I’ve been using Monzo (Mondo) since March 2016. I’m a Plus user and Business plus user. I’m user number #5658 and an investor.
Which makes me shocked that for some reason I’m not eligible for a joint account. I’ve gone through support and for the first time was disappointed with the response that “They cannot tell me why I’m not eligible”
Does anyone have any ideas as to why this may be? I’m getting married this year and a joint account is a big requirement for a bank account.
I wouldn’t want to move to another bank, but it may have to happen
I don’t think that Support, or Monzo generally, are doing themselves any favours here
From what I can see, it’s not like you’re illegible, it’s like they’ve chosen to withdraw the product for most people. I think it would be better to say “we’re not offering joint accounts at the moment” rather than to say that you’re ineligible and then refuse to discuss it. That’s just a bank hiding behind bureaucracy and isn’t in the spirit of Monzo at all. In fact, it makes me pretty cross.
But that wouldn’t be true though. Monzo haven’t withdrawn joint accounts, they continue to offer them to those who are eligible
The difference is that Monzo are applying some inscrutable, but clearly hard to meet criteria for eligibility (similarly to rejoining if one leaves) and they can’t, or won’t, say what this is.
That’s not quite what’s happening here though. It’s not like you can click through apply and then find that you don’t meet the criteria: the option is hidden then when you find it through Help you can’t even apply. That’s what the image in the first post says - they won’t even let him apply.
I think it’s disingenuous and below Monzo. I don’t like it. At all.
How do we know that? The post and the image aren’t clear whether OP has gone through the motions and at the end been told no; or if this is through the help section and the option isn’t visible at all.
We only have some circumstantial evidence pointing to the option to apply being removed for some users.
FWIW I have the option and can go to the point of selecting someone to open a JA with – obviously can’t go beyond that step. But that points to your hypothesis being wrong, JAs haven’t been withdrawn. Instead, some users just aren’t eligible.
I agree with you that this is not what I’d expect from old Monzo but if it’s a regulatory reason understandably they can’t say more.
I know that because that’s what happens when I look for the option for a joint account. And that’s the screen I see.
I don’t know what “circumstantial” adds here. It is clear that there is a large number of users that Monzo is refusing to consider as customers right now. Now, it’s a reasonable hypothesis that anything so wide ranging would be less about the applicants themselves (particularly as they’re still eligible for Monzo accounts) and either Monzo’s ability to service them, a regulatory reason that’s likely unrelated to customer attributes or a business decision by Monzo. Again, their in-app copy and support responses lets them down and appears to blame the customer when it’s not their fault.
Now this is interesting - thank you for confirming. I did wonder if actually no one was eligible given the lack of data, but it’s useful to disprove that as a hypothesis.
It affects a lot of people, but not everyone. So the product isn’t withdrawn. Just because only very few people can get a Centurion Card, it doesn’t mean that it’s no longer on the market.
I fear the poll might not give us the full picture – I’d swear that people have confirmed on here that they opened JAs since the start of JA-Gate, but they’d now vote “N/A”
I fear we’re talking past each other a bit, so will duck out after this.
I don’t think the Centurion Card analogy works. Firstly, the Monzo joint account isn’t supposed to be exclusive, the Centurion card is. But more importantly, and the point I’ve made a few times now, is that you can’t even apply for a joint account. It’s not like you apply, you’re assessed with your partner and are accepted/rejected. Monzo is simply not accepting applications from some (many? We don’t know) customers for reasons that are unclear. We can quibble about whether that amounts to withdrawn or not, but it’s all the same for the people affected. And the official explanation (which isn’t really one) doesn’t do Monzo justice, in my view.
They never do. We’re not a particularly representative bunch. But they can offer some fun or some lines of enquiry. It’s up to each of us whether to engage.
allow some people to apply for new accounts after leaving, but not others; and
allow some to apply for JAs, but not others.
These happened more or less around the same time, when presumably Monzo reviewed their practices and policies and decided to get stricter.
They still allow people to apply for new personal accounts, and allow people who are eligible for them to apply for JAs. The products are available just not to everyone.
Whether they remove the option for those ineligible or not is immaterial. The application in and of itself doesn’t provide Monzo with more risk/compliance data than what they already hold – therefore they can predetermine whether someone can apply or not before the customer even gets to that stage.
I suspect they removed the option to remove prevent at least some people going to support to ask about why they’re ineligible.
Now we could argue whether this is fair or not, but it’s a business decision that Monzo have every right to make. If a customer doesn’t like it, they’re free to bank elsewhere.
Would I like Monzo to be clearer?
Yes.
Do I understand that there could well be legal and regulatory reasons why they can’t be?
Of course.
So I think while Monzo can be criticised here, it’s unfair on them. Criticism should be addressed at the regulations and regulators.
(Unless of course TS just pulls random numbers out of a Bingo wheel and customers whose account number begins with that number can’t apply. Then the criticism would be fair.)
The only thing I’d add to your theory is that it might be less that Monzo ‘decided’ and more that it was something they had to do as part of the ongoing regulatory investigation that we know exists but have heard little about otherwise.
Reason I think this is a factor is, Monzo must have had their hand forced in some way because it doesn’t make business sense to turn potential customers away otherwise.
I just tried to sign up. Like the OP I’m an early user and also fairly sure that I have a very low risk profile.
I have no idea what criteria they’re using and they should at the very least fix their wording and make it clear what the reasons are instead of hiding behind this ‘computer says no’ experience redolent of a big 5 bank in the 90s. I also couldn’t leave this JA flow once I entered it and had to force quit the app.
This is a bad customer experience and monzo should fix it even if they can’t fix the underlying problem for regulatory reasons (which I sincerely doubt). Like the terrible experience with transfer allowances (now fixed) complaints like this one help surface bad experiences and help monzo improve their product. They are a good thing and should be encouraged and feed into the decision making process as one input.
The best outcome here is complaints force monzo to focus resources on whatever their problem is that is stopping them offering joint accounts and fix it. Offering products only to some customers is a bit lame, if they’re doing that the criteria should be made clear. It’s worse than just temporarily withdrawing the product for all customers.
