Im currently abroad in Asia and decided to Western Union myself some money to collect from a local agent. The transaction went all smoothly however upon pickup the agent declined the payout informing me I cant send money to myself ( no problem doing this in other countries btw).
I cancelled this transaction with WU who advised to wait 7 days for a refund.
Its been over 2 weeks, and still nothing.
WU advised the hold is from Monzo and they cant do anything for me.
Monzo advised that the hold will be lifted after 30 days.
I cant wait that long, without this money im screwed. I have sent Monzo chat all emails confirming the cancellation but they are not releasing the hold.
I was told to get a release code from WU but they dont seem to understand what Im asking for and I get automated replies telling me its my banks policy to hold these funds.
Is there anything I can do? This will make me completely broke in a foreign country and some direct debits will also bounce.
First of all good luck sorting this out. Pre-authorisations are never simple to resolve as often the Merchant and bank will have different information and clearing overseas can be slow (Had a similar issue in Dubai whereby I got charged and the same amount held pre-auth). I would suggest calling Monzo on +442038720620 to see if they can do anything.
Beyond that if Western Union have already confirmed they have cancelled the transaction, I don’t think there is anything obvious you can do beyond speaking to Monzo and explaining the situation. It’s increasingly an issue with using Debit cards for these type of payments as opposed to credit cards.
I’m really sorry but unfortunately we can’t reverse pending transactions for cancelled or failed money transfers
It will automatically reverse itself back into your account after 30 days, but if this doesn’t happen please don’t hesitate to get in touch via the in-app Chat.
I think this was a Western Union transfer, so probably done online or in store. When you pre-authorise a debit card it blocks the funds from the available balance automatically and can result in a situation such as the one Ali describes above. However, when you pre-authorise a credit card it simply shows the merchant those funds “could be taken”, so it does not block off available funds unless the transaction completes. I picked this up after using my debit card in hotels over the years and seeing massive amounts of cash held under a pre-auth even though I’ve already paid this bill. Any form of pre-authorisation is much better on a credit card than a debit card for those reasons.
