Read those already. None of those mention anything about the new FCA expectations. Hence the question.
Only came here to say every time I read this thread title, it makes me think of Harry Potter! 
6 Likes
For Monzo’s bottom line perhaps.
Funny how there’s a raft of articles about Universal Credit but nothing about what Monzo is expected to do by the FCA.
Ahh, you didn’t mention the FCA, you just asked what Monzo are doing to help.
I think those Monzo documents were written before FCA requirements were finalised. Also, the requirements don’t come into effect until 14 April so won’t necessarily be used by Monzo until then.
From what I can tell the requirements don’t seem to force banks to make a blanket change for all customers. They seem to be dictating what banks should do when customers request assistance.
6 Likes
What isnt Monzo doing that the FCA expect them to ? If you think the FCA expect Monzo to give free overdrafts for all, your reading of the FCA guidanace differs from mine
6 Likes
Not what I said is it.
No but you havent said what you think Monzo is failing to do
I asked a simple question, what is Monzo doing giving examples of other ‘legacy’ banks who appear to have implemented something already.
I didn’t set any expectations. I asked a question.
Daniel
I have asked both Monzo and Starling exactly the same question. Please note: it’s not my intention to turn this into yet another tiresome thread about why Monzo is better than Starling, or vice versa. This is purely my experience today.
- Finding chat function
Monzo: Whilst no immediate chat button in Monzo, I was able to find a Chat with us link. Maybe I’m lucky?
Starling: clicked Menu icon > Help > Chat with us. This was easy to find.
I posed exactly the same question to both.
- Response
Monzo: A bot kept trying to answer questions I was not asking. Had to press an alternative option a couple of times to get it to understand I needed to contact a human. Automated message telling me that the current wait time is one day.
Starling: message acknowledged within 60 seconds that it was being dealt with by a human. Answer within two and a half minutes.
- Conclusion
Monzo: waiting to hear about the FCA guidance and how it applies to my account.
Starling: quick and efficient confirmation that interest frozen for three months. This was more efficient than speaking to Amazon customer support.
Now, this is only one experience. I can not say that the outcome would be this way round every time. So, I can show you what Starling are doing but I don’t yet know about Monzo.
6 Likes
Thanks for your reply @anon70107404. Such a shame that you’ve had a poor response from Monzo
So Starling going above the expectations because they’re not charging an Interest, not just the first £500, assuming your overdraft is more than that (I don’t expect you to answer that).
2 Likes
It’s all relative, I suppose. Is a response within a day over Easter Sunday / Bank Holiday Monday a good or a bad thing? Some might suggest it’s pretty good.
How does it fair with a legacy bank? Well, FD and RBS have decent 24hr telephone banking, other banks? Maybe not. That said, efficiency of response from Starling exceeded my expectations.
I have a £1,000 OD facility with them. Currently £300 OD but this is for special reasons. For many years I’ve run current accounts without any OD facility, I tend to stay in credit. This is a short term thing with Starling but good that it’s free. 
[edit] and as I finished posting the above, I get a message from Monzo chat saying they’ve passed my enquiry to a specialist and I mustn’t respond in chat until they do because nobody will see what I say. 
Given (new?) wait time of 24 hours.
perhaps they are saying 24 hours because its better to say that and respond in 1 or 2, than to say 1 or 2 and not respond in time. Its also possible that they are triaging chats somehow to respond to those in difficulty quicker than some other requests
1 Like
Yes. I think you might be onto something here. They’ve responded to me 1h19m after my question. Albeit, they’ve not said yes, they’ve asked me four questions about my circumstances. I currently have £1,000 OD facility with Monzo but I don’t use it as I am in credit balance with them.
Daniel
Ok, I now have a response from Monzo:
As you mentioned, the FCA has announced a number of measures to support customers during the Covid-19 pandemic, which all banks need to put in place by Tuesday 14th April.
We’re working to get these ready and will have more information on the support we can offer after that date.
Would you mind getting back in touch with us about this next week? We can then ask a little bit more about your situation and understand how best we can help.
To be fair to Monzo, they’ve managed to answer my question within two hours by not answering at all and asking me to ask it again at a later date. 
I’m getting the impression that Monzo:
- Hasn’t worked out how it’s implementing the FCA guidance
- Doesn’t want to extend this help to customers
I may be wrong, but I suspect they’re desperate to not keep haemorrhaging investor cash.
A theoretical exercise. Of Monzo’s four million customers, not all will be active but a proportion will. Is it about a million people who have salaries paid into Monzo?
Let’s suppose 10,000 (ten thousand) customers request the FCA terms OD. A small number and perhaps lower than actual but also maybe more?
10,000 x £500 = £5M
I’m wondering whether Monzo has the reserves to be able to service that sort of customer debt? Perhaps that’s why they’re still working things out and asking questions?
1 Like
I’m a bit confused. You are currently in credit with Monzo? What are you expecting them to do then?
1 Like
I’d prefer my free overdaft period to start, if and when I need to start using my overdraft 
1 Like
Provide £500 OD on FCA terms due to current pandemic should/when I hit financial problems. And I was seeking an answer to @Chalky’s question.
1 Like
But they are legally obliged to do that from the 14th anyway? Why do you need to check or action anything in advance?