Hi everyone,
I’m fairly tempted to move to Full Monzo but I notice it says they will close my old account for me. I really don’t want to do this as my credit score is pretty poor and having my bank account open for so long is one of the only positives.
I can’t be bothered to do this all manually and I want to use the current account switch service but I don’t want to start this if there isn’t an option to opt out of the account closure with NatWest.
Thanks in advance.
Hi Helen, I don’t think Monzo have offered a partial switch option for some time, so the only option is to do it manually, Its a good idea to keep more than one current account though.
However other forum members @anon99402360 have said -
(As I somehow missed @anon95680666 already saying above - This is super anecdotal, so do not act on it without checking with NatWest first, but I’ve heard it suggested that you can ask the source bank to not implement the closure step)
Personally I did it manually (twice - from HSBC to Starling to Monzo) over a period of a month, moving each direct debit just after it had been paid from the source account
In 80% of cases it was only a case of logging into the website
When I did my switch, I opened a second account with the source bank to use once the first had been closed. Only took a few mins online.
I don’t think keeping the natwest account open could work, and keep the current account switch guarantee. The reason being is that NatWest need to forward on payments in and any direct debit transactions that haven’t switched properly, this would make the account pretty unusable
I think the only reason Helen wants the source bank kept open is to keep a longer average bank history so opening a new after the CASS would defeat that.
As @anon95680666 mentioned its going to be a case of manually moving any DDs etc over if you want them with Monzo.
I actually think its better having salary and DDs in NatWest, Savings in Marcus etc and then only transferring monthly spend over to Monzo to keep a nice separation.
And If you don’t want an overdraft and want to spend a max of £1000 a month, top up Monzo to £1200 initially so you have that £200 buffer to start with, set the budgeting to £1000. Repeat £1000 transfer each payday. Anything left from the £1000 at the end then move into a pot.
Yes. This is the answer for those who don’t wish to do a full CASS, and don’t want to move their banking manually.
Yeah I think I’ll give that a go for a while. I think I just have account detail change fatigue at the moment after just moving house. I’ll give it a couple of months testing out Monzo’s features by making transfers and see if my motivation to manually swap over improves!
Thanks all for the answers!
My understanding is this only benefits someone if they had a line of credit on the account such as an overdraft.
Otherwise it doesn’t have an impact on your credit report as it’s not a line of credit.
I was under the impression it was current accounts and mortgages that counted towards the age.
If anyone without a mortgage wants to try using Clearscore and under Insights, scroll right to Open accounts and tap that what does it show? Does it show their oldest current account opened?
Similarly in Credit Karma, Age of credit section?
In both mine I have my mortgage listed as the oldest account, as its far older than any of my current accounts.
When I move house, I expect it to roll to Starling as thats my next oldest.
If I look on Experian via MSE Credit Club the term “Credit Accounts” lists:
So I would say it should be the oldest of any of those, regardless if you had an overdraft with your current account.
Yep, oldest current account shown on Clearscore. Bizarrely though, gives a date prior to my earliest “On Time” payment information. 2014 and 2015 have “no data” showing even though the account was opened in 2011. Likewise, Credit Karma shows current account as oldest credit. For reference, I have no overdraft on my current account, so there is no “credit agreement” that i’m aware of, never has been.
I had actually though all the accounts would be taken into consideration giving an average age figure but they just seem to care about the oldest one active. 
WHAT THIS MEANS
This is the age of the oldest active account on your credit report.
WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT
Lenders like to see how long you’ve been managing active credit for. The more financial history you have, the more chances to prove that you can meet your obligations and organise your finances responsibly.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Even if you rarely use it, unless it’s costing you too much money, try not to close this account. After 6 years, points are added to your score, but keeping it open for more than a year will start to improve this factor. The longer you keep your oldest account active, the better for your score.
The only other thing to consider is opening New accounts.
[…] try not to open more than 1-2 new accounts in the space of 6 months
This breaks it into the following, but I can’t see any words to go with it.
Who really knows if lenders actually care that much if you’ve opened three current accounts instead of two in the last six months or your oldest account is only a few months old, it’s probably quite low in weight compared to say missed payments, and defaults.
Nope no loan for you.
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