Why canāt Monzo ring fence the child money for the child account?
There are children who canāt speak up or who canāt leave. Itās not as easy as you would like.
Finance can play a role in these decisions.
The account isnāt standalone. Itās an add on to the parents account.
Thereās not much more that can be said from that.
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Iām not a Reddit user. I work with women and children who have been abused and see the real stories. Itās upsetting.
The money does not belong to the child. They have no way of adding it to the account.
IF this child is being abused and IF they have some of their own money saved and IF the parent wonāt let them have it and IF the parent has the card, then they need to get help from elsewhere. Thatās not something Monzo can control.
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Iām sure it is. It doesnāt change my response though. Monzo does have a vulnerable customer team, if youād like to make contact with them to make some suggestions.
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Give a child a proper account with a sort code and account number. Ring fence the child money from the parents. Allow children to cut off parentās access to the child account or freeze the child account in cases of reported abuse to Monzo and access can be restored to parents via a social worker letter or court order.
Thatās what other banks are for.
What did Barclays and HSBC say when you asked them this question?
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Why canāt Monzo do it?
Itās a fast growing bank and a child doesnāt have much choice if the parents decide to open a Monzo account for them and put money in the account.
What did the other banks say when you asked them?
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*and IF the parent made them have a Monzo account, not one with Barclays or someone else.
I do appreciate that you know this sort of thing happens, but nothing you say here is going to be read by Monzo staff, let along actioned.
Monzo are not going to redo their whole account architecture because of thing sort thing happening to a minute amount of people. Sad but true.
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Where would children be getting any money, if not from their parents?
If the parents couldnāt control the account, they might just stop giving their child any money. How would that help the vulnerable children that youāre so concerned about?
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Is the cold-hard truth of the matter not that the money isnāt and never has been the childās?
Unless they are earning the money themselves through employment.
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Thereās certainly a misunderstanding of the child account features here.
If it does become a āfully-fledgedā account, with sort code and account number, Iām sure it will then fall under the remit of the vulnerable customers team. - who can support in these circumstances.
For now, as others have mentioned. The money doesnāt legally belong to the child, so the parents can do with it as they see fit.
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The child account (under 16yo) is basically a pot under the personal account of one of the parents, with a card (and therefore an Apple/Google wallet card) which is linked to that āpotā that the child can use. An additional named parent/person can also have limited control too
In essence, the same as the parent letting the child reach into a pants pocket to get whatever money is in there. And if the child doesnāt grab, or spend, the money, it stays in the pocket.
Then when you āupgradeā to a 16-17yo account, it is a proper bank account in the name of the 16-17yo person. The parents have no app/back-door control over it.
Then when you upgrade (at 18yo) to a full account, you get access to all the things like gambling transactions, overdrafts, loans, Flex credit, etc.
Itās a very responsible structure from Monzo.
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