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Monzo Chat
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Let see if they allow me to post this:

I have been a Monzo client both as an individual and as a business owner for several years. I was initially impressed by the user-friendly app, the ease of sharing expenses, and the ability to use multiple pots. In fact, I closed my other bank accounts and managed all my business finances through Monzo. Using pots allowed me to efficiently separate funds for taxes, operating expenses, salaries, profit, and more.

This morning, without any warning or explanation, Monzo decided to close both my personal and business accounts. This action has left me and my two business partners unable to process payments, including wages and supplier bills, during the week before Christmas. The closure has caused significant disruption to our operations.

The only “warning” I received was a query about a £650 payment into my personal account, which, for reasons unknown, Monzo flagged as problematic. They asked for the reason behind the payment, and I explained it was money owed to me by the sender. Apparently, Monzo was not satisfied with my explanation, as they subsequently closed both accounts—my business account holding over £100,000 and my personal account holding around £27,000—without further notice.

Upon contacting Monzo, I was informed that the issue concerned only my personal account and that the business account should remain operational. However, this is not the case; the business account is still inaccessible, and Monzo has not rectified their decision. Clients attempting to pay us are experiencing bounced payments, while suppliers and employees who need to be paid remain unpaid.

As a result, a profitable business has been left without a bank account, without any warning or explanation, during the crucial week before Christmas.

I have been a Monzo client both as an individual and as a business owner for several years. I was initially impressed by the user-friendly app, the ease of sharing expenses, and the ability to use multiple pots. In fact, I closed my other bank accounts and managed all my business finances through Monzo. Using pots allowed me to efficiently separate funds for taxes, operating expenses, salaries, profit, and more.

This morning, without any warning or explanation, Monzo decided to close both my personal and business accounts. This action has left me and my two business partners unable to process payments, including wages and supplier bills, during the week before Christmas. The closure has caused significant disruption to our operations.

The only “warning” I received was a query about a £650 payment into my personal account, which, for reasons unknown, Monzo flagged as problematic. They asked for the reason behind the payment, and I explained it was money owed to me by the sender. Apparently, Monzo was not satisfied with my explanation, as they subsequently closed both accounts—my business account holding over £100,000 and my personal account holding around £27,000—without further notice.

Upon contacting Monzo, I was informed that the issue concerned only my personal account and that the business account should remain operational. However, this is not the case; the business account is still inaccessible, and Monzo has not rectified their decision. Clients attempting to pay us are experiencing bounced payments, while suppliers and employees who need to be paid remain unpaid.

As a result, a profitable business has been left without a bank account, without any warning or explanation, during the crucial week before Christmas.

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Monzo has good reasons to believe the payment you received was fraudulent. Eg if that debtor reported the payment as fraud / scam and you failed to satisfy them that it wasn’t. All you can do is raise a complaint – not sure if there’s a specific email for it, or you can use help@monzo.com

Not sure what’s the deal with business accounts and whether they depend on having a personal account, but with neobanks any additional accounts usually build on the personal one, so once that disappears everything goes.

Your money will be returned to you, in the meantime your best bet is to quickly set up another account, eg Starling or Revolut (not yet a bank). This will take a long time to sort out whichever way.

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Do businesses solely run on one bank account?

In the personal banking world it’s always advisable to have more than one.

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I imagine for businesses it’s easier for bookkeeping and managing cash flow, plus they probably use accounting software of sorts

Personal banking it’s advised imo for the reason of things potentially getting closed and also as it’s the best way for most people to manage spending

No reason why a business couldn’t have multiple, I guess the systems are there so that they don’t need to have multiple

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Crazy, that crazy you copy and pasted it twice. Hopefully you get it sorted. As a business you should always try have cash reserves held elsewhere.

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I’m sorry this has happened to you and I hope it’s sorted ASAP.

I guess the lesson is don’t use one bank for everything, personal or business.

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While Monzo may have good reason to believe the transaction is fraudulent, I can guarantee 1000% that it is not. Even if this were the case—which it is not—it should not affect the business account or impact my two business partners. Monzo themselves responded to my complaint, stating that this issue should not affect them in any way. However, this is not the case. None of their physical or virtual cards work, they are unable to perform bank transfers, and we cannot receive payments. This is clearly a mistake on Monzo’s part, which has not yet been resolved and is causing significant disruption to our business operations.

