That’s somewhat worrying.
Considering how trigger happy Monzo is with account blocking, I am wondering how Monzo allowed millions in payments to come in to a single account.
1 Like
Also a paywalled article about this incident, but it looks like a business account due to the use of PISP payments so the volume probably didn’t stick out too much.
1 Like
Could it be because Monzo aren’t actually trigger-happy with account blocking, and this is just an inaccurate perception that has been created by bad actors trying to game Monzo into reopening suspect accounts?
8 Likes
Not trigger happy in that manner, just regularly complained about online, most banks stop accounts carrying out unusual activity.
7 Likes
Or even interfere with normal activity 
Probably because they are working with Monzo on making improvements, something which has been apparent over the past couple of years when reading between the lines (as Monzo aren’t allowed to talk about it).
Getting Monzo up to scratch is likely to be a far [game*] better outcome for the FCA than writing a critical report with no constructive support.
*Didn’t notice my phone had ‘autocorrected’ what I meant to type here until I was back on the desktop. Have left the error in and put what I think were the intended words after, to be transparent over the edit to this post.
4 Likes
I recall your incident, though my other half sent money to his newly opened first direct account and had to make 4 calls about it, seems they’re also on the ball, must be trigger happy.
1 Like
Or maybe all those hundreds of people weren’t lying and had their accounts blocked. I’m sure, whether they were doing something naughty or not, they weren’t all lies.
Even I had my accounts blocked at one point, though I wasn’t transferring millions.
Not lying about their accounts being blocked, just the reasons why, the fact they’d done “nuffink wrong” and ignoring the fact that all banks do this.
1 Like
I didn’t say everyone was lying. I suggested the perception of Monzo being trigger-happy is inaccurate. All banks block accounts, it just so happened that someone Monzo customers managed to shout louder and get themselves on TV over it. If one were to look at the banking industry statistics, one would probably find that Monzo block just the same as all other banks, on average - or possibly, they actually block fewer accounts. Unfortunately with the law being as it is, we’re not allowed to know.
It’s very unfair, both on customer and on Monzo. The law is indeed a ass.
1 Like
I would hazard a guess that Monzo blocks more than the industry in statistics. Monzo’s ease of sign up makes it a target. Plus - Monzo doesn’t have the years and years of experience that the larger banks have at identifying it, it doesn’t have the learning data that the other banks have.
Ah, yes. I perhaps took my argument in the wrong direction there. Ease of sign up could lead to more blocks by volume, I grant that.
But if Monzo has more bad actors due to their ease of sign up, and they therefore block more accounts because of blocking these bad actors - this isn’t the same as being trigger-happy.
Again, it’s a shame we’re not allowed to know the real data. If we were, we could look at Monzo’s account blocking for the last two years (when they got tougher on opening accounts) and the period prior to that (when the FCA had concerns) and see if the number has gone down or not.
1 Like
I’m sure that whatever they release isn’t going to be as in-depth as I would like, but I’ll be interested to read it nonetheless.
In fairness, I always thought Barclays was the worst for it - but that’s cuz i spend so much time on forums and they were the most common culprit until late.
What’s replaced them?
Well, as noted above, those who shout the loudest reap the most attention.
I don’t know the facts of course, but some notably more common than others.
I see loads on social media or TrustPilot about Starling, Monzo and Revolut because “I haven’t done anything wrong” and I always have a chuckle on the inside, because they most likely did, they just don’t understand.
2 Likes
I’m going to bet a small amount that the FCA don’t fine Monzo, it’ll be a slap on the wrist and a statement how things are loads better that’s to joint working.
1 Like
20 Likes
Starling will have to change their landing page now
8 Likes
8 Likes