I purchased an app online, and today £38 was taken from my account as an alleged subscription. I’m trying to complete a dispute payment form with Monzo but it doesn’t give me any option other than three generic types of issue. How do I raise my concerns with Monzo?
First and foremost make sure that you cancel any future transactions. On Apple you can do this under your Apple ID > Subscriptions.
What are the options Monzo gives? Can you pick the most appropriate and then describe the issue in more detail?
You can also always go to help and search Contact Us.
I doubt it’ll be via Apple. They control the entire flow end to end, so there’s no conning you into a subscription.
I’m guessing the app sent them to a website to subscribe. Or it’s just a web app.
Either way, first course of action is to get that subscription cancelled on that side of things first. Then try the merchant for a refund (unless it’s a foreign company they have to if it’s within 14 days). If that fails then you go to Monzo and ask them to raise a chargeback.
If you need to talk to Monzo, tap here on your phone to start a chat.
It depends on what “conned” means here. There are plenty of apps on the AppStore that advertise a 1/3/7 day free trial and then charge something like £49.99 per day/week.
It will always be disclosed in the smallest possible print though. The post has not enough information to be able to offer proper help but the principles stand:
- Cancel subscription
- Ask for refund
- Ask bank if you can’t do either 1 or 2
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Ah, yep. Chess.com caught me out with one of those once. Taught me that if the Apple pop up to confirm the subscription doesn’t say free and only shows the monthly price then it’s not a trial.
In this scenario, or any scenario if you want to get a subscription via Apple refunded you just go to Apple. It’s an automated system, but reviewed by a human before allowing or rejecting a refund so can take a day or two.
To do that go to reportaproblem.apple.com (this is where the App Store sends you) sign in and choose Request a refund from the box under What can we help you with?, select a reason (there’s a I did not mean to sign up for a subscription option), click next and then choose the subscription in question and submit the request. This will automatically cancel the subscription too, so no further payments will get taken.
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I didn’t see any information regarding any subscription. Hence my annoyance. My struggle now is getting in touch with monzo. I can’t seem to access a chat page.
Hi there. I shared a link above to chat to Monzo. If you click it from your phone it’ll take you straight to the Monzo app and open up a chat. 
If you need to talk to Monzo, tap here on your phone to start a chat.
Who did you subscribe to? What did they say when you asked for a refund?
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Thanks , the link takes me to a generic page but doesn’t allow me to access chat. Maybe because I’m in UK?
Cheers
Are you clicking it on your phone? It won’t work from a computer since Monzo only have a mobile app. I’m in the U.K. and it loads up the chat for me.
Try searching contact support in the help section of the app. That sometimes works.
It’s a company called Brainety, brain exercises. They say in effect , tough luck under their terms and conditions I had seven days to opt out of the subscription, so there legally allowed to keep the money,
Many thanks. I’m using an iPhone.
Looks like a VERY common occurrence with this company!
I got as far as the page to enter card information and there was nothing to say it was a subscription. Maybe it did if you opened up the T&Cs. Nasty tactics.
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But if you only did it today then you’re entitled to a refund?
Good luck with disputing this. If it’s in the terms and conditions then this can be difficult, but this is very sneaky indeed.
You can also think about ordering a new card so that they can’t charge any future subscriptions or charges with the card details they have.
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As a matter of interest I had a look.
After you’ve done their 30 puzzles to get your true IQ score there’s a 7 day trial price to actually see your score, and no obvious mention of a subscription, but you do have to tick a box to say you’ve read the T&Cs. And that says
If you purchase the Brain games services access on a trial basis (“Trial”), you will be charged for the Trial period shown in the checkout page. You may cancel your subscription any time during the Trial Period by sending us an email support@brainety.com. If you decide to cancel your subscription within the Trial period of subscription, we will not charge you anymore. If you cancel your Brain games services Access subscription after the Trial Period, then you will not be eligible for a refund, but we will stop the recurring payments and not charge you anymore. If you do not cancel during the Trial Period, you agree that your subscription will automatically renew and that you will be billed the recurring subscription fee shown during the sign-up process on a recurring monthly/yearly basis. You expressly authorize us to automatically charge the applicable recurring fee and any applicable taxes to your payment method unless and until you cancel. If you cancel prior to the end of a billing cycle for which you have already paid, you will have access to the Service until the end of that billing cycle.
I’ve made bold the relevant section.
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Many thanks for the clarification. Monzo tell me the money is pending. I’ll be interested to see if Monco will offer any help disputing this payment.
If you’ve agreed to the terms and conditions (which you have) and to paying them for the service (which the T&Cs seem to suggest) then there’s nothing fraudulent about this.
It might be dishonest but I don’t think that’s for a bank to determine. But good luck, let us know how it goes!
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I’ll let you know. It’s a strange old world where a transaction can be dishonest but not fraudulent and vice versa!
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It is indeed!
‘Fraud’ is usually an unauthorised transaction - that’s a transaction you have no hand in, ie someone else uses your card details.
In cases like this, as it was you who gave the merchant the card details, it’s not considered fraud (under the banking regulations), but a merchant dispute. It’s possible it can still be disputed, but unlike fraud there isn’t an automatic right to a refund and it depends on the Mastercard dispute process. I would send Monzo the trustpilot link when you get through to them as that can be useful in establishing that it’s a non-legit company.