Monzo NOT On Credit Report

Yes there were only 120 posts before users were shouted down & the thread died..

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I think about 100 posts of those were users being asked to defend why they wanted to know something…

EDIT Jan 1st 2019
Not really sure why this post has been flagged as inappropriate 6months after I made it…
It has 4 likes so I’m not sure how offensive it could be?

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I’m not sure who you’re blaming for this thread ‘dying out’. Various people offered their opinions and experiences. Unfortunately, no one from Monzo or a credit agency has posted, so we have no definitive information. But we can’t really compel anyone to post on here. What were you imagining could/should happen?

If we could compel people to participate in the forum, that would be great, because then we could force Hugo and Tom to share more of their plans. :joy:

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The blame lies with me I suppose because I got tired of trying to explain my position, I shouldn’t have given up so easily. I’ll try again.

“Will Monzo not reporting to some credit agencies cause me any issues?”

Firstly I’d like to make it clear that if the answer to this question is
“No it won’t”
I’ll be perfectly happy, hopefully this is the case. I don’t know why it was so hard to get to but it’s better than the alternative.

I think there are a few interesting things going on here so I’ll try and break it down and then after this, don’t worry I’ll give up.

I didn’t really think we needed to compel anyone from Monzo to participate in the forum. Maybe wrongly, I always thought that the Monzo community was a USP for Monzo, we could exhange ideas, feedback and get honest responses and together learn more about finance and help Monzo build a bank that really helps people. That’s why I expected a reply from Monzo.

Whilst I understand that the answer to this question might not to be of use to some Monzo users I don’t see why that should prevent others from finding out.

So why have you pointlessly tried to resuscitate this thread?
As it was discussed above that reporting to other agencies might be on a future roadmap I had hoped to see it on Monzo’s Big List, it is not.
Also in the very interesting Saving For a House Thread this topic was brought up again. It seems like this is an area that could do with some clarification.

If Monzo are only reporting to one agency then they have already decided whether they think this matters to their users or not. Presumably if Monzo are only reporting to one agency, it doesn’t matter at all otherwise they’re doing something that may cause users issues. I would just like confirmation that this is the conclusion they reached.

You’re correct Alexs I don’t need a credit report to tell me I have a Monzo account, this is not the use case that interests me.
Firstly I think they should do it because other banks do. Whilst I’m sure the legacy banks do many things that they don’t need to, there seems to be a gap from Monzo here.
I use ClearScore to get recommendations on financial services that are tailored to my needs based on the information that they get via Experian. I’m sure there are many other services like this that don’t function fully for Monzo users. At least if Monzo elect to not work with other credit reference agencies this difference from other institutions should be documented in the help area of the app. Whilst

I think if it concern over this is enough to keep a “legacy” account open it is a major issue.
I don’t think any other bank would advise you keep another account open because they can’t support regular functionalities. I am amazed that this would ever be suggested.
This is currently causing me some minor stress as I head towards remortgaging in the next few months. If I get any information from other sources I’ll be sure to post it here and I’d really appreciate it if others could too.

This hopefully doesn’t sound like a rant. I’m a fan of Monzo but I’m surprised by how this has been handled. I’ll leave it alone after this anyway.

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I would come a different conclusion: for monzo the interests of the customer isn’t (always) the most important consideration. Monzo are a business in a capitalist market, and as such they must prioritise their interests (while, of course, seeking opportunities where their and their customers’ intererests overlap).

I think the best you can hope for is for someone to say “This may or may not cause you issues . Some lenders don’t care, others may check the same bureau as the one monzo uses. It will depend at which lender you’ll make your future application and on their criteria.”

The problem is that lenders don’t typically publish their lending criteria as they are what makes or breaks their competitive advantage.

You had someone who used to work for a bank chime in above to say that they did have issues when people didn’t appear to have any current accounts reported on their files.

I think that’s sadly about as definitive an answer as you are likely to get.

I do not want to shout you down. I apologise if it comes across as such. I’m just wanting to be realistic, and also explain why I’d meet anyone who’d try to make any definitive statement on the matter with a great deal of scepticism.

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I hope this isn’t the case.

If there’s any doubt about it then one can’t really stay with Monzo can they? The risk of mortgage issues etc doesn’t justify Monzo does it?

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I think it would be prudent to have a 2nd account, yes. Whether you actually use it, is of course a different question.

To clarify, I too would like an answer from Monzo about the implications of only reporting to one credit agency, and why they don’t report to more (or what’s even involved). I don’t even know if other banks report to more than one agency, or if over time the information gets automatically shared between them all.

What I was trying to say above is that I don’t think that this thread died because anyone was “shouted down”, but because unfortunately, no one from Monzo is willing or able to contribute to it.

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I hope folk don’t mind if I put a different opinion out here.

