Do you agree with Monzo’s star rating? Monzo's insurance is provided by Pluto and offers a good level of cover, but there are exclusions – it doesn't cover those over the age of 46, for example, and pre-existing conditions aren't included, so check the terms and conditions to make sure it's right for you. I sent them email multiple times but they didn't do anything about it. Share. Tonight the Monzo customers trying to get their money back after their accounts have been frozen. Unlike most current account providers, Monzo has not signed up. You need to be a subscriber to join the conversation. Monzo Plus Put money in your hands Full financial visibility, with your other bank accounts and credit cards all in one place. In fact, Watchdog received more complaints about Monzo … Monzo Bank Customer Reviews. Mr Blomfield said he was unable to appear because he was undergoing surgery. "And I've dug personally into those cases and I've then seen the fraud reports from the police and the other banks that confirms absolutely that person is a criminal.”. In our independent 2019 customer satisfaction awards, Monzo won Best Overall Bank with 5 out of 5 stars and 88% of users saying they would recommend the service. Monzo are all over Watchdog right now! Negative reviews for Monzo mostly revolve around frozen accounts, which is one of the ways Monzo prevents fraudulent activity. As a regulated bank, we have a legal duty to detect and prevent financial crime. Enjoy peace of mind with extensive phone and travel insurance, interest and much more. I turned on my TV and it came one so thought I'd watch it as I'd just switched over, they're even a hashtag on twitter regardings this #whatsgoingonzomonzo. GB. Monzo does not have any additional features like loans, investments or insurance, but personal loans are in a testing mode. Archived . Because of this, we can’t comment on the specific cases featured in the show. Without context, which we are prohibited from sharing by law, it is incorrect to reach a conclusion about why accounts have been frozen or closed. However, he said the bank still had to freeze accounts, even if customers warned that doing so could cause them financial hardship. We then need to make a judgment call based on the evidence in front of us. On a desktop computer, you can access Monzo only for emergency functions. I would expect monzo to have more AML claims than a traditional bank and I would expect those affected customers to make more noise about it online. It does not mean they have been treated unfairly. When we can return the money to the customer, we let them know it takes between 2-4 weeks to get it back (while we work on fulfilling our other legal requirements, like reporting what’s happened to the right places). We either have to return the money to the bank it came from, send the money to law enforcement, hold it, or return it to the customer. Our customers have consistently praised our award-winning customer service. Feedback from customers is incredibly important and we're always working to do better but in these cases, we have acted in line with our legal and regulatory obligations.”, Existing customers can get help via the app. We aim to have a person review the account within 10 minutes (night or day) and, if we discover that it’s not suspicious, we immediately reactivate the account. At the same time, we must make sure we keep any negative impact on our customers to a minimum. The brand’s well designed and user-friendly app, plus the overall experience, were favourites with customers. Somewhat frustratingly, we’re not allowed to say why we’ve blocked an account, to either the customer or the press. Revolut operates under an e-money licence in the UK, so you aren't covered under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). Here’s the full statement we provided to the BBC: “Typically, if we discover that activity is not suspicious, an account that has been frozen is reactivated in 10 minutes. We'll be able to do an internal check with such information. Read 1 more review about Monzo Only the latest review will count in the company's TrustScore Bam Olayisade 1 review. Monzo, a digital bank popular with millennials, is the fintech success story that many start-ups dream of. A free inside look at company reviews and salaries posted anonymously by employees. Any other bank would have dealt with this on the same day/ time you reported any issues! One mother told Watchdog: “It's been really stressful because it's put us into rent arrears; it's actually put a bit of a strain on our relationship as well. Information about our Personal Current Account Services. I wanted to share some more details about how we approach this and be as transparent as we can. Monzo has surpassed two million users and its growth doesn't show any signs of slowing. In October, the BBC’s Watchdog programme highlighted the account closure problem, and the impact its policies were having on the bank’s customers. "The reality is we're opening about three million new accounts per year at the moment, which is a big fraction of all new accounts,” Mr Blomfield said. FREE £5 when you sign up for Monzo through this link: https://join.monzo.com/r/7xxaqe5 Welcome back to Stu’s Reviews! Monzo's digital rival Starling took third place, with Nationwide in fourth. Monzo froze my account for no reason Monzo froze my account for no reason. Monzo Bank Ltd is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the PRA. I acknowledge our communication has been poor in some of these cases. 