Agreed but I was just anchoring all my ‘investment’ in Monzo and personal status. I don’t actually want the loan, but would like to understand a little more why it’s not an option for me 
Drop them a message in app. I’m sure they’ll let you know why.
Are you “in the know” when it comes to the internal algorithms used by Monzo?
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I’d be amazed if they used a credit ref agency they didn’t report to as a method for judging credit worthiness.
But I’m also saved by the word “almost” if I’m wrong.
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You may be right but many lenders check with multiple CRAs despite not reporting to them themselves.
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I’d tend to agree, but with the caveat we’re talking about a system in infancy here rather then an established lender.
There’s a lot of speculation here.
I’ve got quite a bit of experience with lenders in this area and it’s something that varies so much in the market. Personal loans are rather simplified though, so I’ll run through my thoughts for anyone interested.
From what I can see, Monzo appear to be relying on feedback from CRA regarding credit accounts, and estimated income levels from cross-referencing the CRA feedback on income and their own data on accounts. Many others rely on this CRA data cross-referenced with a consumer-supplied figure.
CRAs do provide a figure of estimated income levels because this sort of information is fed back from banking organisations.
Just the other day I asked Monzo about my loan eligibility (I’m currently not eligible, and was only ever eligible for £1000 before the full rollout). The reason I asked was because 1) I have a reasonable amount of spare money each month (that Monzo don’t directly see) and 2) I previously wasn’t eligible for an overdraft when my partner (earning less than 1/15 of my income) was instantly given a £1000 overdraft on sign-up! I checked this out and it seems there was a system issue and once manually overturned I was given an overdraft of the same value. Anyway, I was told (fairly bluntly) that my eligibility has not changed.
The point is, Monzo has an extremely conservative lending criteria and will likely go with a customer they are able to predict then somebody they cannot, no matter how much they earn. Not once was I asked for my income details. This is what leads me to believe that they’re relying on their data for this. I don’t disagree with this approach in anyway - after all, they’re a tiny player in this market and need to be sure they can turn a profit in this area.
Unfortunately for me, if I wanted a loan I am probably hindered by being self employed with irregular income, all sorts of “outgoings” (albeit savings and investments of sorts), and maybe wouldn’t even generate enough profit for them to consider.
Much speculation of course, but it’s likely this is all we’ll ever have on this topic for obvious reasons.
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Just adding that for ~4 months the bulk of my money wasn’t coming into monzo and they asked me my income when I clicked on loan.
I agree, lenders don’t see the pointless CRAs score, they see your file.
Hi everyone 
I’m Amy and I’m the Product Manager for Loans at Monzo.
I just wanted to re-share an old post of mine to shed a bit more light on how we determine who is eligible for our loans:
I hope this clears up some of the questions that you’ve raised. We’re really sorry if it feels like a ‘black box’, we’re still trying to find the line between transparency and our commitment to being a responsible lender (which means not giving away too much information which could be used to allow people to game the system).
We really appreciate your feedback and I’ll try and answer any other questions you might have about our loans!
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How often are people reviewed? Is it automated or does it need to be requested in app?
For example. I had an erroneous default on my report which has since been removed. I would like to see if that now makes me eligible 
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@jackcully
Thank you for the explanation on APRs I had realised you were doing personal rates, but I am still confused as to how you are working those out along with affordability without a soft credit search?
My assumptions as outlined above is that you are using proxy information and that will mean the percentage of customers mispriced upfront will be high and therefore the decline rate and those overpaying vs the market will be high and in both instances cause customers to overpay or end up with blemishes on their credit files.
If we are misunderstanding your approach, please do let us know.
Is it fair to assume you are not doing the soft upfront credit search as you are worried about the costs of the searches from those curious about the new service?
Hiya 
We get refreshed data from TransUnion each month and we’ll automatically reassess eligibility based on this. You should get a notification if you become eligible!
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Hi all,
I have had a direct reply from a contact at Monzo who I reached out to directly and he confirmed that a quotation search happens when you first start the journey (I can also see this on my Credit Karma account).
The trouble here was down to the wording on the review your loan page…
We’ll do a credit check
Before you take out your loan, when you accept the credit agreement. This will leave a footprint on your record.
This implied that there had not been a credit check until this point, both by stating that they were going to do one and that it would leave a footprint.
Quotation searches are credit checks, they just aren’t visible to other lenders…
It was a relief to hear that they were not quoting on proxy information, but would have been better (IMHO) had the information been clear upfront that the quotation search would happen and not imply that a search hadn’t happened when it had on the review your loan page.
Hopefully they will amend the text shortly. The rates on loans under £3k still suck, but for loans over £7k they are competitive.
When you get refreshed data from TransUnion shouldn’t this be recording as a soft search visible through Credit Karma?
I can only see an AF and Quotation Search done when I first opened the account nothing since.
If it was another company like getting an insurance quote I would see a new soft search each time they pulled my data and again when renewal comes up.
Not that soft searches make any difference, I was just expecting to see one per month from Monzo.
A monthly refresh of the data is a good solution on this way everyone get their individual loan based on the refreshed data.
I think using AI for analysis of spending and income and repayments would be additional help for this system. (Risk Management)
No search is performed.
It’s provided by CRAs back to Monzo as part of a service agreement.
Also provides estimated income values.
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I wonder how much of the data Monzo are allowed to reveal back to the customer that they get.
I’d be interested to know how much TransUnion thinks my income is.
I also want to know if Monzo can reveal their assumptions about you based on app usage.
It would be also interesting to know if those assumptions can be corrected with proof.
I was disappointed when they revealed the future of monzo slides which just ripped off Credit Karma when it could have been around the Monzo loan score and showing what factors are being used towards the calculations without revealing any algorithms to game the system.
I believe you can ask this and your other questions in app.
I’m sure that I read someones comment on here that Monzo re-looked into their report and found their salary was being reported incorrectly 
Point of clarity, CRAs do not track your income/salary as part of your credit report.
They track credit, so how much you’ve borrowed, how much you owe and your performance as a borrower, as well as applications made, which is one of many inputs a bank or lender will use to make a decision to extend credit. Lender credit decisioning is proprietary and from a risk perspective wouldn’t outsource decision making to a sole external provider with zero skin in the game as it were.
CRAs may track salary as a part of proactive marketing exercise to sell loan and credit products on behalf of lenders but lenders would not use this information as the basis of credit decision.
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