I do appreciate this is a responsible and so slow rollout. But it is confusing for those on the google docs list for 7 months with no word. I think it has been mentioned just an email advising they are not eligible at this time would go a long way to understand the position.
For the general user who has not requested an overdraft they would never know either way. But for those that have asked and are waiting for a response it really is not an acceptable position to just keep saying “we will get back to you”.
Even the message “we have exhausted the google doc list of all eligible users, those not contacted by now thank you for applying however you are not eligible at this time.” Would be better than effectively “please hold…”.
Yes. If I remember correctly originally they offered £1000 which I thought was much, much, too high for a person on little more than the state pension. I reduced it to £50 which I am happy with. I have not actually used it yet. I only intend to use as a buffer if I get any temporary hiccup.
I have just asked Monzo about what is happening with respect to the overdraft rollout
The answer was the most fluffy bag of nonesense that I’ve ever had in my banking life
A criteria has to be met but what that is nobody is being told
You either receive a notification or simply nothing will arrive in your app ( you have not met the criteria)
After two months you will then be informed to why you did not meet the criteria ( two months from when, you are not notified )?
What a load of nonsense Monzo
I have used many banks in my life but never been given such a load of tosh ( party line ) as an excuse to why or why not you meet a non disclosed criteria package
It’s still not available to all users. That criteria is probably vague because the person you’re speaking to doesn’t know what criteria they’re using in this phase. I doubt even 50% of users have access to the overdraft yet.
I had a notification today informing me that I was eligible for an overdraft. I have never applied for one, and never shown any interest in having one with monzo or any other bank I use.
On that basis, I assume it’s completely random at this stage, if people are reporting that they are not recieving clear answers as to when they will get one.
I have a £1000 overdraft available, but haven’t activated it. I don’t have my salary paid in - other than a week when I topped it up to use overseas in January, my balance has been at zero since October. Doesn’t seem like the criteria have anything to do with account usage…
Could be - I did once get a notification warning me that my balance was ‘close to zero’ and that I should activate the overdraft to avoid rejected payments
This is part of the issue though - there is a clear differentiation between ‘not available to all users’ versus a user simply not being eligible. It’s this lack of communication (and the apparently random rollout) which is the issue I think most people have. It’s really not that hard to let people know one of:
We’ve not got around to enabling the option for you, or
You’re not eligible right now but check back soon, or
Great news you’re eligible if you want one
I get that they’re never likely to reveal their specific credit scoring criteria - just as no other financial institution does (otherwise you’d be able to game the system), but I think most folk here would be happy enough with some kind of status update as above.