After a (unrelated, as it turns out) question posed by a member of the forum, discussion turned to Domestic Abuse and Financial Control. Wondered if anyone wanted to continue the discussion separately.
One thing that struck me is how contacts with Monzo accounts auto populate into the Payments tab. Iāve always thought this acts like a social network thatās impossible to leave, if someone has your number. This will have a bearing for customers who are victims of Domestic Abuse (DA). Has Monzo got a policy and a technical way of blocking some contacts?
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Is that only when you turn on the āpay friendsā feature? Or is it on by default?
Iām yet to really see the advantage of knowing some contacts in my address book have Monzo, but I appreciate itās designed for the social element, and the more friends you have that use it, the more useful it is.
How? Genuinely interested to understand this.
Monzo with Friends is still an opt in feature. It doesnāt show contacts by default.
Even though itās not possible to do this via the app, I would find it highly unlikely that Monzo customer support are not capable of blocking a contact for someone in this scenario.
@simonb @anon77734705 can you confirm if this is possible?
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We can and have done this for very similar scenarios.
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Slightly off topic, but related, on the āYour friends on Monzo screenā, I would really like to have an ability to filter for people to show : I doubt I will ever send an ex-recruitment agent, estate agent or my old-boss (or ex-work colleagues) money, but they are in my contacts as occasionally (once every couple of years!) we do get in contact regarding somethingā¦
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This was the scenario I was thinking about, and itās good to hear Monzo have processes in place.
But my original thought was simply one part. Iād be interested in peopleās thoughts on financial abuse and Monzoās take on how it combats that.
Thanks everyone for sharing on this thread! 
This is an area the Vulnerable Customers team looks after, and weāre always looking for ways to improve our existing support. If youāre ever concerned about yourself, or someone you know you can always message in to our support chat and it will get escalated to us.
To confirm, we do have processes in place for incidences of abuse when they are raised to us, and we do all we can to help from blocking abusive P2P payments, to listening and signposting to professional help.
Iām sure myself and @anon60180728 could write up a blog post about this if youād like to hear more about our work in this area!
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I like this discussion, I donāt personally know anyone who has gone through such a situation and thought the scenario given was quite enlightening. I remember reading discussion on joint accounts before regarding escaping an abuser or regaining money that could be removed by a partner. The Q&A by the vulnerable customers team was really good and Iād love to hear more from them tbh
Edit: @natalieledward just beat me to it! Iād love to have a blog post on this 
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Iāve always thought sharing all contacts is overkill, just to pay people occasionally.
The conversation normally goes, I owe you something, do you have x great payment method? Yes, I do. Oh great, Iāll use it. And thatās it
Basically, itās the wrong way round. You should have to allow a contact, not block them.
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A specific problem for an app only bank is that a customerās phone may in fact be controlled by another person. If I gave my partner my pin code and password, my partner would basically have total control over my phone and I donāt see how Monzo could detect that kind of abuse. Or one person could manipulate another into authorising a second phone, which would basically allow surveillance of their account.
Would be interesting to see a blog post discussing some of these issues.
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That problem exists with all banks. In a controlling/abusive relationship they will get your login details, keep your card, see your bank statements
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But if you donāt opt into this other features (e.g. monzo.me ) donāt work.
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Thanks for picking this up. I was feeling awful because a really interesting discussion was taking place around a genuinely innocent question on the other thread and it felt hijacked.
Iād love a Monzo blog post on how the bank supports those who reach out for assistance in this way. Itās a hidden issue, hidden in plain sight often, with people often scared or confused about their options.
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I really donāt get your logic, a phone call or email would do. Normally the only help that could be given is after they leave the abuser.
Itās not being a hero and itās not the job of the government to legislate on every single issue
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They can find out if theyāve gone to the bank in their lunch break as well if itās a small town
Yep, and they have legislated. Itās not their job to issue a list of things for every company in the land to do. Neither should Monzo or anyone else only do the absolute minimum demanded by the government and ignore anything else who could make a positive difference to peopleās lives. Itās the job of everyone, individual or company, to do what they think is right. No reason a bank canāt take a stand on issues
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You think everyone in a controlling situation is cut off from the world and desperately needs to escape to call the police? Yeah, thatās not how it is.
The bank can do whatever it wants. If I donāt agree then iāll switch accounts. I donāt think the vulnerable customer team take time away from the bankās other tasks, they compliment and enhance them
You may not see the need for a lot of things but many of us do
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Not everyone wants to leave, definitely not everyone wants the police involved and orders arenāt worth the paper they are written on.
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