I’m not a fan of credit reference agencies and would rather that my personal data wasn’t given to any of them without my explicit consent. In this context, I’m happier with information going to one than to three (or more). In fact, I’d prefer that Monzo didn’t use any at all. But I understand that the current system makes it difficult to do without them. I still reserve the right to grumble about it, though. :wink:

I accept that this view comes from a position of relative privilege - I earn a decent salary and don’t tend to have issues in getting credit if I want it. But I understand that others won’t be as lucky as me and, in their position, I’d probably rail against anything I might perceive as a disadvantage on my credit record.

Again this is purely personal opinion, but I struggle to see that the presence of a current account on your record - or length of ownership of said account - would be deciding factors in offering anyone credit. I’m not disbelieving anyone, but if i try to put myself into a lender’s position and wonder what current account history would tell me and how I might use that information I come up short. Granted this might just be a failure of imagination on my part…

One last (again personal) view: I struggle with the notion that folk should/could have only one current account. Banking is more or less free in the UK - so I’ve always had more than one account, even before Monzo came on the scene. For me, if I were worried about reporting to credit reference agencies, I’d just look up who reports to which agency and open some basic accounts, without overdrafts, to cover all of them…

(Offered in the spirit of giving an opposing viewpoint - others will disagree and I’m certainly not trying to shut anyone down or tell them their view is wrong).

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I’m pretty ambivalent to credit reporting since it’s not an issue for me yet, but I’d imagine I don’t have any sort of credit history in the UK. Tried finding out once on one of those free sites and I couldn’t find myself :woman_shrugging:t2:

But I agree with this, there are lots of accounts to shop around and use their features/ deals to suit your financial needs and I don’t really understand the reluctance to have more than one current account (a common reason for not wanting Monzo when I introduce it to people).
An account can remain largely dormant and retained just in case/ for insurance plans/ legacy features like chequebooks, cash deposits, high interest rates/ used for switching bonuses… Plus, I always carry around different cards just in case.

I guess many people have different spending habits or stick with one just because it’s what they’re used to. They feel like they know how their bank works, and don’t want to have to deal with a whole bunch of other ones, especially if communicating with their bank is an ordeal they simply accept as normal.

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I don’t want or necessarily agree with credit agencies but as you say that’s the world we live in. Maybe later this can be handled by open banking but I don’t think it will be any time soon.

For me there are overheads to having another current account. It’s another thing to have to protect from fraud and for all I know having a current account that does nothing could make you look worse to lenders.

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Agreed. I don’t really know how lenders make their lending decisions, so wouldn’t ever keep or open an account on that basis.

I do like to have multiple accounts as a backup (think TSB :pensive:) and for different services (I like to have an account with someone when counter service, for instance), but understand that others will have different needs and different perspectives.

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Hey all,

We’d like to look into this further to understand what’s going on here.

If Monzo isn’t showing up on your credit report, drop us a message through the in-app referencing this thread. We’ll take a look at your account and see what we find.

Thanks!

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It shows now, so no worries :slight_smile:

Which agencies reports should we expect to see our Monzo account in?
Should we expect to see Monzo even if we don’t have an overdraft?

EDIT: Just noticed from earlier posts that you only report to CallCredit, but please let us know if this has changed.

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My joint account doesn’t appear on my credit report

This is an interesting topic and you raise and a great point here. I went fully Monzo around 6 months back and my credit rating on Clear Score has fallen from around 640 to 225. I have no other changes other than closing existing banks and going solely Monzo. I’m looking to get a mortgage soon and have now opened an account with Lloyds again since coming to know my credit rating has fallen so badly. Long story short, today I found out my credit rating is already improving having got the account with Lloyds.

I think it’s important that Monzo reports to more rating agencies asap.

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Agreed - Looking forward to it happening next year.

I’m sure there will be many people who will argue that it’s not Monzo’s place to inform customers of the specifics around credit scores, especially as no one seems to be able to give a definitive answer… But one of the constant points CRA’s seem to advise on is the length of time you’ve had your financial relationship.

It doesn’t matter if you open 5 new Fintech accounts, as long as you have that one, old legacy account sitting there, bringing up the average length of time you’ve held your accounts for.

With the #fullmonzo mantra being interpreted by “most” customers (it would seem), as “I only have a Monzo account”, this is clearly impacting people’s credit score (whatever that actually means).

I’m not sure how Monzo could say “Yeah, perhaps keep an old account ticking over, just to help out on the CRA side of things until you’ve been with Monzo for a few years”, without sounding like Monzo doesn’t do everything you need it to do.

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Yeap if I didn’t have an old legacy account I’d have nothing on my credit score. Good that Monzo will report to all of them next year so experian will show them :slight_smile:

Just note that the “score” is nonsense. Lenders don’t get to see it (they make their own decision based on your raw report).

I definitely wouldn’t worry about it for a mortgage where there’s a lot of manual review and chance to explain things as to why you don’t have an account listed (but it wouldn’t be a problem at all if they search on all CRAs including the one Monzo reports to).

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