I would be interested to know the same. I have the overdraft but if I could up it a little bit as a buffer then I can start to move everything to Monzo.
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I had planned to move everything to Monzo but as Starling offered me an overdraft and I heard nothing from Monzo I switched to Starling.
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Mondo overdraft is great. Don’t really use it but nice to know it’s there.
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I get that, if you’re feeling you’re not getting the response you deserve then talk with your feet. Good on you!
I don’t use mine at all - I get paid in a day, and after excessively spending & equally as excessively saving I remembered the first £20 is “free” - which is fantastic to know. Not that I need it [sat here with £6 in my account], but it’s a nice safety buffer.
It’s good to know it’s there & then just go “I’ll pay for this, and transfer the equal back in after if I have to”.
Got to admit, my only annoyance is the notification that something takes me into my overdraft when it doesn’t push me over the £20 chargeable limit because I feel I have to immediately rectify that.
After lots of debate of why I should/should not be entitled or even expect to be offered an overdraft it’s nice to know that we now have members that are on the same wavelength as myself regarding this basic banking functionality for a current account
At the moment my legacy bank fulfils this functionality for me until Monzo gets around to sorting itself out and offering one out
Unfortunately it’s taking Monzo a little while to sort this 
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Ok… so this clearly isn’t happening still… Monzo you are poor at this for Overdrafts…
You credit checked (soft checked) me a month ago, I presume for an OD… yet still not been told yes or no…
Yet… my other half who has been with Monzo for about 2 months has been offered one today? So am I not eligible? Would be nice to be told if I’m not?
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Were still working on the notification for ineligibility, however were also working on expanding the overdraft to more of our customers.
We started off extremely tight on the lending, and were slowly expanding this. It might be you’d be eligible before we complete the notification that were unable to offer / how to get one. It’s not just a simple “sorry but no”. 
Surely you could just provide folk with a ‘sorry, not right now, but check back soon’ message.
I think any communication would be better than none at all - which is the position a lot of us find ourselves in.
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I’m in it too, so I empathise with you.
So I haven’t been paying much attention to overdrafts, given that I haven’t asked for one and haven’t really considered whether I would want one.
But after having read a bit of the thread, I looked at my own credit records and did some reading of the Monzo terms and conditions. A few thoughts:
- The new terms and conditions are written well, but I was left very confused over the treatment of overdrafts. There is no indication that they are optional - it reads to me like anyone with a current account has an overdraft, with fees outlined . This is concerning, I think, for two reasons. Firstly, like me users could assume that they have an overdraft, are entitled to go overdrawn and must only pay the daily fee - and then be frustrated when transactions are declined. Secondly, there is no comment (anywhere that I could find) about whether there are authorised or unauthorised overdrafts and what the implication of either would be. (I should say that this aside the rest of the terms and conditions read really very well - but this lack of clarity concerns me).
- Given that I haven’t asked Monzo for an overdraft (or any other credit products), I wouldn’t expect there to be any credit searches (soft or otherwise) against my credit file. To my surprise, there were two soft searches against my file in March - months after opening my current account. One is an “administration review” (whatever that is - perhaps they could take inspiration from Monzo’s usual clarity of writing!) and one is a quotation search.
This second point concerned me somewhat given that I have never, to my knowledge, given Monzo specific authority to quote for a credit product for me.
So, back to the terms and conditions I go. Nothing there. Over to the privacy policy where it says:
“We use this information to … Search your record at credit reference and fraud prevention agencies to check your identity and generate a credit assessment of you. Credit reference agencies will keep a record of our enquiries, which may also be used by other organisations with access. This may affect your ability to get credit.”
So while running these searches appear to be within the legal terms that (I might have*) signed up for, this seems less than transparent to me.
Now, I absolutely understand Monzo’s need to break even and move towards profitability. I absolutely get that overdrafts are part of this. But my emotional reaction was that this was an intrusion - that you are building up a “credit assessment” of me without my explicit consent. This feels like bad bank behaviour.
As I say, legally, it appears that Monzo has this right, but I hold you to a higher standard than other organisations. I don’t think you’re alone in this (I think Starling has done exactly the same, but would need to check to be sure).
Basically, it just feels wrong.
As I say, I’m keen on Monzo becoming profitable, and may even be interested in having an overdraft “just in case” - but to me this is problematic, and not up to the usual (incredibly) high bar set by Monzo. So please take this as constructive feedback - I might be in a minority of one, but I thought it would be useful to share.
*I genuinely can’t remember if I explicitly agreed to the Privacy Policy, whether it’s changed since any agreement - or anything else about it really…
cc @tristan
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“Firstly, like me users could assume that they have an overdraft, are entitled to go overdrawn and must only pay the daily fee - and then be frustrated when transactions are declined. Secondly, there is no comment (anywhere that I could find) about whether there are authorised or unauthorised overdrafts and what the implication of either would be”
some info about overdrafts - below
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Thanks for the link - I do understand that overdrafts are optional.
The tl;dr of my (rather long) post is a) the terms and conditions read to me like overdrafts aren’t optional - and that everyone has one by default. And b) that I’d expect to explicitly opt in before Monzo hits the credit reference agencies!
(All personal views, of course - others’ mileage is likely to significantly vary 
)
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They say they won’t do checks that affect your credit rating. A soft check doesn’t. I was a bit alarmed that they check your credit worthiness even before you apply for the chance of an overdraft but since it’s a soft check I’m ok with it
Ive always understood that overdrafts are optional and are specifically opt in, which is the Monzo ethos of not just letting you “slip” into overdraft and then charge the fees but actually informing you so that you can make a conscious decision that you need the overdraft 
like probably the vast majority haven’t read the T and Cs so take your points of what you consider them to infer
being offered the overdraft and Monzos communication on overdrafts is another discussion
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Agreed on there being no impact on credit scores* - sorry if anyone thought that I was suggesting that there was!
My concern is mostly that I wouldn’t want any organisation to generate a credit assessment of me (obtaining loads of information from a credit reference agency in the process) without my explicit consent. As I say, this is probably a minority worry, but I’d be much happier with this happening after I express interest in an overdraft (or other credit product), rather than being done “just in case”. I feel much more in control that way - which is important for me with companies I choose to do business with.
*Yes, I know a credit score isn’t a thing 
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Also makes me uncomfortable. I don’t want or need an overdraft. But I can live with it
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On a different note, this page still needs updating to clarify that the £20 buffer only applies if you have an overdraft.
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I’ve read so many conflicting statements on that. I’d like a definite answer in the t&c’s
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Agree on this. For the record, I’m not complaining about Monzo’s approach!
Read them! They’re super short and really readable! The bit about overdrafts reads as follows. I’d be interested to hear what other people understand by it (I kinda hope it’s just me!) -
Making payments
You need enough money in your account to make payments. But some transactions that would take your balance below zero may still go through. If that happens, we’ll let you know the amount you’ll need to repay before the end of the day.
If your balance is below zero, we won’t charge anything up to -£20. But after that, we charge 50p a day at the end of each day. We calculate overdraft fees at the end of the day and take them from your account on the first day of the month.
from this post -
“Until you choose to switch on the overdraft, we won’t carry out any credit checks that will affect your credit score. If you do decide to switch on the overdraft, we’ve made sure it’s extra clear in the latest app versions that we are about to carry out a credit check that could affect your score.”
your consent will presumably be given for a credit check when you apply for an overdraft in app - you agree to a contract ??? 
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