Monzo account frozen for 8 days and still no sign of resolution

Help
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Hi all,

Newbie here looking for some help / guidance / advice.

Opened a Monzo account on 11/2 after being pointed in Monzo direction as being Crypto friendly.

Transferred some money from my account t to my Coinbase account to link the two then transferred some from Coinbase to my Monzo account to confirm all was ok.

When I went to transfer it back to my Coinbase account, the same account it came from my

Monzo account was frozen and has been ever since now counting 8 days without any sign of access to either the account of my money.

No help from customer care who no have not responded to any message for 5 days just ignore any comments in the chat which I notice is now closed after 8pm.

I was contacted by “specialist” on the 12th of feb and provided proof of trades, my Coinbase account etc as requested but since then no access and no update at all.

Complaint is already logged but the stress and anxiety over the money being withheld for over a week is considerable.

Any help / support would be greatly welcomed

Thanks

David

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You opened an account, and instantly started trading Crypto, and are surprised that your account was frozen? :eyes:

Monzo are always skeptical of Crypto, I’m not sure who told you they were crypto friendly, they’re kinda crypto indifferent… There are mixed messages on here & other places about how Monzo react with Crypto, with most of the accounts frozen/closed that you hear having some Crypto transactions.

However - that’s not to say that all accounts that do crypto get closed/frozen, just that most the frozen/closed accounts did crypto. Some people have posted here, and other places using Crypto with Monzo with no issues.

Back to your issue. You’ve opened an account, with no history with Monzo & instantly started trading Crypto. If I were doing something illegal, this is the pattern that would be followed, especially when you look at money mule methodologies etc.

Sure, you may be legit, but Monzo have zero evidence of that and you saying it to them, is not going to change that. You unfortunately, need to sit & wait. Monzo are investigating (they’re mad busy atm), and will take their time to investigate you fully.

Sorry - but there’s nothing that can be done to speed it up.

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Hi. Welcome.

All you can do is wait. A new account transferring back and forth with crypto is possibly the biggest alarm bell you can ring.

Monzo I would say are crypto tolerant, not friendly. Nobody is really because it’s a hot mess.

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Not only trading crypto, but sending money there, back and there again.

Anecdotally I heard that it’s a pattern that raises red flags because fraudsters will test that an account works by doing that sort of thing.

So this account may well end up closed down soon.

Curious when people realise that there’s no get rich quick scheme and stop “investing” in magic beans.

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Thanks for the replies and yes I appreciate it potentially raises flags for clarity I have been trading crypto for many years not just now with Monzo. When doing some research it seems monzo is crypto friendly.

In terms of sending it back again yes back to the same account where the initial money come in from so not sure there should be such an issue with that? There are not many crypto friendly banks about so alternatives were thin not entirely sure what could have been done to make it any better / smoother.

I am not surprised at all that it got frozen but the customer service is appalling now getting no replies to any messages for 1 week via the app which is supposedly the preferred method of contact. As I say I have no issue with them investigating and happy to provide any and all detail as required but to get silence is not really a good experience.

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So for clarity I don’t remember saying get rich scheme or magic beans.

The money was deposited from my crypto wallet to an account in my name and then attempted to send it back to the originating account that the money was deposited in from not multiple different accounts. The last time I checked this and indeed crypto was not illegal.

If the account is closed no issue with that send the money I put into it back to the originating address in Coinbase not a problem at all.

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Thanks as mentioned happy to wait it’s the lack of any sort of update or even acknowledgement to my messages which is not helpful. I would have thought crypto in then out to another bank would have been worst I didn’t think in and then back out to the same address would be an issue.

By contrast the support team on the phone are excellent whenever I have had to call up which given wait times is not often but on the 2 or 3 times I have can’t fault them at all.

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When they have an update for you, they’ll come back to you. Sending messages each day isn’t going to speed that up and them replying to say “We’re still investigating” isn’t a gain for anyone.

Opening an account and transferring money out and back on the same day, was always going to result in this. You knew that already.

Your complaint won’t go anywhere, just wait for them to release your test payments and find another bank.

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I did know that yes but I also expected having provided the required documentation around wallets and coinbase account complete with trading history etc would also have seen it unfrozen within maybe a week.

Will wait and see on the complaint as whether it goes anywhere or not depends on time frames for this to be sorted as just withholding money without providing an update etc is also not ok not when it is approaching two weeks.

This has been covered a number of times by the likes of guardian money, bbc watchdog etc

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Crypto is untraceable. Monzo will have no idea where the money is going or coming from. It could be you, it could be the Pope, the IRA, or it could be Kim Jong Un himself. So that in itself presents a risk, and then the cherry on top was the transaction pattern which fraudsters use to test money mule accounts.

You’ll find that your account is most likely being looked into by the National Crime Agency, and while they investigate Monzo cannot legally say anything or they risk going to prison for a long time. Welcome to the world of financial crime. Don’t do crypto.

You said crypto, so I don’t see the difference. Crypto is used for either fraud or as magic beans for someone somewhere in the chain to get rich quick on others gullibility.

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Good old HMRC hates this :wink:

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Whilst it is certainly possible to find information to support the assertion that Monzo is crypto friendly, my “research” (browsing here, Twitter, and Reddit) would support the opposite hypothesis.

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It’s a shame you didn’t find this as part of your research.

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Except the research was from Monzo itself with regards to crypto………

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Just in case research is done in the future regarding MONZO and CRYPTO, here’s more advice from several years ago:

For the purpose of transparency, I have Crypto invested and have sent amounts from Monzo to the Crypto Exchange but I have not used my Monzo account(s) to receive crypto withdrawals.

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I guess it could also depend on the volume, depositing or withdrawing ÂŁ500 a couple of times a year on an account which is handling your day to day stuff might be ok. Maybe an account which is mostly crypto and for higher amounts may cause issues.

For none crypto stuff, imagine going in with 5k cash once from a private car sale every few years, probably fine. Doing it every month, probably not

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If you believe that you know nothing about Crypto.

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iTs AlL oN tHe BlOcKcHaIn

:yawning_face:

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It’s untraceable in regards to wallet addresses. We now you can trace where it goes publicly

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Bitcoin definitely used to be traceable. I was involved in a case a few years ago (in an IT security role providing evidence) that was successfully prosecuted.

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