That’s utterly ridiculous and only adds fuel to the “Monzo Cult” mentality that this forum has.
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I’d be inclined to agree that it’s at the very least, blown out of proportion, or misreported (maybe most people that came forward were genuinely fraudulent?) but to not have anyone defend the accusations on the show, and for Monzo to get angry at Watchdog on the phone for running the report… doesn’t paint them in a good light
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It isn’t helping that Monzo is responding on Twitter with stock messages and saying they legally can’t comment. It makes it sound like they have something to hide. People aren’t asking about specific accounts/users.
Just so frustrating that they knew this was coming and didn’t get in there before the show aired with something bold.
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Sounded more like Monzo tried to intimidate them into dropping it.
If you are going to the effort of calling them to have a go… Why not send someone on the show or actually give something a little more genuine than a copy and paste answer?
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Yes, Monzo should’ve had someone speaking on the show and it’s disappointing they didn’t, but I think it is extremely irresponsible of the BBC to run this story, it’s not good if a bank suddenly has loads of people withdrawing money en masse.
I didn’t see the show but some people here are saying they didn’t realise so many accounts from genuine people got frozen. But things have to also be put in perspective: if say, for example 1000 people had their accounts frozen that alone is a lot of course and it seems like a loooot if many of these people go on a TV show, but 1000 people is a tiny percentage of 3.2 million customers.
I’ve seen screenshots from chats where people are told to go to a food bank. What they actually say is something along the lines of “we are deeply sorry about this, we know it’s frustrating, until it gets resolved we are referring you to our team that deals with vulnerable customers so they can help you. They won’t be able to solve your account problems but they will help you find ways and alternatives to cope, like going to a food bank”. To me, that doesn’t sound as horrible as people are making it out to be and I actually think it’s a positive caring move. I’m pretty sure when high street banks freeze people’s accounts they don’t try to help people to find a way to deal with living without their money!
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They recommended a homeless shelter when they froze someone’s account and they couldn’t pay their rent. I’m in awe at how bad this is
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Yes the response was dreadful. Monzo should definitely get some training in media. But I am not worried. Yes there’s genuine accounts being frozen. But I recon there’s a lot more accounts being genuinely frozen due to fraud etc.
Every new business will have to fail to succeed. It’s a lesson that they will hopefully learn from and hopefully handle media and accounts a little better.
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Watchdog have just said live on air “where are you Monzo” fair comment really
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They are calling them out for their poor communication (true) and how it’s poor they didn’t put someone on the show (very true). I’m at my lowest point of opinion right now of Monzo 
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Maybe a new slogan:
“all your money, frozen”
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A question here though: how many “genuine” accounts are frozen/blocked/closed by legacy banks every day?
I’ve heard it happen on many occasions but I don’t see Watchdog causing a ruckus about it???
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Watchdog is still on, you may be able to rewind or start from the beginning if you switch over now
I’m going to watch this in the morning but it seems such an obvious PR own goal not to send someone to Watchdog to defend themselves and apologise in person to the people where it went wrong.
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This is going to sound really harsh, but what would other banks have done in this situation? Her account got cleared out by someone that got her card details, or something? Would most banks just immediately front her the money while they investigated? Or done the same thing Monzo have done here, minus the ‘helpful’ CS?
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No they wouldn’t. In fact they probably wouldn’t have responded beyond that they are investigating.
Plus a responsible financial actor should have more than one payment mechanism in case of emergencies.
I agree with everyone that this is Really bad for Monzo, especially as they are not doing very well in defending themselves, but it’s also a little bit of strange timing though that this is on Watchdog a few days after Starling started their TV adverts and it wasn’t too long ago that it was Revolut being slatted in the media.
Time will tell who are the winners and losers in this and how it affects Monzo but it wouldn’t be so bad if they had gone on the show to explain their side instead of hiding behind the phone and texts.
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There’s a reason politicians and business leaders don’t go on when it’s “bad” news. Engaging with the story only fuels it
Also witness Newsnight ambushing @anon91821566 a few months back with a load of made up guff when he was on to discuss a different topic
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And how many of the customers who are posting saying they will take their account elsewhere due to this watchdog report have actually had their account frozen or money gone missing (allegedly)?
Seems to me too many people can’t think for themselves and will have a knee jerk reaction because of this piece or because their family, friends etc tell them to. If you’ve had no issues with running your account with monzo why leave?
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I guess you’re right. They might already have a press release lined up for the morning and were waiting for the show to air before releasing it - it’s not going to get the same outreach as what Watchdog just got though
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