I’m new here but I’ve been a Monzo user for about a year.
Recently I tried to order something from Amazon (an SSD costing £139.99). For various reasons, I had decided to take up the offer of five monthly payments of £28 each … it seemed fairly straightforward to me, as I didn’t have the full amount in my account (most but not all). I knew I’d be getting more later, so…
The order was accepted but, soon after, I got the message: “Payment declined: Please update your payment method so we can process your Amazon order. Update at: ”
I tried again. I supplied confirmation of the card number. I deleted the card and re-added it. Nothing worked.
I can, of course, use an alternate method, but my Monzo account is effectively my [very small] business account, so I would prefer not to. Can anyone tell me why this is happening and if there is a way around it?
I’m sure I saw this mentioned recently, but I think Amazon are incredibly picky about name/address matching. Even down to 17 Tree Crescent vs 17 Tree Cres for example.
Did the declined message appear in your Monzo feed? If it didn’t, it didn’t get to Monzo and it will be an Amazon issue.
Nope they can’t be … my Amazon account name doesn’t match my real name at all. They are not even close. But I pay with my Amex card and not Monzo card so not sure if that makes any difference.
They won’t be checking against the account name, they’ll be checking against the name on the card - every time you add a payment method you have to enter the specific details for that payment method.
So you account name could be “Davey Blogsywogs” and the name on your payment card could be “Davidson Jimonthy Bloggs”. It’s the latter Amazon would check when verifying payment.
I believe Amazon also make their checks more picky depending on what’s being ordered. So if they’ve had a bunch of fraudulent orders for SSD devices, they could be being more careful with those.
ETA: I’ve successfully used my Monzo card to pay in installments on Amazon before - think it was when I bought a Fire stick. I didn’t even need to split the payments, but because it was there and 0% interest, I thought I’d try it anyway And of course, when I wanted to buy something this summer and would’ve liked to pay by installments, they didn’t offer me the option
It’s not traditional finance, there’s no credit check or reporting. They just decide whether to offer it based on internal critera. My Amazon account name isn’t my full name and I can’t see anywhere on the website to give them my DoB either.
I’ve had this issue before with normal purchases and pay in 5 quite a lot though, sometimes it goes through without a 3D Secure prompt and then I get an email saying it’s failed. I try again with the same card, this time get a prompt, and it works (never get/see any mention of it being declined in the Monzo app).
I’ve just spoken to the Amazon payments team and they say I must have the full amount in my account even though I am paying in installments which is a bit nuts because I could pay the first one then withdraw/spend some of what’s left. It’s also possible it has something to do with MFA (multi-factor authentication) but I suspect it’s the amount one.
Clearly I have to put more money in my account or us an alternate credit card which is less than ideal.
Never heard that one before, and I have used it a few times, but to be honest I have complained about this before to Amazon, as the preauth looks for the full amount, but it only takes the first payment…
It’s definitely not true, the CS rep is mistaken. When I last used it I didn’t have the full purchase amount in my bank account (otherwise I’d have just bought it outright), as you said it just pre-auths the full amount but the full amount doesn’t need to be in the bank to do it.
To give another data point, I bought something from Amazon using Chase but in installments. I had exactly the same issue and had to fund the account with the full value as having just the amount of the first installment resulted in failure.
The preauth was for the full amount, then it immediately turned into the first payment when authorised.
And of course, when I wanted to buy something this summer and would’ve liked to pay by installments, they didn’t offer me the option 