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I agree that having more than one bank account would be a wiser choice, and after this experience, I have definitely learned my lesson. As mentioned previously, we did have multiple bank accounts, using each one for different purposes (tax, operational expenses, wages, profit, etc.). However, for bookkeeping purposes, this setup was quite inconvenient. Using Monzo’s pots, we thought it would be better to consolidate everything into one account—big mistake.

As a small business, even though we are profitable, cash flow can sometimes be tight. Having a portion of our funds unavailable makes it challenging to cover all expenses, suppliers, and wages, especially during the Christmas period. Additionally, informing clients in time to use a different bank account for payments is no easy task. Such a switch takes time and can create further complications.

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No copy and pasting or sob story is going to get this reversed.

There’s also a lot more to this than one inbound payment resulting in instant closedown.

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First of all, the reason for copying and pasting my story across different platforms, such as Trustpilot, is simply for convenience. Writing the same story repeatedly would be unnecessary when I can use the same text. I see nothing wrong with this approach.

Secondly, my sole purpose in sharing this story is to raise awareness—not to seek sympathy or to persuade Monzo to reverse their decision. For that, I am already in contact with the Financial Ombudsman Service and the Financial Conduct Authority.

Lastly, I can confidently state that this entire situation revolves around a single ÂŁ650 transaction, which is entirely legitimate. In any case, this transaction should not impact my business account, especially since I am not the sole beneficiary. I even have proof that Monzo stated my business partner should retain access, and this matter should only affect my personal account.

Guess what? They were wrong. They made a mistake and have yet to resolve it.

Before jumping to conclusions without understanding the full context, I would kindly invite you to reconsider, my dear advocate. Thank you.

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Naturally, people always assume it’s one thing that causes an account closure, however it’s very unlikely that a single transaction will dramatically shift the risk scale to the point a bank no longer wants to be associated with you. Unfortunately, you’ll never know what caused it, as banks are prohibited from sharing such detailed information.

If your business is impacted as you described, I’d move on swiftly to another bank.

Feel free to take your complaint to the Ombudsman and FCA as you mentioned, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up. Banks operate under strict regulations and ultimately cannot be compelled to keep you as a customer.

Edit: You’ve taken this part out of your reply now :confused:

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I meant you’ve pasted it twice in your first post, but it doesn’t really matter where you post it. Nobody cares.

You can’t. And this is part of your problem.

You can complain to whoever you like, it won’t get you anywhere. Get new accounts set up and move on.

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This could be said the same for personal though, and the reasons in this post prove that.

Most if not all banks will freeze the whole account under review or suspicion. It’s how they work (I agree it’s wrong and should just freeze the amount in question).

What convenience? This would be inconvenience IMO.

Attention seeking at best.

The bank probably reviewed your whole account going way back when during the process and said nope, don’t like this. Bye.

Could also be anything to do with any owners/directors.

Good look in your next bank x

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If it’s an immediate closure, there are strong chances this isn’t the only transaction - or it’s been disputed by the sender or similar.

If you’ve been given 2 months notice, then Monzo just don’t want to give you an account and they’ve reassessed you against their risk acceptance profile & decided you fit outside it.

I’m not too worried myself about my Monzo account getting closed, but more recently, I’ve shifted some money out of Monzo to a chase saving pot, to (a) avoid spending it (b) protect just in case this happens.

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An instant closure is never a risk exit, it’s the bank being confident that there is fraudulent activity on the account.

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Considering your background, and out of curiosity, why do you think it’s wrong?

Monzo seems confident beyond reasonable doubt, given the immediate account closure. Why should they allow association with another Monzo account when the same could be repeated there?

If someone put my business at risk, I wouldn’t let them engage with another one of mine.

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It just happened so often, freeze account over a £10 payment being dispute the other side - even if it was dismissed and account reopened, why ruin someone’s life over something so minor.

Reviews can happen in the background on accounts, without putting people in detriment. Especially when the other side is just hearsay.

I agree on closures if evidence is identified which it seems like here the behaviour (likely over time, not this payment specifically) resulted in a closure.

Banks should do better in this regard.

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Fraudulent is an option, it could also be they suspect that the payment was business related or something like that.

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Those wouldn’t be immediate closure – they’d freeze the account or issue a 30/60/90 day risk exit notice. Immediate closure is for fraud only.

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