Can't get a monzo account

I applied for a Monzo while in Turkey and I get rejected because of Cifas, I requested a Cifas report and they’ve got nothing on me, I’ve emailed monzo and they said there is nothing they can do, any suggestions?

Did the rejection say it was definitely cifas? Most of the rejections that have been posted here say cifas is one of the reasons for rejection but not the only one

How long have you been in Turkey? Could it be your credit report is showing you are not in the UK?

If they’ve said no, you’ve double checked and they said no, then it’s probably best to move on and try somewhere else.

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Says something about credit reference agencies and anti fraud like service like Cifas then says contact Cifas, I went to Turkey for 2 weeks and I’m now back in the uk

Usually their decision is final, so I doubt you’ll get any further in this instance.

Monzo promote www.creditkarma.co.uk for getting your credit report. I’m sure they’ll highlight areas for improvement, so work through those and then you can try re-applying in 6 months time?

probably something to do with your credit report

Unless they could see by the IP address that you weren’t in the UK

Either way you were rejected and I don’t think you can appeal

There seems to have been a uptick in these sorts of questions posted to the forum of late - I wonder if Monzo’s account opening criteria has been tightened?

I think it’s because they’ve changed the vague “sorry we can’t offer you an account” message.

Now they’ve tried to add some pointers people are getting hung up on the CIFAs thing and want to question that.

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My credit score is just under 600 on that app​:man_shrugging::man_shrugging:

Monzo are under no obligation to allow you to open an account, nor (I believe) to tell you why they have declined you; although they do reference CIFAS as a possible problem (because people could have no clue they have a marker against them) it could be down to anything really. We don’t know their criteria and can only guess.

If you have investigated possible reasons for the decline and found nothing I think you have to accept that Monzo isn’t a match and move on, frankly.

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I get the impression also that they may be stricter than they used to be on assessing applications from people who are moving to the UK from other countries. I know at one point they were promoting themselves as an option for international students, but I get the impression that now they’re preferring people to have some history of living in the UK first.

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I’ve lived in the UK all my life, I went to Turkey on a holiday

Just a guess but like someone else said possibly they detected you were overseas from the IP address and that is a flag for them, albeit maybe a bit sensitive in the event you’re just on holiday.

If you want something similar to what monzo offer (arguably better) then you could try Starling

The problem is that you applied while in Turkey. Monzo is for UK residents only, so were rejected based on your IP address. Once Monzo rejects you, there is no point trying really to change that because they don’t have to allow you to join and it could be a spoofing attempt etc. Its just safer for Monzo to keep the rejection. The CIFAs issue is just the poorly worded general reply to all rejected applicants as mentioned above.

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