Is Monzo for me?

Wasn’t really sure where to put this thread, however… I have a few questions.

  1. Why is everyone so excited about Monzo?

  2. What makes it different from your usual banks such as Lloyds or Barclays?

  • Why should I be with Monzo rather then, your main stream banks?

  • What makes these mainstream banks, so “corrupt”? (if that’s the word)

  1. Is Monzo for someone who has a low credit score, like me? My debit card was stolen and the unknown person did some “fraud” on it (if that’s the word), which in affect got my account frozen and then closed.

Sorry if some of these questions are stupid, I’m new to this! XD

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If you need a fully functional bank account, Monzo is not for you. Currently Monzo is just a prepaid card. The full bank account will launch later this year for everyone (currently in beta).
However, you could try Starling Bank for now. It is a mobile bank account with a debit card.

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I’m excited because it’s different.
However, they truly seem like a bank with ethics and morals. They want everyone to get s bank account and they’re trying to be up front in what things may cost you.
Add on to that a cracking mobile app and you’ve got something which matches the times we’re living in.
They’re trying to push banking into the relevant century and they’re dragging the old banks with them whether they like it or know it.

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I was pretty fortunate that i stumbled across Monzo completely on accident so i did a little research and what immediately drew me in was the instant balance update and categorization of all my spending. I’m almost positive i’m paying for a subscription that i don’t even know about.

I’ve always got the impression that Monzo is willing to listen to what we actually want from our bank. Imagine trying to call up TSB and getting them to add a feature, that’s never gonna happen. Monzo has already incorporation some suggestions and i feel that they will always be willing to add a feature even when they do get their billion uses :wink::wink:. As for the corruption that’s way above my level of expertise.

As far as im aware your credit score doesn’t have to be impeccable to be accepted for a bank card (please correct me if im wrong.) Also considering that you DC was stolen shouldn’t you have been able to get the account freeze/strike removed from your record considering it wasn’t your fault? It might be worth following up.

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I was excited by Monzo mainly because of the app and its great approach to budgeting. I like that you can categorise your spending, it helps me see how much I spend on food/petrol etc. in an easy way that doesn’t involve a spreadsheet! Another key thing for me is the instant notification that I’ve spent money and a real time balance, also really useful if you’re on a budget. I haven’t been using them for very long but am so far impressed with Monzo and will get a current account with them (although I am an Android user so will wait for the general launch I think)

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I have know idea to be honest; I was surprised when they one day sent me a letter talking about “fraud”. I don’t think they can just remove it from my record, for security reasons. Because if I said that “it wasn’t my fault”, anyone could just commit fraud and say, “it wasn’t their faults”. Anyways once I reach my Physics goals it’ll be cool. It’s funny these banks are pretty hypocritical, the other I was reading on the news that “Barclays higher ups” committed some sort of fraud as well; it just shows how corrupt the banks are, in my opinion.

Do credit scores, go back to normal after a while?

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Hey!

Just a thought regarding your fraud situation. It could be worth going to the Citizens Advice Bureau. If you feel you’re being negatively effected by something on your credit score that was not your fault you can potentially get things stricken from it. It’s a tough one as you’d have to contact the 3 big credit score guys which is a big hassle!
I believe the bank can put in a request - however if they’re not budging on something I’d go Citizens Advice Beurea and get some advice them, after that you may want to make a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service ( http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk ) Banks have to respond to requests for information from FoS if I recall correctly.

There are steps you can also take to improve your credit score :slight_smile:

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Oh wow, first time I’m hearing all of this. Thanks so much, as an 18 year old who’s just entered the world of finance and banking, a lot of things feel like they are all muddled up and confusing!

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Hey, absolutely no worries!
I’ve gained most of my knowledge as I worked for a bank for 2 years and just have a general interest in finance I guess.
Any more questions or queries I’m definitely willing to help or at least point you where to find better information!
Best of luck to you - I can totally see how it’s confusing for anyone coming into it now.
School system doesn’t exactly help matters - they should be teaching finance!

On the matter of fraud, credit scores etc I would strongly suggest doing something about this! I know you are probably a long way from even thinking about buying a house, but firstly your credit report is important for banks, credit cards, mobile phone contracts and many other things too. And secondly when you do need a mortage, you want a credit report that’s squeeky clean over the last several years! (I think fraud is meant to be struck from your report after 5 years, but I’m not too sure about this.)

