I was at a meetup this evening at Jonas (CTO @ :mondo:) mentioned that banks receive a notification 24 hours before a direct debit is due to be taken from a users account, which blew my mind! Banks could be blocking those payments but instead, they’re allowing them & charging fees when users go into their (planned / unplanned) overdrafts as a result.
The only caveat is, I’m not sure whether blocking the direct debit would impact the user’s credit rating.
Either way, it’s great that this is obviously something Monzo are thinking about, I’m sure they’ll be able to address it once the current accounts are launched & they can facilitate direct debits (which is on the roadmap).