Equifax

Feedback & Ideas
21

:man_shrugging: I vote with my feet and take my custom elsewhere, to other lenders if needs be. Monzo offers me the best banking experience so I stick with them as that’s what I want with a bank, the best banking experience.

Monzo have the data to work out if it’s worth them reporting to the other CRAs and it would seem the two they work with now are doing fine. They only reported to one for years, and everyone moaned so they reported to two. It’s why I’m fairly sure they’ll soon be reporting to all three, as the customer base grows to 10 million, there will no doubt be more cases (maybe). Or maybe those troublesome lenders will start getting their data from another CRA… who knows. Unfortunately I don’t have a time travelling device to tell me.

As you’re after an official word from someone that works for Monzo you’re in the wrong place on a forum. As I said above, in-app chat would be your best bet, or even shoot then a tweet.

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22

@HoddzDJ

I appreciate your comments and I’m enjoying the banking and in-app experience, too.

This is why I’m not just rage-quitting and jumping ship arbitrarily, without attempting to effect a positive move forwards first.

When banking solely with Monzo would have meant the difference between being able to have 350Mb Virgin Fibre and 7Mb BT ADSL, and meant the difference between having a loan at prime rates or an ungodly APR, it’s important to either garner a change in their stance or find a banking organisation who take issues of this nature seriously.

23

Okay, I’m out :man_facepalming:

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24

I think i’d agree with you if Monzo still only reported to Transunion, the fact they now report to 2/3 of the biggest/main CRA’s means I now strongly disagree.

I don’t work in the sector and as far as I’m aware there is no 100% correct list that records what banks report to what CRA but I’d imagine very few refer to all 3? I could be and probably am wrong. Whilst you might miss out on a good value loan with one lender, doesn’t mean you won’t get an equally good elsewhere that checks one of the other CRA’s.

I also disagree because your initial post talks about Capital One & Barclaycard which I know for a fact check more than just Equifax.

That is quite a strong statement to make, and quite disrespectful to this community as a whole, just because people don’t share the same views as you does not make them wrong nor you right. Monzo do not shy away or try to fool anybody on their position when it comes to CRA reporting. I’ve found them to always be honest about it.
If it’s something that you really care that much about then research and due diligence should’ve been carried out by you before opening an account. It’s quite simple really.

I’d imagine that most Monzo customers are happy with 2 CRA’s, in fact there’s been people on here that complained when they announce they were sharing with Experian as they now share their data with too many CRA’s. I personally am happy with just the two, if they add a 3rd then great, if they don’t i won’t lose any sleep over it

Can you elaborate on this? It’s still a UK bank account, there shouldn’t be any reason why direct debits can’t be set up nor money paid in?

How do you know this for certain? Same goes for a lot of your points, you don’t know that even if Monzo did report that you would have been approved? Surely it’s just an assumption?

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25

@Addzy

I’ve verified from looking at my own credit files that most high street banks do in fact report to all three credit reference agencies. I can see my old bank accounts with Nationwide, HSBC, Halifax, and Clydesdate appearing on all three.

These issues I spoke about are real world, factual examples.

I only have a bank account with Monzo.
My OH has a bank account with Monzo and Santander.

When I attempted to open a Virgin Media account, they couldn’t verify my bank account.
When my OH attempted to open a Virgin Media account, they could only verify his Santander account.

My OH took out a Livelend loan. They offered a pre-approval at a competitive APR. No other lender did.

They couldn’t verify his bank account with Monzo, he had to have the funds deposited into his Santander account.

These weren’t assumptions but actual factual real world examples.

Many lenders use a system called Vocalink to verify bank details belong to the applicant.

Others check that the last four digits of the account you give them on the application form correspond to the last four digits of an account they can see on your credit file.

Any lenders who use either of these checks and primarily query Equifax, won’t lend / open accounts for those who only bank with Monzo.

Our experiences prove it, and a developer for payl8r’s underwriting system verified this in another thread; over in the developer forum.

Anyway, Nationwide have confirmed they’re sending me a signature form to sign and return and I’ll be on my way back to them.

It’s a pity the community is so unwilling to just agree this is an issue. It really is. But if no one is prepared to acknowledge that, I’m going to have to bank elsewhere.

26

So good that you rate this community on so few users and posts… and that that is how you judge who you bank with. Can you point me in the direction of the Nationwide Community Forum?

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27

That’s what a community is for. To discuss the pros and cons of things and shares opinions. None of this is a personal attack on you, so please don’t take it that way.

I think you’ve done well, you’ve outlined your reason for wanting this and presented your argument around why you feel it is important - you’ve therefore done all you can now.

Monzo check on votes to give an indication of what they may look at implementing at some point. So now you need to see how many people agree with you and how many votes your suggestion will amass.

