Barclays Mortgage refusing Monzo

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1

Barclays are refusing to set up a direct debit for a mortgage. See the message below from my mortgage advisor:

Good afternoon Robert,

I hope that this finds you well.

My name is Sam, Ravesh is away from the office on annual leave, I will be assisting you in the meantime.

We have completed your approval in principle with Barclays which has gone through fine.

I’m afraid that on final submission, Barclays have rejected your account details for the direct debit. We have contacted them and they’ve advised that unfortunately they don’t accept Monzo accounts for direct debits - so sorry, not something I’ve come across before, super frustrating!

Do you have another account that you can pay the mortgage from?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,

Sam

I asked them to check again as I have multiple direct debits, and even with Barclaycard, and for got this response:

Hello Robert,

I am very sorry to say that we have tried now with another client also and contacted Barclays.

Their system will not accept Monzo bank details.

I am sorry for the news, but the only other option would be to find a different lender.

Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks,
Sam

I’ve emailed Monzo acceptance, but the last few times I’ve done this I’ve had no response or acknowledgement. This is worrying, Monzo is my main bank and I need this mortgage. Can someone help? Or if someone from Monzo is floating around, can you reach out?

Thanks :+1:

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2

Given you need an acknowledgement, might be best to contact Monzo through the app as well, though I expect the frontline COp who picks up the message will (eventually) have to escalate it to a specialist.

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I’ve sent this message through the app as well. It’s just really frustrating.

It wasn’t easy to find a way to contact Monzo through the app. I searched help for acceptance and nothing came up.

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4

I know it’s a stupid work-around, but could you open an account with someone else that they do accept and then CASS it next month?

I bet there’s people that pay their mortgage with Monzo, that’s the thing I don’t understand.

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5

I pay a barclays mortgage with a monzo dd

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Did you apply with Monzo details or CASS over?

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I just cancelled my old dd, waited for a letter from barclays, and filled in the details, I think. A hazy memory, pretty sure thats wot happened.

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Ah fun times. I thought the era of Monzo acceptance was over :joy:
I’ve asked them to try again, over the phone if possible. If not I guess I’ll try with another bank and then change the details later.

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I’ve received a brief response from Monzo and then basically a dead end:

I’m really sorry to hear that you’ve had an issue with this.

Sometimes merchants don’t recognise our sort code because they haven’t kept their systems up to date.

If you haven’t already, you should call the merchant and explain the issue to them. They should be able to take your sort code over the phone, even though they didn’t accept it online.

If you have any further issues with this, please contact our team via our in-app chat or via email at help@monzo.com

Kind Regards

I responded saying that even over the phone it doesn’t work according to my mortgage advisor, and got this response. I’m sorry but have Monzo just wiped their hands of me and not provided a solution?

Hi Robert

We have reached out to Barclays about this issue in general but I’m afraid we don’t have a timescale to provide.

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It’s frustrating but it isn’t anything Monzo can solve. They can’t make Barclays be more up-to-date.

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@Revels is correct. However, acceptance of Monzo has long been an issue.

Barclays is in the wrong here and really should update their systems to accept the Monzo sort code. And in the early days I understand Monzo was proactive in addressing organisations who needed to update.

Since then, Monzo has both grown to over four million accounts and has lost a number of customer service people. Unfortunately, its probably no longer a priority for Monzo and individuals are left to sort it out themselves.

For those reasons, I’d not be relying on Monzo as my main current account until the product is more mature and acceptance of it on a par with other banks.

Since Starling closed their forum (wise move) we don’t really know if this problem affects them at all? Either way, there’s mixed experiences from Monzo customers and Barclays really ought to get their systems in order to accept customers using Monzo.

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barclays recognise my sort code the @#@#@@@ #@@#@@'s!

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I have mortgage with Barclays and direct debits setup with Monzo. works fine.

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It’s annoying that some people have been able to and yet I’ve hit a roadblock.

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More mature. Right. When is that? 10 years? Twenty? A hundred?

As for acceptance issues, if Barclays are refusing Monzo sort codes then what’s to stop them from refusing sort codes from ALL new banks? Essentially they are becoming a barrier to customer choice.

Ideally the Financial Ombudsman should be the next port of call, but they will insist a complaint is raised with Barclays directly first and if you’re going via a mortgage advisor you’re one step removed essentially so it just causes more issues (and would you really want to submit a complaint to Barclays if you want to get a mortgage with them? I can see that going down well).

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It’s one of the reasons I wouldn’t depend on any one bank (especially not Monzo).

The work around I would recommend is to open an account elsewhere (Starling accounts can be opened as quickly as Monzo’s can), set up the DD with Barclays, then CASS the account to Monzo. Or you could just keep Starling for the DD and take advantage of all the other benefits (cheque imaging, free cash deposits, Post Office banking, etc) as and when required.

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But double check they accept Starling first!

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18

You might be financially better off using a Barclays current account with Blue Rewards if you’re going to have a mortgage with them.

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More mature, as an account, in terms of acceptance. I thought my post was clear, rational and objective.

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This is a good point. I get a few quid a month with one of Barclays own current accounts with DDMs to pay my Barclays mortgage. I should’ve thought of that recommendation! :laughing:

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