Hello Monzo!
I just read the post from Dillon and it was really interesting to learn about his experience working remotely and at night. I’m keen to know what a typical night involves and what happens if you cannot solve a client’s issue (hopefully that never happens 
) at night?
Hi Dillion,
I was unaware that you actually had remote workers that were outside of the UK currently. I’ve recently been in contact with Monzo staff regarding a position at the company but assumed nothing could come of it just yet.
Right now I’m living in Sydney on a working holiday VISA but Monzo is quite possibly my dream job - coming from a background of banking, also customer service and being an avid fan of the bank so far I’d love to work for you guys.
However is remote work from Sydney at all possible at this moment in time? I will be back in the UK permanently toward the end of the year / early 2018.
Is this something I would be able to discuss with you in further detail?
Kind Regards,
Ben.
Hi Amar! So, as some people on the forum know, I work remotely and usually from 8pm-4am UK time.
I don’t think there’s such a thing as a typical night! There’s always different challenges and different kinds of queries, and we rotate responsibilities so it’s never the “same old, same old” - obviously solving queries through the in-app chat is always the main thing, but some nights you could find yourself doing more Twitter support, or fixing merchant data, or going through ID verifications… It all depends on how many people are working that day and which areas need attention at which moment! 
In the grand scheme it’s pretty rare that a problem can’t be solved at night, but when that does happen, it’s really about managing expectations. We’re in a good place whereby most companies have no support at all during these hours, so people tend to be pretty understanding, and they do realize that if it’s quite an involved problem (for example - an engineering bug or something similar) - the people who need to do the investigation aren’t online during these hours. That’s such a small amount of queries though and the vast majority of queries can be solved by us night support folks.
Hey Ben! I’d be surprised if Dillon was online right now, hope you don’t mind if I reply!
We have remote workers all over the place! At the moment - LA, France, Ireland, UK… I’m in the UK, but I spend quite a bit of time in the US and on my last trip, working some of my usual shifts wasn’t a problem - I actually hung out and worked from Dillon’s place when I was in LA 
So by all means, feel free to apply! Our training is office-based (not sure we have a full remote training program, I don’t believe we do right now) - so if you were successful you’d need to be in a position where you could come to the office soon, so perhaps when you’re back in the U.K. you could apply then 
Hi Simon!
Not at all I appreciate the input you’ve provided.
That sounds fantastic, I don’t think I’m in a position to head back quite yet. Out of interest how flexible are the working patterns? I.e. Can you swap and change shifts each week - or do you stick to a reasonably rigid schedule?
It’s interesting to hear that you work on remote id verification, if I may ask how does the process work? When I was working in the bank we always had to have someone in front of you with personal identification and address identification. Doesn’t this prove slightly difficult all through the Internet and finally I’m guessing it must be all in line with th FSA regulations?
hey!
I was just about to reply asking about working from Sydney too, then saw @Oxfordben had already asked.
I’ll be flying out at the start of July and won’t be back for at least a year. Would be awesome to be able to work for monzo while out there.
Hopefully you get a remote training program set up so i could work?
Rich
Holla!
I am part of the overnight team too and I normally cover the 4am-9am slot (I work from the French countryside so it’s a little easier on me: 5 to 10 in the morning).
Big ups to @dillonvanauken for the excellent blog post, and hoy to @simonb - We got to finally meet last month in London and it was super cool.
To answer @Oxfordben: we tend to stick to regular shift patterns, but swapping shifts is possible of course.
About the ID verification: the in-app “ID check” is very quick and smooth, and allows customers to submit a snap of a photo ID, and a selfie video. We review these entries the same way as the day team does - so all of the Monzo “customer verification” (aka KYC = Know your customer) effectively happens “remotely”. It’s very rare that a customer shows up at the Monzo office to show us their passport.
@simonb is right - We can power through and solve pretty much EVERYTHING! Ha!
Well, if we can’t solve a particular problem, we do what the day team does: escalate the issue to the tech team and ultimately to the software engineers. Except that engineers only work daytime
But we are usually able to assist in most matters.
What does a typical early morning shift involve?
I mostly speak with customers on the other side of the globe: backpacking in Australia and New Zealand, relaxing on the South East Asian beaches 
, shopping in Singapore and Tokyo, or on a night out in the US or Brazil.
One of the reasons they are contacting us about is usually their ATM withdrawal limits.
As most of you know, the prepaid Monzo card has a cash withdrawal limit of ÂŁ250 (or ÂŁ400) per day, and of ÂŁ1000 (or ÂŁ2000) over a 30-day period (Monzo prepaid limits).
