There’s no support out of hours, and the team that this is escalated to probably don’t work over the weekend. The message you got is probably automated, and pretty damned valid in my opinion of giving a reason why they need it.
I’m sure if you send a passport scan back, it’ll be perfectly fine as it’s an acceptable document of identity.
I understand the “worry”, but Monzo won’t shut your account because you haven’t uploaded proof within 23 seconds. You’ve submitted a reply, wait for them to get back to you.
Everyone can sit and speculate why, but my honest thought is it’s because it’s expired . If you have no intention of getting a new one, fine, then you’ll have to use alternate Identification docs that Monzo support.
When people are complaining about situations like this, the account freezing always happens first. I have never, to the best of my recollection, seen a situation where people have complained to Monzo about something and then subsequently had their account frozen.
You also have to remember that in many cases where accounts are frozen, the customer making a loud noise knows exactly what they’ve done wrong, and what they’re doing is effectively social engineering as they’re trying to manipulate a CS agent into unfreezing their account when they shouldn’t.
Finally, I would repeat again that you really shouldn’t worry about Monzo freezing your account, as they would have done this already if there was a serious issue. The worst-case scenario you would’ve faced (had you not already set your account closure in motion) would’ve been the following:
Monzo: Can we have some updated ID please.
Customer: No.
Monzo: As you have declined to update your ID, we would like to give you notice that we will close your account in two month’s time.
Not the same as freezing at all, you’re not losing any money, you have plenty of time to make other arrangements, and the ombudsman won’t find against Monzo if a complaint goes to them because Monzo haven’t acted against the Ts&Cs that customers agree to when opening an account.
Again, there’s no requirement to continually supply Monzo with updated documents. The photo expired in 2018! They’ve left it very late to only now request a copy of an updated one that doesn’t exist 4 years later.
Updating it is something I havn’t gotten around to, mainly as I’ve spent the last 24 months losing 7 stone in weight since the pandemic began and I want the end result to be the photo on there.
But again, there’s no info from Monzo if the expired photo is the problem, if they will accept my passport, or any reason as to why they should want a newer copy now. Were they audited and found that they had lapse AML and KYC deficiencies in the past and are taking copies again to get their own compliance right?
Like I said, I can’t not “worry” that my accounts won’t be frozen as the documentation required to have them has clearly been called into question for an undisclosed reason. Had Monzo explained why then I would of course had no issue and provide my passport, but that’s not the case, and thus far they didn’t request a passport, I sent it to them proactively and have heard nothing, so right now the status is that they have asked for an updated driving licence I neither have or can supply to them in the near future as the DVLA is still working with huge backlogs, and my photo update would go right to the back of that pandemic queue.
I cant risk my personal banking being on the line, and I certainly can’t do that with my business banking or my customers won’t be getting any of their goods if all of their purchase amounts go straight into a frozen business account.
Monzo need to seriously work on their piss-poor communications skills as they are unfit for purpose, and clearly in breach of the banking code.
Exactly, hence moving everything to Starling when Monzo is failing to meet the requirements of the banking code, calling into question the if I can actually bank with Monzo anymore.
Here’s the relevant section of the terms and conditions:
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’ve:
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
had a change in circumstances which means you’re no longer eligible for a current account (like moving abroad)
given a third party control of your account, phone, card or PIN (unless you’ve formally agreed this with us or are legally permitted to do this)
been abusive to anyone at Monzo or a member of our community.
From what you’ve told us, I can’t see any condition there that would result in Monzo freezing your account. Which is why, once again, I believe you’re worrying unnecessarily.
dealing quickly and sympathetically when things go wrong
-operate secure and reliable banking
Thus far the only reliable message was the one asking for ID last week.
For reliable banking, see failure to explain how or why a new copy of documents is required, how it will be stored, for what purpose, how long I have to provide it, and the consequences of not meeting the deadline.
Monzo’s failures here are far short of the basic requirements of the banking code, to which Monzo is a member.
Indeed. Three working days would be quick for the ombudsman. They might even allow up to 14, if the issue isn’t particularly urgent. In this case, it doesn’t appear to have been more than even 24 hours yet.
Oh certainly, as I appear to have raised a complaint with “the customer advocacy team” I’ll be using their full and final response in my complaint to the Ombudsman. By the way, it costs Monzo £750 for the Ombudsman to take on a complaint. You would think Monzo had some degree of interest in firstly ensuring that customers don’t need to raise a complaint in the first place, especially as the chat agents have zero information and have seemingly pushed me into that complaint’s process just to get a basic answer as to what’s happening beyond “Hi we noticed your driving licence picture expired and need you to upload a copy of your current one” Beyond that I’ve had absolutely zero information or interaction from monzo about it some three days later.
Went back and read their first post again (rather than just looking at the timestamp), and see they actually say “Saturday”.
Today is Monday, so, it’s two days later. And one of those days was Sunday (that is, not a working day). I’d normally note that Saturday also isn’t a working day apart from the fact Monzo apparently sent the message themselves on that day.
I don’t think the ombudsman will accept Monzo have been slow to reply under that timescale.
Up to you I guess but just to repeat that because you haven’t suffered any material loss here the ombudsman won’t do anything.
I know about the cost of raising a complaint. I think playing on that to get something when you haven’t really suffered is pretty unfair. But you can’t be stopped. If that’s your definite course of action, I think I’ll just reiterate that I don’t think it’s the right thing to do for you or for Monzo and leave this thread here.
I understand how this situation might be causing you stress but I’d like to re-iterate some of the things that the community has mentioned above. Monzo is a really large company with many moving parts especially when it comes to something as sensitive as KYC or our requirements as a bank only the members of the team that is working on these projects have the full picture as to why we asked for this information.
The sad truth is these teams of people aren’t the entire size of our COps (Customer Operations) it’s a small specialised team that your message needs to get to before we will be able to give you a response that is more detailed than what you have received so far. What I would suggest is wait until you hear back from the team and they will be able to give more information as to why we requested this.
As a bank we are required to keep accurate and up-to date information about all of our customers, I can’t speak for other banks or your experience with them but at most brick and mortar banks you had to go for a meeting to pass KYC in the olden days. This meant that your ID was being compared against you in person and its then the attestation of the employee that says you are who you say you are not your ID card.
A small thing as I’m joining this thread a little late:
This is a fantastic reason to want to delay updating a form of ID you aren’t actively using and I wish you all the best with this.
This is the third consecutive day that there has been no follow up to my immediate response to the chat opened by “Tommy” that my driving licence picture is expired.
No further response from Eric, no further response from Kasey, no further response from Zach (joined the chat and then intimidate left too) and the last was from Sade who said “Thank you for providing this information”
No response Saturday, no response Sunday, and now a whole working day with no response too. Let’s see if tomorrow, the 4th day, will get any meaningful response from Monzo as Starling continue to bring across all my direct debits.
. If you have no intention of getting a new one, fine, then you’ll have to use alternate Identification docs that Monzo support.