With that in mind, here are a few thoughts:

Firstly: If someone else commited fraud (whether with your card or not) this really really shouldn’t matter in your credit report. It was someone else, after all!

Secondly: Have you actually checked your credit report, to see if it actually suffered as a result of this? (The full report is much more important than the credit score itself!) There are various ways of doing this, but you have a statutory right to see your report (i.e. by law the reporting agency MUST provide you with your report if requested). However, they may charge you, and there are free ways of checking your credit report

Thirdly: Maybe you’ll find out your credit report is unaffected from this. In that case: :tada: If not: Address the issues. As @anon4562461 mentioned, the first point of reference is the bank that made the report. Get them to withdraw it. If they really refuse (but don’t give up too early!) consider posting a notice of correction which you are fully entitled to do (although some say this may be counter productive, so try the first route first, and research a little before actually doing this). Read more here: Unfair default or other error on your file? You need to fight it

Fourthly: Work on re-building / improving your credit record. One of the best ways of doing this is getting a credit card, and using it right. (See the link below for loads of tips, and to make sure you are not using it wrongly, because as much as a credit card can boost your credit score if used correctly, it can ruin it, if used incorrectly)

Finally, I would thoroughly recommend reading this one in full - It’s long but VERY MUCH worth a read in its entirety:

Finally finally: A personal story to motivate you:

About 2 years ago I never thought I would ever buy a house. However, I got somewhat obsessed with my credit report after a friend had his ruined through fraud, and managed to rebuild it within a year. So, I signed up for the various free credit reporting sites mentioned in the first link, and signed up for a credit card. I built an excellent report and a score very near to perfect.

About 6 months ago I changed my main bank account. Let everyone who was collecting direct debits know the new bank details, and thought it be done.

However, my home broadband provide didn’t update their database properly and consequently failed to collect their direct debit. They immediately reported it to all three credit rating agencies, and my credit score nose-dived.

I got in touch with my broadband provider and after a lot of back and forth they finally relented and removed the mark from my report about 3 months later. My credit report was back in the very same state as before. Very shortly afterwards my situation changed very suddenly and very significantly, and I applied for a mortgage, and was accepted immediately.

So: (1) It’s important to know your credit report, so you know about potential problems when you still have time to do something about them. Fighting things can take months, building a good report/score can take years. (2) You can and should fight unfair marks on your credit report. (3) Fight this as soon as you can. You never know when you need a good credit report, and you have time to actually build up a score/report for when you need it.

Edit:

PS: I should mention that most banks will accept customers with low credit scores unless it’s really bad, but may not offer you an overdraft.

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So true. Usually at college we have tutor or our weekly homeroom classes, and honestly I feel as if they’re useless and could be teaching us stuff that we’ve mentioned!

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Thank you for the very long reply, the read was so worth it!

I’ve never actually really checked my credit report, with the 3 credit report checkers, however I assumed I had a low credit score, because when trying to open a current account, they always seem to decline me. However I feel I need to go to the actual branch to open a bank account; but once Monzo releases their current account, that won’t be necessary :wink: .

Thank you for the story! It’s really good to gain an insight behind, your experiences, and I do now feel obligated to improve my credit score now.

Well, that does indeed look like there are some real problems. So, yes, get your free report, and armed with the knowledge of what’s actually in there: fight! As @anon4562461 suggested, Citizens Advice might be very helpful fighting this, but get the report first, so that you actually know what to fight. Best of luck!!

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Didn’t see these before:

As so often: It depends. But erroneous reports happen all the time, and can get corrected. It all depends on how you approach it, how firm you are, what the actual issue is, etc.

Negative marks are removed from your report automatically after “a while” (see question 9, but the precise limits differ by agency, so this is just one example) - but you should still try to do something about them now.

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Perhaps at some stage Monzo might be able to do outreach programs in schools. They could try have sessions to run through the basics of finance.

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If you have any questions or topics you think Monzo should cover i.e. different forms of fraud as well as what you can do to prevent yourself falling victim to it or how to recover from it - make a suggestion here:

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