“I’m sorry but the only information I can provide is that the dispute is still ongoing” was the response.
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I read that as there is no update. They have to wait to see if the merchant disputes the chargeback.
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So it’s a ‘no update’ rather than an unwillingness to give you one, the person on the phone probably has no info to go on either. What a pain!
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Yes, possibly. That’s really annoying. I wonder if Mastercard do give any updates - it would seem strange that it’s just a black box that gives no news and doesn’t even tell you a timeline.
From limited experience in something similar, it’s likely it’s in a queue with a team that is working through them in reverse date order, and they won’t look at it until it appears at the top and gets allocated. I wouldn’t imagine it’s a big team either, comparative to the volume of chargebacks across the Mastercard system. Hence why others are seeing long timelines?
Mastercard don’t get involved.
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Perhaps next time just use any other large bank debit card for large purchases as they’ll refund you immediately. It’s just because Monzo don’t have the funds to be able to support this that you have to wait for it all to be sorted out.
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Chargebacks are won when the other side gives up. They give up by simply not sending a response to us, and waiting to the countdown timer to expire. This can take up to 9 months depending on far a chargeback was escalated.
As a general rule we don’t do up front refunds for goods and services chargebacks. The number of fraudulent goods and services chargebacks we get is too high.
Personally I would recommend using a credit card. Section 75 protection provided by law is extremely strong, and the nature of a credit card means if someone is willing to let you borrow the money originally, they’ll be happy to continue letting you borrow the money while they sort out the dispute.
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That’s a real shame. Ruins it for everyone else 
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The way Halifax handled it was to refund me straight away, and then deduct the charge again when the merchant won the dispute.
Is the number of fraudulent Monzo customers really that high? Why not publish the number of chargebacks won and lost by Monzo customers.
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Guess it’s a mix of available capital (Halifax will have a LOT more than Monzo) and volume of potential fraud.
In my head (no evidence!) Monzo is an easier target for fraud precisely because they don’t have resources/money to throw at it and its ‘online only’ so maybe some people think it’s an easier target??
But since Monzo gets the refund from the merchant as soon as they issue the chargeback, it’s not a lack of available funds that’s stopping them.
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Yeah, but if Monzo don’t get the chargeback for 9 months, that’s the time period you’ll have to wait. I think what others are saying is that some banks, with more capital, will give you your money before Mastercard return it?
Anyway, hope you get it sorted soon.
No, Monzo already has the money:
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Ahhh ok. Then that sucks even more.
Chargebacks can take a long time more so if they get disputed but if monzo have it hopefully it won’t be much longer.
This is really helpful info, thanks!
Yes, but the funds go back and forth every time it’s escalated. I don’t think anyone would appreciate the money going into and out of their account multiple times.
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This is correct. However we don’t know if we’re going to win a dispute, which means we’re taking a risk on having a customer take the money out of their account, and then going into an unauthorised overdraft when the chargeback is lost.
Calling some of the claims fraudulent is probably stronger language than I should have used. But goods and services chargebacks (and this must be a good and services chargeback because we always refund upfront for fraud) are difficult because we don’t know how reasonable our customer is being. Some customers dispute very minor problems, and ultimately the merchant is able to prove that.
We are working on improving this, and providing refunds if we think we have a high chance of winning, with data to back that up. We will probably also look at our customers history, so we’ll be much happier to refund upfront if a customer has a long history of paying in their salary vs one that only has a few online transactions and a couple of quid in their account.
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I have looked at your specific situation and I’m happy to go into more detail directly with you, if you’d like @urban 
I think it’s also important to note that even if you are entirely morally correct, you may not be entitled to a chargeback under the Mastercard rules. It is also possible for chargebacks to be won and lost on technicalities in the process - if a party fails to submit sufficient/correct evidence they forfeit the right to continue to continue defending their side.
It’s quite technical and we do spend a lot of time reading rulebooks to understand when a chargeback is valid, or not. It would be unfortunate to refund a customer upfront to find out 3 months later they needed to give us the money back as we discovered that a specific loophole allowed the merchant to win.
(As a side note, I am happy to answer questions on the process, within reason, since Dispute Resolution is essentially what I do 
)
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