That’s fine - then you wouldn’t set a tab up 
Personally I don’t care so much - the ease of a tab outweighs my personal potential issues.
If I had a real issue, I’d just move money into a pot temporarily and only have the amount I’m spending in my main account for payment at the end.
I had the exact same issue a couple of months ago in a random pub. Was trying to open a tab for about 20 peope… So far amount of money to lose if it went wrong.
They said they will only “take proper cards” because “people keep cancelling” the monzo ones.
They would take my AMEX, but it turns out the wrong points to raise were;
Oh I mean tabs are theorectically all about trust anyway. You might not have enough in the account at the end.
Yes I know there are inconsistencies, but I really don’t want Monzo to be seen as some sort of “risk” for any business, this included.
The only thing about that is if the bar was doing this (which personally I would not assume that they would) then they could just say CCTV wasn’t working that night then it is your word against theirs
I wouldnt do this myself was just suggesting a reason that someone might think it was a good idea to freeze their card
In regards to this - Llyods have just released an update that lets your temporaily freezes its card so I guesss it doesnt matter anymore as banks are catching up
Hey everyone, I contacted the bar which is part of a tiny chain of high end restaurants in London.
Their Senior Operations Manager replied saying:
"I was unaware that the pre-paid facility on the cards had expired and definitely should have stayed more in the loop about the updated status on this type of card.
We have had a few circumstances in the past where large bills would go unpaid as guests would abandon their Monzo cards after racking up a large tab. I will definitely update our card policy within the venue to accept Monzo as a valid means of tab creation.
Thanks for the update on below and thanks for your continued patronage at The Lighterman!"
So there you have it… all rumours and conspiracy theories about hot coral discrimination can now be dropped.
Nice bar, by the way. I’d recommed booking a spot upstairs after dusk for a perfect view of the Granary Square fountains lighting up 
I think the question was “Why did you freeze the card?”
In my head the answer is that drunk you thought that freezing the card would stop you spending too much on drinks, having forgotten you’d handed the card over to start a tab that would be settled up at the end of the night 
So why bother setting up a tab?
I mean this with respect here; a tab is a trust exercise - the bar trusts that you have enough to keep buying drinks and you trust the bar to keep your card safe as a deposit.
Freezing the card is literally nothing on your side and absolutely everything on the bar’s side to trust you. In many cases it seems people have gone against that trust (intentionally or otherwise) and it’s no wonder we see bars still having issues taking Monzo for fear of losing money.
If you don’t want to hand your card over, fine; pay per drink/round. There’s no logic to giving them a useless non-working card.
EDIT: The post I was responding to has been deleted for some reason.
Disclaimer, I’m not a drinker and don’t set up tabs (other than with my vet for the amount of work they do 
) but…
In a perfect world, what you are saying makes sense - But how often do we see times of card fraud and other issues when you don’t have your card on you?
Ultimately, freezing your card and not paying, is just the same as getting your drinks and doing a runner - Both are illegal.
Surely if we used this newfound technology to our benefit, the perfect scenario would be…
• Hand card over to start tab.
• Freeze card so no dodgy employee/company/random stranger, can do anything with it.
• Unfreeze your card when due to settle tab.
• Settle tab.
There is still an element of trust involved and people who will abide by the law will be able to do the above with zero consequence for them, or the business.
The only potential issue is if the business decides to charge you without you being present at the time - Which IMO, they shouldn’t do (no idea on the law behind that one).
Completely get what you are saying about the trust issues, but as a customer, I’m looking to take as many precautions with my debit card as I can.
Probably why I don’t set up tabs
You’re the perfect person to not set a tab up then! Which is fine!
However if I’m a bar owner, handing over a frozen card is worthless to me. You may as well not hand anything over. In which case I’m just trusting you will pay at the end, and unless I know you, I will say ‘no’ - which eventually will lead to me saying ‘no’ to any bank I know can easily be frozen in this way.
With possibly an exception if you had over something else, like a passport or driving licence, that will at least be something you would want back. Hell, I can’t even get a loaned band from my gym to open the lockers if I forget mine without handing over my driving licence as they know I can easily cancel a bank card. And that’s worth a couple of quid to them.
