Interesting email from Monzo relating to changes to joint account. We pay all bills from the joint account. One reason (not the only one) is that if one of us dies, then that’s one less thing to worry about.
Most banks, when one partner dies, convert the account to a sole account, I’ve seen this with step-parents and in-laws.
Monzo now say thst everything will need to be moved to a sole account and the joint account closed. If I drop dead tomorrow the last thing I want is for my wife to be scrabbling around trying to set up new Direct Debits at the same time as grieving and planning my send-off.
Looks like we will now be moving our joint DDs to another bank and just keeping shopping/petrol money and joint savings in the Monzo joint account.
As for the second point, which is the only one I mentioned, you’ve completely missed the point.
If the account is immediately closed, all the DD agreements will cease and bills will bounce.
Moving them to a joint account with another bank which would simply convert the J/A to a sole account in the name of the surviving partner would allow breathing space.
I’m 59, not a youngster any more. You start to think about these things. Planning ahead isn’t overthinking, it’s prudent.
It’s probably always been that way with Monzo @Carlo1460 - if so at least they’re making it clear now.
The reason we moved all savings pots to joint (apart from cash ISAs obviously) was so the survivor wouldn’t be waiting for probate to get access to the funds.
But now I know they’ll be force closing the account I’ll be moving joint bill payments elsewhere.
My dad and stepmum had their joint account with Virgin Money and when she died they just converted it to sole in my dad’s name. All the DDs continued and he had plenty of time to just change names on things like utilities in her name.
In the case of the death of one spouse/partner on the JA, it would be helpful if Monzo could transfer all of the DDs on the JA over to the personal a/c of the surviving spouse (to save that person all the hassle at a difficult time).
But I expect that for some reason it will turn out to be impossible to do that!
(Although my view is that, in reality, many impossible things are not actually impossible at all - it’s simply that the will to “make it so” is lacking…
This. I’ve always expected that Joint accounts - for all of their technical/feature failings - operate within the same basic rules, boundaries and limitations of a Personal account.
Sounds harsh in that email (which we also received) though. Plan B Revolut getting closer.
I can’t confirm as I don’t have a JA with another bank - but because JA’s with other banks are PROPER accounts (except Starling and possibly Revolut), I’d expect they are reported just like any other account. Might be worth someone else confirming tho.
HSBC did a similar thing when my father died (converted to a sole HSBC Advance account in my mother’s name). Same sort code and account number so DDs, etc. carried on as usual.
Yes handling the death of a spouse/partner on a JA is one thing that the legacy banks do particularly well & take the helpful, common sense approach - dare we hope/think that Monzo might reconsider what they will do with JAs in this scenario?
The way Monzo built joint accounts it’s not technically possible (relying as they seem to on two active current accounts)
or
Everyone working at Monzo is about 25 and thinks they’ll live forever, and hasn’t even considered this
or
both of the above.
(For the avoidance of doubt, humour is intended here.)
But actually I’d expect the personal account of the deceased would have to remain open (even if frozen) until probate or similar was sorted out. In which case it shouldn’t be impossible to at leatlst give a grace period on the closure of the joint account - six months would seem reasonable. But as Monzo’s main user demographic is quite young it may not be something they feel the need to do.
Anyway. Forewarned is forearmed, four armed is not being able to buy a jumper that fits, and we’ll be making other arrangements for DDs while keeping joint savings and day to day spending with Monzo.
Hello @projectfortytwo. I have my joint Nationwide account in my connected accounts and I can see everything about it like it was a personal connected account. Hope this helps!
• Any money in a Joint Account will need to be transferred into another account if one account holder passes away.
but clicking through to the actual T&Cs, it says
If someone passes away
The money in your account is owned by both of you jointly, so if one of you dies the
remaining account holder can transfer the remaining balance (including money in any
joint Savings Pots) out of the joint account, unless there’s a legal or regulatory reason
not to.
Once the account is empty we’ll close your joint account
which is a rather different thing. Which is right, the ‘summary’ or the actual T&Cs? Also, apart from just me being dense, why can’t I find a link to the joint T&Cs anywhere on monzo.com ?
This. I’ve always expected that 
Joint accounts - for all of their technical/feature failings - operate within the same basic rules, boundaries and limitations of a Personal account.
