Cancel card without the app

Sorry if this is already somewhere in the forum, but a quick search found nothing at the tip of the iceberg.

I have actually just mentioned this to one of the staff who has forwarded it to the product team, but he suggested sharing ideas here too, so I will.

Basically I am travelling (alone) and to some places out of the way. So if somebody stole my card, id be expected to block it in app. But what if somebody mugged me and took my phone and my card, or broke into my locker at the hostel and took both? Without my phone I cant use the app, I don’t have internet access to email customer service, or a phone to call them, (that is if i could even find the number in the first place).

Now, I would rely on strangers to help me contact monzo using their phones. Currently, I would have to get a stranger to download the app and then me log into it and block the card (them trusting me to be downloading something normal). Or let me use their phone credit to make international calls, after searching online for the number using their phone (spending their time searching and money calling). Or I could email monzo from their phone with my sensitive info to locate the account and block it (me trusting the stranger to not keep my details for later use). All of these options are less than ideal, and during the time it takes to find somebody willing to let me do the above, somebody could go on a contactless spending spree.

So the idea is a simple webform at a simple url, eg. monzo.com/lost, which asks for name, phone number/email address, home address, postcode and dob. This would be enough information to locate an account, and to verify identity in one go. It could be done in literally 1 minute, which a stranger would be more willing to allow. It doesn’t require any downloads, doesn’t save the data to the strangers email history, and doesn’t cost them anything as it is minimal data usage.

What do you guys think? Lets see if they implement this before I go away next week. (fingers crossed)

4 Likes

This sounds good & I’m sure the functionality would be part of this -

I don’t know this for sure but I’m 99% sure that this won’t launch next week, while Monzo’s in the middle of rolling out the prepaid accounts.

In the meantime, it’s worth remembering that you will be remimbursed for any fraudulent transactions which were made after your card’s been stolen (assuming you kept to the T’s & C’s) so don’t let this keep you up at night :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like

Hi Alex,

Thanks for the reply and the reference to the other post.

I am aware that fraudulent activity is reimbursed by the banks, but it would be best to avoid this completely and save good old Monzo some money too.

Hoping for it within a week was a long shot, but one could hope!

And yes pretty much what the quoted comment says, is a snapshot of what I had in mind. But the most important function would be to cancel the card as that is an emergency. If its possible without the need to log in, that would make it even better as if you were victim to something like that, you might be too shook up to remember what password and username you used etc.

What do you think?

1 Like

That sounds good to me!

I’m not even sure the card needs cancelling. It just needs freezing until the owner can contact to sort cancelling and replacing.

And if only freezing (not cancelling) there is less chance of it being abused and causing issues. (A disgruntled ex cancelling your card for giggles).

I think it’s a great idea. And better yet sending an email/push notification saying the card has been remotely frozen. Though to unfreeze I would then expect some form of security (password/pin/fingerprint) so the one having swiped the phone cannot Just unfreeze.

3 Likes

I think (but 8m drunk just now) that if you could have a trusted other that had limited functionality on you account like to simply block.it, that would be good… xx