It’s what the tab system is built entirely on. It’s not something you can change. If you feel so strongly that you don’t want to let someone else have your card (which is a reasonable belief, I’m not suggesting that it’s not!) then you probably wouldn’t have set a tab up in the first place.
EVEN THOUGH arguably Monzo is perfect for a tab because you can see instantly if they have put anything through and immediately query it. To me, that’s significantly better than legacy banks where you might not know until the next day.
In essence: if you need to freeze your card when setting up a tab, then you shouldn’t be setting a tab up in the first place.
I completely get what you are saying, although I’d expect 90% of the banks to offer the “freezing” service in the next 12 months.
The argument from the customer side is “I’m not giving you my unlocked card because the last dodgy bartender put through some fraudulent purchases” as an example.
I guess the “don’t set up a tab” argument then comes into play - But it seems to be more about the changing attitudes to the technology, and finding a way that everyone is happy which is the challenge.
And as more banks allow it I expect bar tabs to slowly not be allowed, which plenty of places I go to now wouldn’t do. Which is a shame because I do prefer the convenience of them.
That being said, I think there is already a mark on Monzo’s name that will be hard to remove, and not helped by people ‘forgetting’ to unfreeze their cards so it’s declined. The legacy banks will have far more people and therefore it would appear less likely to have issues with them (even if in reality that’s not the case). Plus you’re more likely to remember it’s a Monzo card than any other bank I would say.
I just think… and this is controversial… that if you freeze your card and still set up a tab, you’re sort of ruining it for the rest of us. Just don’t set a tab up if you don’t feel comfortable handing your card over.
I fully expect the wrath to come from this view.
I find it funny/strange the vast differences between a bar and a restaurant.
At a restaurant, I can rack up a considerably higher bill and not have to pay until the end - whereas with a bar, I’m required to either pay at point of service, or provide a credit token to set up a tab. Why is it tabs aren’t set up in restaurants but are in bars?
It does seem strange to me that someone would hand over a valid card and then freeze it - in which case, why hand over the card?
I never knew bar tabs were a thing here, I thought it was mainly in the US 
The only time I’ve had one is in my local where I’m a trusted regular, so my debt gets written in a book so I can clear it on the date I arranged. It’s usually when I’m too lazy to walk across town to the nearest cash machine because they don’t accept card
It’s a shame the original post has been removed otherwise I might have some context 
Convenience of the tab, with none of the risks that someone will do something to your card (from a customers POV, this is perfect - It’s obviously not ideal from a pubs POV).
I don’t think so - It’s a perfectly valid, reasoned argument.
As more and more banks launch this feature, it’ll be so commonplace that it won’t be a “Monzo” issue, but a generic banking issue - Like you said, the only thing I can see happening is that less and less places accept tabs.
Maybe by the time Halifax come out with their new ad campaign in 2040 supporting “card freezing”, it’ll all be worked out.
Oh sure I see that, but you could say that about stealing a pair of shoes, all the convenience of getting the shoes, without the detriment of paying for them. At the end of the day you’re gaining a benefit without incurring the coinciding detriment.
Maybe I have a view because I’ve worked behind a bar where people have done runners/ not paid a tab and the card doesn’t work.
What’s the advantage of a bar tab?
With contactless is it not easier to just tap with your card or phone for each round you get?
Possibly because the person wants a tab (or a very short term loan, if you like), but the bar demands collateral in the form of a card. The customer isn’t willing to risk misuse of the card and is able to provide worthless collateral, and so does. An alternative would be to carry around a cancelled card, I suppose.
Once most cards are freezable, bars will have to decide whether or not it is worthwhile offering a tab facility.
Not much, in my view. I’ve used one where meals have been involved. We set up a tab, and divvied up between us at the end. But I can’t really see the point otherwise.
But that is sort of my point - you’re providing an ineffective collateral - you’re obtaining all the benefit and bearing all the loss on the bar.
If the bar trusts the customer (by not charging them at point of service) the customer should trust the bar that they won’t misuse the card. At any rate, you haven’t given permission for the bar to use the card and so therefore would in all likelihood be successful in a fraudulent transaction claim should the bar use it.
It just destroys any relationship of trust, which is a shame.
Yep. In the old days, bars would only provide credit to trusted regulars. The ability to take cards changed that. The ability to freeze cards may be changing it back.