So due to a bit of persuasion, I opened up a Natwest account (I know… I know!) for the sole purpose to use it for my Direct Debits and earn some rewards while maintaining Monzo for my salary and spending.
They accepted my application (no reason why they wouldn’t), and offered an overdraft of £1250. Wouldn’t use that anyway but a nice to have I suppose.
That’s immediately where I began to notice how outdated their systems were. The account didn’t appear on the Online Banking for 2 days. On the day it appeared, it lasted for 30 minutes before ‘disappearing’.
I contacted their support (And I use that term very loosely) to be told it’s suspended due to needing to verify my identity… despite providing my Driving Licence number on the application. They won’t accept it online and I need to go to the branch. I also asked how to just close the account ;
“Oh we can’t do that either, needs to be the branch”.
Needless to say I contacted their complaints team, who gave me a number to call. I asked which department this would be to then be advised they didn’t know, it was just a number left on the account.
Utterly shambolic. Monzo, I’m sorry for even considering anyone else !
That’s interesting - I just joined Natwest (to take part in their switching offer).
When I went through the process, they accepted my application, pending an ID check, which was filled in online (submitting pictures of my drivers license). Once that had passed (the next morning), I could log into online banking immediately, and my account was shown (and presumably was fully functioning).
The card then came 2 days later.
Not sure why your process was difficult - but for me it was incredibly smooth and painless. Not quite as smooth as Monzo, but smooth none the less.
On an aside, I really like the natwest debit card - it’s a lovely shade of Purple with numbers printed rather than stamped.
5 Likes
Anarchist
(Press ‘Help’ search ‘Contact us’ or email help@monzo.com or call 0800 802 1281)
5
Which isn’t even true. You can use CASS to close the account.
I opened NatWest account last year…
Process was smooth and easy… got my card in 3 days… registered mobile banking…
But after few weeks account disappeared from mobile banking application.
No letters, messages nothing…
I went to local branch to check what happened…
All branch staff was useless… they just tried to call main office for 25-30 mins.
It took about an hour for them to find that I was randomly chosen for I’d check…
I imagine that some staff might care, but they won’t have enough powers to be able to do anything about it.
The higher-ups only look at numbers and it is unlikely they will break anything down beyond that and look into the reason why Joe Bloggs from Birmingham left in a huff. Plus, considering the size of them I’m sure they will make up for losses with new customers and everything will balance out.
When I joined RBS in 2017, I didn’t have to go into branch or have any issues signing up or using online banking. It was all pretty much same day or next. Maybe it was because I used my passport number as my ID etc.
The only thing they did make me wait for was my cheque book as they posted out a form for me to sign to prove my signature.
Just used the switching offer for my wife. Had to sign one letter and post it back. Logged in online and transferred some cash, £150 for my 15 mins of effort.
I run some of my bills through NatWest for the cashback. Salary goes into Monzo and then straight to NatWest to conver the DDs. It’s all automatic and I never actually need to log in or speak to NatWest.
Some of their systems are outdated and their stupid PIN terminal thing would drive me nuts. But since I never have to use them it doesn’t matter. It’s essentially free money for no effort and I still get the benefits of using Monzo.
Seems odd that if the member of staff dealing with the OP’s request to close the account could easily have closed the account, why fob off the OP to the branch?
I’m currently doing the same with firstdirect - they are offering £100 to join, and another £100 if after six months you “don’t like the way we do things” and close the account.
The delicious irony in this is that the account I am switching from is HSBC, just after they paid me another £50 as a loyalty bonus . Over the course of 18 months, that’s a free £400 from the HSBC group for setting up a few direct debits and standing orders!
I fully understand you pain @Ryan1992 as I have used in the past NatWest for a year and I can truly say their internet banking and mobile app are the works I have used (and I have experienced banks from 3 countries now, Wester and Eastern Europe). Their system is very slow and I never fully understood what is the amount of money I actually have as usually payments too even 3 days to appear on my balance. I have since moved away from them and I am so happy.
Nevertheless, I see that Monzo is using them for international Euro payments. Very interesting to see how that goes:
NatWest is currently our correspondent bank. This means that payments to Monzo from other European banks in Euro get to us via NatWest.
But even the Monzo team is skeptical as they actually recommend TransferWize
Whilst we work to add the ability to send and receive international payments “natively”, through the app, we’d recommend using TransferWise for your international payments.
!
. Over the course of 18 months, that’s a free £400 from the HSBC group for setting up a few direct debits and standing orders!