Historically, when many of us went “full monzo,” we kept our old high street bank accounts open as a backup.
I think this made sense a few years ago when fintech banks were newer and/or had more limited offerings, but these days I’m not sure I see the point.
Well the results are pretty unanimous so far.. I was nervous about putting all my eggs in the monzo basket when I opened my account in 2018, but now I have monzo, starling, and chase, I’ve found myself asking why I’m bothering to keep my first direct account open
It’s a personal choice but I would personally always recommend having a backup account and card, in case you run into payment issues. Card providers do go down very occasionally.
Monzo blocked my account twice in a month for daring to transfer monies to another of my accounts, something I had done several times before. 2nd time for paying my own credit card.
There will not be a third time, all Monzo accounts closed for good.
IMHO no bank especially fintechs can be trusted not to block your account at random, so it’s a very big YES from me
Eee did you move money in quick succession to Monzo to the other accounts in your name?
All banks can freeze your accounts as and when appropriate, a high street bank can’t circumvent AML and fraud 
No I didn’t. The only thing I had done 3 days earlier was upgrade from the standard account to the Max plan, more fool me.
How long had you had the account? I’ve moved a few thousand in quick succession without issue however I’ve had the account for a few years and made payments to that account before. As Carlo said all banks have to follow AML rules.
I have multiple accounts because apps go down occasionally. Plus, I’m a bank account trat (anagram due to filter) who can’t decide on which one to settle on!
About 8 months.
The real reason Monzo (and others) do this is to make it as difficult as possible for you to do business with their competitors.
They definitely don’t block transfers just to make things difficult for you because they have nothing else better to do lol.
Santander told me in writing in 2024 they blocked a transfer to my own account elsewhere (Hargreaves Lansdown) because, I quote, the transfer “was made at an unusual time of day”
By that logic then they are pushing you to competitors so doubt it’s that.
That’s not making it difficult to do business with a competitor then, it’s because it was an unusual time of day.
I keep a high street bank current account and savings account. Has maybe 2 months of expenses in it, just in case my Monzo account ever got frozen (it never has been so far and there is no reason for it to be so it’s more out of an abundance of caution).
I didn’t say it was. I quoted Santander’s answer in that particular case.
Yeah I still have my First Direct account. No reason not to, it’s free and no impact on credit history (at least without an overdraft which I do have personally but it’s minimal and never been used)
I don’t feel unsafe with a modern bank as such but if I got into a “wallet and phone stolen” situation I have a feeling FD would get me on my feet easier. Monzo you’re stuck needing to find a way to pay for a smartphone first!
Would always keep a backup account just in case my account were to get locked although unlikely
Not sure why the moderators deleted this before when I sent it