Hey, my mother and I signed up to Monzo at around the same time. I now use mine as my daily bank account, and my mother used her solely to send me money if she needed to, usually small amounts like £40. But yesterday she sent me £368 and today her account has been closed, and Monzo won’t give a reason as to why. They say it’s something to do with terms and conditions. I’m assuming it’s probably because she used it to send me money and didn’t use her card to buy things, and was using my phone to log in and transfer it, as she’s 70 and does not have a smartphone. I’ve read online loads of stuff about fraud and criminal activity and being investigated etc. Seems a little odd they would do this as it was literally my mum putting money in over paypoint because it was easier than going to the bank. Kinda worried they’re gonna close mine giving no reason so don’t really want to use them anymore…
I’m not sure why your mother signed up to an app-based-bank when she doesn’t have a smartphone, nor does she really use the account. She wasn’t getting any of the benefits, other than the ability to pay in money at PayPoint.
I would imagine Monzo can see that both you and your mother have been logging in just on the one phone and your mother’s account only had Paypoint money in, and transfer of that money to you, and probably came to the conclusion that it looks super dodgy and perhaps more like a situation where someone wasn’t in control of their own account.
Without the context given, Monzo were wise to take action. Was it the right action in this case?
Yeah, I didn’t think of it like this. That wasn’t really out intention as I had no idea there was a paypoint limit until after we signed up. But yeah I guess we were kinda cheating the system.
Unfortunately, banking regulations enforce that when fraud is suspected banks are straight up forbidden from giving warnings. They have to suspend the account, investigate, and not communicate with the ‘suspect’ until they have a conclusion.
Jeez. So my mum is now being investigated for fraud? I’ll probably refrain for letting her know that.
My own account is fine, still able to use it. I read that of they investigate you for fraud they usually freeze accounts not close them. I dunno, it was perfectly innocent anyway, we obviously just violated a rule.
Not quite - Monzo may have seen something “suspicious” and they are legally duty bound to submit a suspicious activity report or SAR to the NCA.
The NCA then have a timeframe in which to tell Monzo “this is nothing” or “we need to have a look into this”. 99% of the time (made up figure but you get the idea) they won’t respond or they’ll say “this is nothing” and then Monzo can carry on servicing the account.
Even if they were investigating you, as long as there is no fraud on yours or your mums part - nothing “negative” will happen.
If that were the case, then they can’t have got back in touch to say this is nothing as surely the account would have not been closed. And if they didn’t reply, then also the account would not have been closed surely, so they obviously thought it was something?
In which case, it is unlikely to be a SAR and as Monzo have said, something to do with the Ts&Cs and so therefore they have the option to close the account. I think they should probably explain it a bit more as to what had actually gone awry but I don’t think a SAR has been sent.
I don’t really think speculation is that helpful here because, really, none of us know anything more than the OP and all of the chat may be miles away from reality. I guess I’m just uncomfortable with this level of educated guesswork where we’re discussing real accounts of real people.
About your point of being worried that they’ll shut yours also,
Did they send you/her the surplus money from her account? If they did then I wouldn’t be worried to carry on using the account, at worst they’ll shut it and give you the money.
Hey, there was nothing in there when they shut it. Balance was zero. I have direct debits and stuff on mine and I guess it’s being used as a ‘real account’ whereas my mum’s was basically a list of deposits and instant transfers.
We can close your account by giving you at least two months’ notice. We may close your account or stop you using your card and app immediately if we believe you’ve:
broken the terms of this agreement
put us in a position where we might break the law
broken the law or attempted to break the law
given us false information at any time
been abusive to anyone at Monzo or a member of our community
Maybe try and get in touch with them and explain the situation - may just be a miss-understanding