Incorrect Direct Debit Names

I did before I posted. I’m on Android too :confused:

Edit: Ahhh the transaction item in your feed. I was clicking into the direct debit itself.

They are enriched but the “real” details are always provided at the bottom of the details page as far as I know so it’s an annoyance at worst. Certainly I don’t see anything worth threatening anyone over :man_facepalming:

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Direct debit transactions don’t show the “real” details at the bottom.

So what are the details shown at the bottom then???

As far as I understand the merchant submits a DDI that looks like this.

The Merchant Name whilst is sometimes filled in properly its sometimes not and if you have a long name you have to get creative to fit within 18 chars.

So as an example my HSBC mortgage they haven’t bothered and just submit

MTG xxxxxxxx

With xxxxxxxx being the reference repeated.

Now I know that isn’t a Magic the Gathering subscription, but there’s nothing to say HSBC.

Anyway, what was the issue. I can’t see Monzo accepting names which are not representative of the actual merchant.

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This is my Tesco Mobile (most recent transaction), scrolled down:

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Ok then. You know what I’m going to say next…

On iOS… :smile:

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It’s just something you have to live with… it annoyed me for ages that my payment to RCI finance was called ‘Renault Finance’ in Monzo because that’s what had ended up in the database (the payment had nothing to do with Renault). It never got fixed.

Currently my xbox subscription flips randomly between xbox and microsoft.

With companies having multiple trading names it’s never going to work to have a central database but I imagine the amount of work to handle that at a per-customer level would be enormous.

Probably should be “RCI Financial Services” officially as these are all trading names having worked on this project.

“Renault Finance”
“Nissan Finance”
“Dacia Finance”
“Infiniti Financial Services” < Just to be different.

I would have thought it would be fairly easy for the customer to name these whatever they want like a label, and it doesn’t get fed back as a suggestion.

:laughing:

You should see what some of these companies do though. Renault Finance use at least three different names that I’ve seen that are all different versions of the RCI financial services - sometimes they set up a new one under a slightly different name mid credit agreement for seemingly no reason.

The same applies to o2 who often use some random combinations of o2/telefonica and the name on the mandate can vary from customer to customer.

What you see as the merchant name on the mandate might not be what somebody else sees on their mandate. I have two o2 contracts which have separate direct debits, both are personal contracts and were taken out online but the merchant name on the mandate is different 🤷🏻

Merchant enrichment data helps make it clearer in lots of cases who it’s for.

Don’t forget as well that there are now quite a few companies such as Go Cardless who process direct debits for smaller companies - sometimes using their merchant name or a random name. They might use the same one for several different merchants. Multiple customers might submit different suggestions and one might get accepted and then it will appear incorrectly for other people.

It can be a minefield, but IMO overall the merchant enrichment Monzo offer is still an improvement on what most banks offer. We don’t always get it right and there’s definitely room to improve our tooling but it’s not one of our biggest priorities at the moment as far as I’m aware!

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As a customer that’s not really my problem. I expect you, my bank, to provide me with accurate information on all areas of my banking from your interfaces to statements.

Wouldn’t it be better not to do the enrichment.

Let the people who don’t care just see whatever was on the mandate like my Lloyds account.

For those that are wanting relatable names that make sense allow them to rename them like it was a pot.

Then you need to reset your expectations. They’re unrealistic.

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Is it unrealistic to expect accurate information?

I think your bar is set too low

Yes.

If Google and Apple can’t manage it for their maps products with all of their resources, Monzo aren’t going to.

(Of course, the question as to whether enrichment is appropriate as a result of this answer is a completely different one. Fortunately there’s a vast selection of banks that don’t offer it.)

That’s a silly comparison and I’m sure you realise it

In general Apple/Google Maps are very good for the U.K. at least. Travelled quite a bit with Apple Maps and had no issues besides the teething issues they initially had with sending people into rivers, but that was very very early days for it

As for Monzo, they have a bunch of transaction data, people recommending changes and location data from devices. So they can see what store is there, what the merchant name is, what MCC it is, what amount the purchase was for, what the customer said it was

It isn’t difficult to do well, for instance I don’t think I’ve had problems with Starling yet unless the transaction is processed offline, incl direct debits, to which I have 2 O2 ones and 2 AmEx ones, one from Aqua and a host of regular card payments

I didn’t think so but thanks for being insulting.

Just wanted to point out that we can’t really use this as a reliable factor in the direct debit naming. If we could, I’m sure more services would allow customer recommended changes but as it’s usually not all that reliable, I don’t think it adds value. A consideration, perhaps, but not a confirmed data point.

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