Hello guys!
Octopus won’t accept Monzo sort code…
Starlings looks alright
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How are your web developer skills?
You could do some fiddling with their front end validator so it lets you submit, and ideally their back-end validator will properly accept and parse it.
Odd bug. At a guess, they’re not liking the leading zero, which is a common error in implementing these things. Tell Octopus about it too and they’ll hopefully fix it!
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I wonder if they’ve done something recently because I had no problem last May changing my direct debit to Monzo.
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That’s pretty useless if so, and would cause significant problems even beyond fintech customers with “new” 04 sort codes where it is perhaps understandable (although still not acceptable).
NatWest have a range that starts with 01, Nationwide use 07, Co-operative Bank 08 and Santander 09!
Edit: I also forgot the former Yorkshire Bank 05 range which some Virgin Money customers would be using.
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Yup! That’s why you gotta test, test, and test again and make sure your all your edge cases are covered. It’s a very common error that can even catch a seasoned developer off guard!
Don’t have an octopus account myself else I’d be routing through their source code to find out why it’s not liking the sort code! Can always then disable to client side validation check if necessary and see if the server still accepts it.
I imagine someone’s updated the validator to correct some edge case somewhere and introduced this as a result. A quick and easy fix though. Wish I could see the source code!
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Just ring them up they’ll take details over the phone and at the same time they can flag it up to start working again
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Indeed, although this should have been obvious and was hardly an edge case.
Funnily enough, I recently encountered a similar issue myself. I was entering some sort codes and account numbers into Excel, and it kept wanting to remove leading zeroes. I sorted it by changing the cell type to Text instead of Number, so it treated the content always as text which kept the numbers exactly as entered.
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This is most certainly new as I recall setting mine up some time ago to my Monzo account, though I may have done it by pc not mobile (not sure if that would make any different)
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Might be worth testing then if it’s just the Monzo sort code or any other 6 digit string beginning with zero. My money is still on the validator omitting the leading zero and reading the sort code as 40004. If that’s the case other sort codes beginning with 0 should produce the same output, if anyone feels like testing this. Maybe even try adding a number on to the end of Monzo’s sort code so it’s 7 digits long and see if that appeases it.
@davidwalton is with Octopus I think and is handy with this sort of stuff. 
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Off-the-wall suggestion - is your phone language set to ‘English (UK)’?
If not, this can trip up a lot of UK-based company websites on mobile/phone browsers.
Suggestion#2 - have you tried the same process on a laptop/desktop browser?
Suggestion#3 - before #1 & #2 above, use this link when signing up and save us both £50 - **Referral removed 
**
Golden!
Incoming flag in 3…2…
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Even with your referral link, I still can’t switch online yet! 
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I’m with octopus and mine went in fine. Can’t remember if I used the full website or mobile version though
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Sorted now guys. Thanks for your replies.
Contacted support, got a link to change dashboard to the old version. (Same link at the bottom of the page)
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How odd that their new dashboard appears to have introduced a breaking change!
It’s probably as @N26throwaway theorised, they must have been looking to fix something else and ended up introducing this issue (which, potentially, may be affecting customers of many banks).
Hopefully they get it sorted ASAP.
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I was curious about this, so I tried myself. You’re right, you can’t switch online anymore. After 2 warnings about switching and price-hikes, they give you a phone number to call. I guess the influx of customers from other-providers-that-went-under created an administration or scaling headache for Octopus, so they’re only taking on really, really determined customers?
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When you phone up, only fixes. To their credit they do warn you it’ll cost you a lot more. But they’re not accepting any onto their variable tariff under any circumstance and don’t know when or if they’ll be able to.
Got a quote from Ecotricity though as they’re still accepting switches, even online, to their price cap tariff, so now debating if I switch to those in the interim or ride this out with Bulb.
I can understand that, of any company. Why would you want to on-board potentially hundreds of thousands of new customers at a loss?
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You might as well ride it out with Bulb, at least for now?
The price cap still means overall costs will be the same, so switching now only to switch again would just be additional admin for no gain.
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