As mentioned though, it sadly isn’t going to change anytime soon for reasons outside of our control and Monzos. So if you want to abandon ship and do all your banking elsewhere as a result, that’s entirely up to you :slight_smile:

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28

I’ve applied, been accepted, and now pay for a Virgin Media internet connection all from my Monzo account, so I suspect there are other factors at play in your VM situation.

ETA: This is back when Monzo only reported to TransUnion.

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29

@BenLeo that’s great :slight_smile:

Of course I can only state what I’ve witnessed.

Perhaps there’s been a change in the way Virgin and / or Monzo operate since we opened our Virgin account.

It’s still all a bit flaky for my liking.

30

They did have one, but I’m not sure if it exists anymore. I was a member and it was rubbish (I’m not entirely convinced that those two statements aren’t related :joy:).

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31

https://www.nationwide.co.uk/about/have-your-say/connect-community

It started off slow, but because it’s customers only, you don’t get the spam that you get on here.

Generally a more mature audience, as you’d probably expect.

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32

I’ve noticed this too, the Monzo forums have become very toxic, definitely not an image I’d want portray to potential customers, hopefully the admins get around to minimising it, it gets particularly bad when new users post and ask a question…

33

Or y’know, not everyone views it as an issue?

That’s Part of the point of the forum, people
Make suggestions and feature requests and other people discuss whether they agree or if it’s a good idea etc.

Just because people don’t share a view doesn’t mean the community’s bad.

34

@Addzy oh absolutely, at no point did I say that the community is bad.

I merely stated that if the bank and their members present a unified stance that it’s fine to not share my bank account data with Equifax, it’s not a suitable bank for me, nor is it a suitable bank for anyone who wants the best chance of the best rates across the whole market of lenders, many of whom rely on Equifax.

I’m genuinely surprised that it doesn’t bother those defending Monzo, that keeping Monzo as your sole bank account limits your creditworthiness vs. banking with an organisation who reports to all three CRAs. It beggars belief.

No business or individual ever stands a chance of improving themselves without first being open to the possibility that some things actually do warrant improvement.

35

I’ve verified with them

36

On the internet you’ll always get people defending companies, doesn’t matter if shareholder or not they take it personal if someone is critical of something they support. Doesn’t matter how rational it is.

Imagine someone taking a pop at HSBC or NatWest and having someone fight the banks corner in making it out that the customer is unreasonable.

We should be demanding everything as customers, it’s up to Monzo to then sort through the crap and work out what to look at and what to dismiss. Let’s hope they do actively look at these threads, sometimes it feels like talking to a wall.

Anyway yes if I only banked with Monzo I would want them reporting to all three CRAs. As a customer it makes sense as it gives me the best access to loans/mortgages etc even if I never need them.

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37

I wish that community stood together on a lot of issues, there’s a lot i feel strongly about but unfortunately there’s always some that feel different, everybody uses their bank account and manages their finances in completely different ways, that’s something I’ve learned since joining this community, just how many different ways people manage their finances is quite staggering.

I just want to point out that I’m not actively defending Monzo on this particular issue, I personally don’t mind if they do or do not share with Equifax. But i have a valid reason for it.

As somebody who got themselves into a lot of trouble financially at uni and for a short time after in regards to Credit Cards and Overdrafts (No rich parents here), I don’t particularly like Credit/lending. I have worked my behind off to get my finances back on track, which they are and my credit scores have rocketed, but now I try to live my life without borrowing where possible. This means I don’t really care if Monzo report to Equifax(I’m sure it will happen one day, the question is when) as I don’t want to borrow.

I know that others have to borrow, Its not easy to not borrow, Monzo does enough other things for me financially and in managing my money that them not reporting to Equifax is a very minor con against (for me personally) a massive list of Pro’s

Everybody knows Monzo could improve, there’s a tonne of issues that from my point of view Monzo could improve on. Take Cheque Imaging as a perfect example, I have to keep a second account open just for the purpose of depositing roughly 1-3 cheques a year. I wish the community would stand together on this, unfortunately if you look at the thread on here, it’s never going to happen.

I just think you need to try and take into account what others reasoning might be before disparaging the community as a whole.

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38

Exactly this.

It’s a ridiculous thing for the OP to say when only ~6 people have commented on the topic.

Reading back through the topic it’s mostly people questioning his reason behind saying unfounded things like that more than “defending Monzo”.

39

No that’s fine I’ll take my “Ridiculous” expectations to be able to have a bank account with a bank that doesn’t impair my ability to choose from the best rates from the whole market of lenders when the time suits elsewhere.

It’s quite apparent that this bank appeals to a certain demographic, which I’m clearly not part of.

40

No one’s calling your expectations RE Equifax ridiculous.

What’s being called ridiculous is your insistence that anyone who doesn’t agree with you is part of a “certain demographic.”

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