What @jzw95 is partially correct, so I’d like to clear the air.
The standard process of a dispute with Monzo is:
Customer contacts us to dispute a transaction.
We investigate and determine if there are the grounds for a chargeback.
We request for more information (receipts, proof of communication with the merchant, etc).
We initiate the chargeback via Wirecard (our prepaid card issuer).
There is a 45 day period during which the other party (the merchant) can appeal.
The chargeback is successful or not successful (money gets credited back to the Monzo card or not).
Sometimes between 1 and 2, 2 and 3, and/or 3 and 4, customers understand that after all their dispute can be solved directly with the merchants (for example: claiming back the fee for a cancelled Uber journey, or getting a refund for a broken item delivered by Amazon - these are easily solved without the need of a chargeback).
Now - this is very important and I think it hasn’t been mentioned clearly enough: in case of fraudulent transactions, we immediately reverse the payments and cover the losses, and replace the card. Then we report those via Mastercard SAFE.
So if it is established that your card was stolen or cloned and used fraudulently, we offer total and immediate protection of your losses.
Case scenarios:
If the pizza you ordered got delivered 1 hour late and was cold and you want to raise a dispute via Monzo, we may suggest you to phone the pizza shop and ask for a refund before starting a chargeback.
If you bought some shoes online and they never got delivered to you and the seller is unresponsive, we will fight for you and get that money back. It may take up to 8 weeks, though.
If your card was stolen and used contactless to pay for fuel and groceries before you could freeze it, we will refund you straight away and send you a replacement.
In your particular case, @chris.monzo (I believe you were chatting with me yesterday via the support chat) - I am not sure what kind of dispute you were/are referring to, as my understanding was that the payment you wanted to dispute hadn’t taken place just yet. But feel free to reply to that conversation via the in-app chat if you have any updates on the issue, and we can take another look at it.
While I respect your decision I really don’t see what you’re afraid of by using Monzo (or any other debit card) especially for real-world transactions. I understand your concerns about online payments but you could still use Monzo for in-person transactions and use another card for online?
Thanks for the detailed explanation, francesco, it’s good to know that in cases of fraud the amount is immediately re-credited to our accounts whilst the investigation takes place.
I’d just like to note, though, that this doesn’t completely address the ‘buffer’ use-case of a credit card. For instance, in this thread from yesterday, helenapoole was double-charged by Greater Anglia.
In that instance, she’s only out £15. But you can imagine that if the transaction had been for £100, this could cause someone significant problems if they have to wait for a week to get back the funds that should never have been debited.
I’m not saying this is right or wrong, but pointing out that this is the kind of safety net people use credit cards for. The context is that Tom has previously implied that Monzo would look at addressing the needs of people who use a credit card, without forcing us to use a ‘normal’ credit card product.
All I’m pointing out is that protection from mistakes or unscrupulous merchants is one of the problems people currently ‘solve’ with a credit card, and it revolves around the fact that I am not out of pocket whilst these issues are resolved.
I had a similar thing happen to me and agree that we should be able to reverse pending transactions as per my reply on that post. These two cases (at the very least my one) are a by-product of monzo treating authorisation requests as actual transactions (for live balance reasons) and are not technically the merchant disputes falling under section 75 protection as described earlier on this post. We are conflating a number of completely different scenarios in this post.
Note, though, that with a ‘traditional’ bank, while these cases would not show transactions in your feed, and would not affect your Balance, your Available Balance will decrease, and you would still lack the funds.
It’s amazing how much incorrect information there is on this thread.
I’ll correct just the one thing though, chargebacks can be done on both Visa and MC credit and debit products. However, credit cards give the added protection of S75.
I think we’re all aware of both points you made. (I’m not sure you’ve read everything in detail…)
PayPal is not being used for S75 - it’s being used to add an extra layer of protection. This way a dispute is made with the seller, PayPal and finally the credit card.
When a company tries to scam me I have 3 layers in which to resolve it. Also this way, my PayPal balance is negative opposed to my card or bank, until a time until it’s resolved. If PayPal wish to spend 45 days or whatever taking their own sweet time to investigate the dispute; they can, as it doesn’t impact me the same way. If they want to put me on hold for 20 minutes and then tell me a manager will call me back in 7 days: they can - I don’t care - it’s PayPal’s balance that’s negative.
I think in terms of Monzo, if the company decided - we’ll create a buffer pot and put the buyer first in terms of disputes - I would happy with this. Away from S75 or anything else just a policy that Monze decided to adopt that made sense and that (when reading the detail) didn’t incentivise Monzo finding in favour of the seller.
If they decided to:
Refund first
Then investigate
Outcome - either credited or debited.
I would be happy with this and happily use Monzo for pretty much everything.
Why would Monzo do that, or why would you expect them to, for a DEBIT card? No other UK bank does this as standard policy (excluding any discretion an account or branch manager may have). The reason why they can afford to do so on a CREDIT card is by charging the customer interest (or in the case of Amex an annual fee AND interest).
How are you funding your PayPal transaction - you must either be paying at the point of transaction through your linked card/bank account or through their PayPal credit facility?
Please do take care, if PayPal refuse your dispute, your credit card is very very unlikely to be able to fight a chargeback/section 75 as PayPal, who you have contracted with, have met their obligations. Therefore I fail to see how you have your three lines of defence.
The answer to this is possibly in the quote of Tom’s I gave above. is not trying to be any other UK bank, the idea is to provide the features that customers value, without necessarily providing the traditional banking products. Surely it makes sense that having your balance protected like this during a dispute is a useful ‘feature’? Whether it’s a reasonable one for Monzo to offer or not is up to them.
Why? To be a next generation bank, to be the first, to actually offer features that I want as a customer. To make all other banks look like they’re stuck in the dark ages. Etc etc
How it’s costed and implemented that’s a different conversation, there are a million different possibilities for that. I’m merely telling you what I want / expect, never said it was easy
@jsmith300 the card company have already refunded me twice, because twice PayPal have tied to take the money against my wishes.
I’ve told them I’m waiting for PayPal to resolve the dispute. Until it’s resolved I don’t approve them taking the money. I don’t know the laws - but they were happy to help.
So, if you need to get a refund from Monzo via Chargeback will you be charged?
I used Monzo recently when I withdrew money from an ATM machine but the ATM didn’t recognise Monzo as a card provider (Cashzone). Also, I didn’t have both recipts. They told me that I need to wait up to 8 weeks to get a refund… Is there a chance I could be charged for Chargeback as they fight for his refund? Other pre paid providers charge £10 for that. Cheers
This post from Francesco gives a pretty comprehensive overview of chargebacks. It doesn’t mention Monzo charging a fee to process them. But whether or not they’re an appropriate solution for your issue is less clear. I’d recommend asking the support team about this directly, via the in-app chat or by sending a DM on Twitter.
Hi @francesco, sorry for resuming this old thread. I’m considering disputing a transaction I made with Monzo abroad (payment in Euros and whole, useless, conversation with the merchant in Italian).
Can I still proceed with the dispute despite this? Thank you so much!
is not trying to be any other UK bank, the idea is to provide the features that customers value, without necessarily providing the traditional banking products. Surely it makes sense that having your balance protected like this during a dispute is a useful ‘feature’? Whether it’s a reasonable one for Monzo to offer or not is up to them.
from Francesco gives a pretty comprehensive overview of chargebacks. It doesn’t mention Monzo charging a fee to process them. But whether or not they’re an appropriate solution for your issue is less clear. I’d recommend asking the support team about this directly, via the in-app chat or by sending a DM on