All the information about your own limits are accessible via the app (in Spending and top-up limits), but if you’ve reached your 30-day limit at ATMs, we can help you figure out when you can withdraw next. We are also usually able to tell you if you’re eligible for the “jump” from the “standard” limit of £250/day to the “enhanced” limit of £400/day.
I often remind and encourage people to use Monzo for day-to-day payments abroad, and to keep cash as a last resort. Hotel bills, restaurants, reservations, tourist attractions, transports… these payments can all be done with a Monzo card abroad and there’s no extra fee attached. The currency conversion rate is the same as the one applied to ATM withdrawals, so it’s still convenient. The “magstripe” switch in the app makes it easier to pay by card at old-school terminals in the US, in Asia and in South America, where you need to “swipe” the card and get its magnetic stripe read.
Paying by card gives some breathing space to ATM limits, because POS (Point-of-Sale) limits are higher. The standard ones are: £5000 over a period of 30 days (that’s the same amount of money you can load on the card over 30 days), with a £3000/day cap and a £1000 per-transaction limit.
Another common issue affecting globetrotting Monzonauts is having hanging authorisations of payments displaying in the feed.
For example: US bars and restaurants “authorise” card payments instantly (an “authorisation” of this kind is usually valid for about a week), and then “settle” the very same bill in a separate transaction, which this time includes the tip. So for a few days it looks like you’ve been effectively charged twice for the same meal or round of drinks (once without the tip, once with it).
This happens because Monzo shows everything that’s happening on your card in real time, whereas traditional bank statements will only report the final, settled transaction. We’ll smooth this out with the current account version of the app so that the whole experience will be less confusing.
Other similar cases occur in countries like Hong Kong, Sri Lanka or Japan, where pre-auths go through in either GBP or USD, and (delayed) settlements are processed in the local currency. The initial hold “hangs” on the Monzo card (and is therefore visible in the app feed) for about 7 days, and often overlaps with the separate settlement, creating a little panic and confusion.
We breeze through these cases and manually “void” the initial “authorisation” with the click of a button, thanks to the amazing tools that Internal product built for us (and keep tweaking to our needs!).
Then there’s people waking up to transactions on their Monzo feed that they don’t recognise. Each case is unique, but generally speaking these involve a bit of investigative work to estabilish if it’s a case of inaccurate location and wrong merchant data displayed in the app, if it’s a monthly subscription to something you forgot about, or if it’s a case of card details being compromised and used fraudulently (for example: a stolen or lost card used contactlessly before being frozen via the app).
Then we have the usual support requests: profile details updates, TfL and contacltess problems, declined payments, problems with top-ups, login issues, PINs locked up, payment disputes, ID checks…
We try and stay on top of all support channels (in-app chat, emails to help@monzo.com, phone calls, Twitter and Facebook), but with the incredible growth (hello customer number 200.000!) there is also an increase in the volume of queries.
In-app chat and calls have the priority, so if you are stranded somewhere in the UK or abroad, and need to contact us urgently - the in-app chat is the quickest option to get hold of someone. If you’ve lost your mobile or if it got stolen, a phone call from any phone to 0800 8021 456 (or +44 20 3322 4650 from overseas) would be another quick way to reach us.
Emailing help@monzo.com from a computer or another phone is also helpful, especially if done from the email address registered with the Monzo account.
Oh wow, I’ve digressed quite a bit 
To sum up - I really enjoy working nights (well, early mornings). It’s silent and peaceful, and perfect for concentrating, especially when dealing with complex cases. I get to see the sunrise every morning, even now that days are long!
I chat and exchange tweets with cool people who love Monzo and rave about it and promote it all around the world. And of course I get to contribute to building something truly groundbreaking, and to work “closely” (from distance) with very smart and talented people. What more can you ask for? 
Wow! Long post - very informative.
That’s an interesting way of doing ID verification but doesn’t this leave you open to fraud more than a usual bank? Forged documents for instance might be harder to pick up on unless in person (especially as there are UV marketings on various identifications) how do you combat against this? Sorry for the mass questions it’s very interesting!
Also the shift patterns make sense I guess my only reason for asking is transitioning to a work from home job and a partially over night job would be quite a difference - so getting the right work/life balance must be a bit of try it and see for new recruits!
If a particular time slot doesn’t quite work or they’d like to extend a time slot could they say work 4 am till noon instead of the advertised 4-9?
Thanks again for the replies! You guys rock!