1 2 3 4 5 6 …. Check out what 9,189 people have written so far, and share your own experience. We’re not allowed to say why we’ve blocked an account. While e-money firms must still ringfence your funds in a segregated account, to protect it in cases of insolvency, we can only recommend the more robust, independent FSCS safety net. Our Financial Services Register number is 730427. I was getting money through my paypal business account only. Several investors who had backed Monzo in crowdfunding campaigns posted on the bank's online forum on Thursday night to complain that no Monzo executives appeared on the programme to defend its actions. Fans of Watchdog know they don’t shy away from taking down the big banks, but many were surprised when they turned their attention to one of the newcomers on the scene, Monzo. Other times, it’s not clear-cut, and we’ll ask customers to explain where the money has come from. “So we expect to see a big fraction of suspicious activity. | Read 6,601-6,620 Reviews out of 10,742 Innovative alternative Great app for saving money and monitoring transactions Useful. On the review website Trustpilot it is a similar story, with 13% of reviewers rating Monzo as “bad” at the time of writing. When people can’t access money, we try to help as much as we can. | Read 5,161-5,180 Reviews out of 9,189 Posted by 1 year ago. We urge you to turn off your ad blocker for The Telegraph website so that you can continue to access our quality content in the future. 202 Monzo Bank reviews. “With the benefit of hindsight, we should have appeared.”. If a customer tells us they’re struggling financially because they can’t access money, we’ll sometimes let them know about charities that can offer advice and support. After a raft of IT blunders during 2018, TSB took the wooden spoon for the second successive poll, with 33% of customers voting it 'poor' and 32% rating it as 'OK'. The Watchdog report also said some Monzo employees had sent messages to customers with frozen accounts suggesting they could turn to food banks or charities if they were struggling to pay their bills. Find out more, The Telegraph values your comments but kindly requests all posts are on topic, constructive and respectful. You can freeze or unfreeze (Monzo calls this "defrosting") your card and see your transactions. We know that 2.7 weeks is still a long time for anyone to be without money, and we’re working hard to make this shorter. When we’ve reported an account and decide to close it because we suspect there’s financial crime, there are a few things we have to do next. We rely on advertising to help fund our award-winning journalism. He said Monzo could not tell customers why their accounts had been frozen because of a law that prevented banks “tipping off” customers to potential criminal investigations into their finances. While their positive reviews are glowing, it’s actually the negative reviews that show where the rubber meets the road. Close. 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We take our banking licence and the laws that come with it incredibly seriously, and our financial crime team has become known for its stand-out work in this area. Confirmed criminals will sometimes even take to social media to pressure our support team to release their money. It launched in 2016 with a simple, yet eye-catching, prepaid card service; bright coral plastic versus the more subdued traditional hues. They will stole your money and you have to … How do you explain to a four-year-old that there's no food in the house because of a bank?”. We’ve rolled out new guidance for staff to make sure we only sign-post people to charities or help when it’s appropriate for their circumstances. We’re continually working to minimise this, and we need to balance it with combating money laundering and financial crime, including £1.2bn of UK bank fraud every year. If the account activity does seem suspicious, we’re obliged to report it to the National Crime Agency and wait for their response before closing the account. Yours Truly Revolut Team Igor Y 2 reviews. The BBC One programme criticised the start-up for freezing accounts without explanation, leaving some customers struggling to pay bills and buy food. Monzo had a legal obligation to freeze accounts that had signs of suspicious activity and it often had to wait weeks for the National Crime Agency to allow the funds to be unfrozen. However, chief executive Tom Blomfield said on Friday that Monzo was no “more or less exposed than any other bank”. This regulation is designed to protect ongoing law enforcement investigations. Last night, BBC Watchdog discussed how we deal with financial crime and why we block or close some accounts. And when this very rarely takes longer than 4 weeks, it’s usually because of external investigations that are outside of our control. When we do have to close an account, we aim to return any money as soon as we can. Monzo customer reviews. 