Monzo is terminating my Business account without providing a reason

I run a SaaS and Ad based company. I just received this message on the app. My business fits the eligibility criteria and I haven’t made any transactions that they could consider suspicious.

The scary part: “Please also note that we can immediately close your account without notice before this date”

How should I proceed here? I’ve replied but I’m not expecting a response. Move bank…? try the Financial Ombudsman Service? I don’t want to go down these routes, I’ve enjoyed using Monzo as a bank and I want to continue to work with them.

It looks pretty clear from the message, accounts shutting, they won’t discuss it so you’ll just have to move on. Banks are free to decide which customers they wish to keep and which to get rid of.

Nothing anyone here can help with as Monzo’s word appears to be final here

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Also looks pretty clear that as far as Monzo are concerned, the business either does not actually fit the eligibility criteria, or there are terms and conditions that have been breached - “we are no longer able to support your business.”

OP, you will have to move bank. Even if you complain to the Ombudsman and they find in your favour (which they will only do so if Monzo are found to have made an error in applying their procedures), they can’t force Monzo to re-open your account. You’d only get compensation, at best. But it’s a high bar to clear, as banks are allowed to choose who they wish to give accounts to, so simply closing an account isn’t wrong in itself.

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On the other side of this…

If they can no longer support your business and someone forced them to allow you to keep your account open you’d be annoyed if something went wrong and they couldn’t help you resolve it. Especially if it involved you losing money.

Get an account with a traditional bank?

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Here’s their eligibility list:

Not sure if any of this has changed, but is there any reason they may think you are in a different bucket than you are?

Is it the organisational structure that may be the cause rather than type of service?

Edit, and this is what they say about closing accounts:

Closing your account :sob:

Once this agreement has started it won’t end until you or we end it. You can cancel your account within the first 14 days of opening it, or close it at any other time. If you’d like to, please get in touch with us. We will ask for joint instruction from all authorised users to close the account. You’ll need to repay any money you owe us before we can close your account. Once we’ve closed it, your card won’t work and you won’t be able to access your account.

We can close your account by giving you at least two months’ notice. We may close your account or stop you using your card and app immediately if we believe you or any authorised user has:

  • broken the terms of this agreement
  • put us in a position where we might break the law
  • broken the law or attempted to break the law
  • given us false information at any time
  • been abusive to anyone at Monzo or a member of our community
  • your business is no longer eligible or there’s been a material change to your business (see our eligibility information).

Sounds like at present they are just closing your account, in line with the basic right to do so. Though the weird line around “we can close them immediately if we wish” is sus. Sounds like they think something in that list above has changed.

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Whilst I am aware that Monzo can terminate the account at any time (I don’t exactly agree, that could make or break a business), it would sure be good if they could say why or even offer a way to resolve the situation.

I had a look at their industry list, I don’t see how my Technology based Ltd could fall under any of them. I didn’t know their criteria was this limiting even, quite surprising they won’t even accept a construction business.

And yeah that close immediately line is scary, I’ll probably be moving all the money out ASAP.

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I don’t think they want you to resolve it, they want you to find banking elsewhere.

I guess if they say “You look like you’re being given £1m a week by a Russian arms dealer and we don’t want to be a part of that” then maybe next week it goes via a different off-shore account.

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I think we have different definitions of clear. Monzo has essentially said “We have to stop supporting your business account because we are no longer able to support your business. Have a look at our T&Cs as we aren’t going to provide any information or context as to why we’ve come to this decision”.

The outcome might be clear but the reason behind it definitely isn’t.

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If you’re looking for another business bank account, I’d recommend Starling’s business account. Similar features to Monzo.

This. There is nothing to resolve - as the decision has been made and no industry body or ombudsman can reverse it. Time to move on to another bank I’m afraid.

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Try Mettle …you get FreeAgent for free with it.

I just received the same message. Extremely disappointing as nothing has changed since the account was opened. It’s a shame as I really enjoyed using Monzo, but if this is how they are going to behave (just closing accounts with no good explanation) then I’m not going to use them for personal banking either.

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I understand it’s frustrating, but it’s not Monzo being awkward. That’s the law.

Banks are obliged to report any activity they deem suspicious to the National Crime Agency (NCA) which has up to 31 days to investigate. During that time, the funds have to be frozen and the bank commits a criminal offence if it tells the customer why .

I would assume the same applies to closing the account too. They can’t tell you what, incase you then do something to circumvent that.

Sorry but that does not make any sense, they are closing the account, what could I possibly do to “circumvent” that? Even HSBC, for all their failings, at least will explain to you why they are suspending or closing your account.

They’re closing your account for a reason - likely a breach of their T&Cs.

Therefore if they were to say “we closed your account because you transferred over £XXXX to this merchant who is on the naughty list” everyone would know what the threshold is and who is on the list.

This is obviously just an example :sweat_smile: but it could be anything like that. Funnelling money through offshore accounts might be have been a better one to give :laughing:

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With another bank. There are other regulations to follow.

Or as Ordog says above.

I totally agree. If you had done anything to raise suspicion your account would have been frozen and you would have no access to it or the funds.

This seems to be a commercial decision by Monzo, and that they refuse to discuss the reasons, while perfectly legal, is unutterably shabby.

Especially considering, when I decided to terminate my Plus relationship with Monzo, they were practically begging me to give them chapter and verse on my reasoning.

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I’ve contacted them asking for an explanation and have been referred to their business team. Fingers crossed can get to the bottom of this, would be a shame to have to leave. I’m a Premium personal user and would have thought they’d be doing everything they can to retain paying customers, especially ones like myself who evangelise the product.

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The cheery use of emojis and exclamation marks at the beginning of the message is really jarring given the contents of the message.

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