Gambling related businesses

Monzo Chat Business Banking
1

So one thing that I’d really like to know is if Monzo will support business accounts for gambling related activities.

I personally do something called “Matched betting”, which is essentially making money from the offers that betting sites put on.

I WAS using my monzo personal account for this, until support told me I could no longer do this as it counted as “Business purposes”. Due to the fact that I was doing it with some friends and family and we were making a profit from it

The issue is, none of the other “business” accounts from tide, revolut, starling etc allow business accounts relating to gambling.

Will monzo be the same in this regard? Or will they support this?

Thanks!

2

Matched betting isn’t a business - Are they going to stop someone who happens to be a really good gambler from having an account?

Did they freeze/cancel your account?

There is also no way they can know you were doing it with friends and family?

If Monzo are stopping you from doing this, I’d simply use a different bank (you won’t need a business account).

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Not sure how it’s a business. You are not using it as an income source. All gamblers want to make a profit but its still only fun for most. Some are professional gamblers, but even then, not sure that can be classed as a business.

Just use PayPal and transfer it to Monzo if they are being difficult about it. Then it’s just showing as PayPal.

4

This sounds strange. Did support contact you or did you ask them?

Have you still got lines of communication open to ask further questions?

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They ‘contacted’ me by freezing my account :stuck_out_tongue:

My account got frozen for 3 days, as did my sister’s.

Then when they unfroze it they said that I couldn’t use it for “business purposes” and that further transactions related to matched betting could get my account closed

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Did they specifically say it was to do with matched betting?

Again, there is no way they can know it’s matched betting (they can guess, but that’s a pretty dangerous road to start guessing at what people are doing with their own money).

Any chance you can screenshot the message from CS?

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How can they know what you are betting on, or care? All they will see is deposits to gambling companies. That won’t get an account frozen. Pluse there is no need to match your bets when taking advantage of offers. You are throwing away profits as the prices you take will mostly be poor value. It does smooth things out but ultimately will reduce your profits.

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0846713622 6803786171

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Uploaded screenshots above

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Myself, my sister and a coworker of mine (we all do matched betting) all had our accounts frozen and got told the same thing

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Wow, that’s pretty ridiculous! :joy:

It sounds like Monzo don’t necessarily know what matched betting is!

I’d suggest opening an account with literally any other mainstream bank (I know people who have been doing it for years and never had a problem).

Would love to know the reasons behind Monzo blocking this (purely for curiosity), but doubt we’d get an answer.

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12

Yeh this is nuts, Matched Betting is categorically not business related. It’s not ‘income’, HMRC would never see it as such - it’s not taxable therefore it’s not a business.

Policing consumer loopholes is not the business of a bank, and this is a pretty troubling road to go down. Monzo would also do well not to get a bad reputation with the Money Saving Expert crowd where Matched Betting is very popular!

Hopefully this one gets cleared up quickly.

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13

Has anyone checked the Terms & Conditions?

If it is mentioned in there, then you haven’t really got a leg to stand on :slight_smile:

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It’s not mentioned as far as I can see, but even if it was, I’d question why Monzo are seemingly forbidding something perfectly legal, and getting confused as to what it is?

I can see why banks would frown upon it in certain situations, like trying to take a mortgage out but having 20 grand of betting transactions in the last 3 months on your statements… Explaining that “it’s guaranteed!” won’t get you very far…

But to freeze an account and specifically say it’s not allowed is wrong IMO…

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Terms and conditions say nothing about gambling other than its not allowed for under 18s (obviously)
Nothing about matched betting or gambling other than that.

And in fact the word “Business” doesn’t even appear ONCE!

I really hope that monzo clears this up. This isn’t a business purpose, its not even taxable income. And given as gambling is fully allowed there’s no reason for Monzo to police this.

I’m pretty angry to be honest.

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16

I can understand that, especially if this isn’t in the T&Cs as you stated :slightly_frowning_face:

Here isn’t the correct place for your complaint though, for a number of reasons. I’d recommend that you follow Monzos complaints procedure below so it goes through the appropriate channels. It will also be properly investigated and get you’ll get an official response too :slight_smile:

https://monzo.com/help/emergencies/make-complaint

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I’ve submitted a complaint.

I really hope Monzo can clarify this.

Revolut already has an awful reputation for freezing/closing accounts without warning if you do anything gambling related on them. And its the main reason a lot of people avoid them.

It would be a shame if Monzo began to get a reputation for policing their customers (legal) activities too

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18

Cool, good luck! :crossed_fingers:

I’m certain you’ll get clarification, I’ve been through the complaints process myself and it’s pretty good.

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Let us know how this goes. Weirdly I was gonna use my dormant Monzo account for match betting… guess I’ll stick to HSBC. this is just silliness, a lack of understanding by a couple of people. I reckon a complaint will sort this out as match betting has nothing to do with a business.

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:popcorn:

it’ll be interesting to have a :monzo: response in thread to clear this up and offer an apology to @GoldenOne for the misunderstanding. People make mistakes so hopefully they’ll acknowledge it and hold their hands up :raising_hand_man:

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