09446231). We look forward to hearing from you. We’re not perfect and there’s always more we could be doing to be better. Most of its reviews, 80%, rate the challenger bank as excellent, citing a good user experience and helpful budgeting features. | Read 4,061-4,080 Reviews out of 12,109 “There will be cases when we block legitimate customers' accounts incorrectly because we've made a judgement call,” Mr Blomfield said. We’re asking #WhatsGoingOnzoMonzo Wouldn’t of expected this to come to a head for me to write a crap review. Customer Reviews. Monzo Bank Ltd (/ ˈ m ɒ n z oʊ /), is an online bank based in the United Kingdom. This is a relatively common thing banks do in this situation to try and help. Monzo’s bound to have to freeze more accounts, they’re the fastest growing bank in the U.K. They’re just doing exactly what every other bank has to do too. Which was 100% legal. monzo is totly bad its service is very good for some time then but after some time like afer get positive review thats service is not properly work it is close your account any reason and then says that your account has against over term's and conditions. In a more basic version of the fraud, gangs grab a … “I've personally dealt with dozens and dozens of cases where there's the most horrendous sob stories - 'I can't feed my kids, I'm being booted out of my house'," he said. We’re no strangers to holding our hands up and admitting fault - transparency is one of our core values. When we’ve directed people to a food bank (which I believe we’ve only done on very few occasions) our customer service staff were genuinely trying to be helpful. Monzo has an impressive TrustPilot score of 4.5/5 stars. We have robust processes and controls in place to flag any unusual activity in Monzo accounts. Monzo Bank Limited is a company registered in England and Wales (No. Monzo, which some people view as a partial competitor to Revolut, is being featured on BBC1’s Watchdog consumer television programme this evening. Originally operating through a mobile app and a prepaid debit card, in April 2017 its UK banking licence restrictions were lifted, enabling it to offer a full current account. We block accounts when we detect suspicious activity. Monzo review: an elegant way to manage your money. Reply. It’s a similar story on other online customer review forums. We’ve been able to return millions of pounds to victims of fraud in this way - work that I’m very proud of. In series 42 episode 6 (Thursday, October 17th), Steph McGovern, Matt Allwright and Nikki Fox investigated the mobile banking app and found some pretty shocking feedback. Instead, we gave a statement to the BBC to explain our position and we’ve included this below. It’s a legal offence called “tipping off”. A few hypotheses on why: I imagine that people using monzo are more vocal online (this sub, twitter etc) since it’s a mobile bank targeted at tech savvy younger people and so issues gain traction online faster than a traditional bank. Monzo Premium: Banking that makes a statement Turn heads with our white metal card, made from steel. Read more: Al-paca it in: Monzo co-founder leaves to farm Alpacas. Not Recommended. Monzo Review 2019 Monzo additional features You can only use Monzo through your mobile app. On average it takes us 2.7 weeks. Do you agree with Monzo’s star rating? The bank has a strong following and is rated as 'Excellent' on Trustpilot with 4.5 out of 5.0 stars, with over 12,000 reviews. Sometimes, the evidence is very clear. About them freezing peoples accounts and people not getting their money back and lossing hundreds of pounds.. But, at the heart of this issue is the work we do to prevent criminals using our financial system for gain. Crucially, no conclusions can be drawn based on a bank refunding those whose accounts have been closed. Monzo says it is aware of merchants losing up to £5,000 in this way, and banks do not cover them for it. Monzo was one of the earliest of a number of new app-based challenger banks in the UK.. We won’t always get this right, and I wholeheartedly apologise to any legitimate customers who’ve been left out of pocket for a period of time. Unfortunately we are not able to get enough information off of what has been provided in this review, so we have reached out to you, here on Trustpilot, in order to get some further information. GB. 21. Monzo has denied that it unfairly froze customer accounts in the wake of accusations made in a BBC Watchdog report on Thursday night. It was trialled by 2,000 Monzo users but developments have since been paused due to focus on Monzo Plus. 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