Privacy of US Monzo accounts

Monzo USA 🇺🇸
1

Is there any information about account and transaction privacy? With US accounts being made with a partner US bank, I can’t help but be concerned as now there’ll be another party privy to my financial information. While Monzo seems trustworthy enough, what guarantees will I have that I’m not still being tracked and having information compiled and sold by a partner bank?

This is reminiscent of the forthcoming Apple Card and their partnership with Goldman Sachs. From their site:

“Of course, Goldman Sachs will use your data to operate Apple Card. But they will never share or sell your data to third parties for marketing or advertising.”

So they offer at least some guarantee of privacy. Can Monzo do the same? Better off waiting until they become their own US bank?

Thanks,
Gaj

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2

Good question, hopefully someone can answer.

But I would guess as the US bank is technically the card issuer they would or at least legally can see your transaction data.

3

At the very least some of your data will be seen by monzo, it’s partner bank, the MasterCard network, the merchant network the retailer uses, the retailer

If you want an idea as to how far and wide data goes in the financial world just look at PayPal’s list to get an idea:

https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/ua/third-parties-list

5

Hey there @Gaj - Definitely a reasonable question to ask and apologies for the delay in response!

At the point of signing up to a Monzo account, you will be asked to sign up to both a Monzo privacy policy and a Sutton Bank privacy policy.

The Monzo Privacy Notice can be read in full here: https://monzo.com/usa/Monzo-Privacy-Notice.pdf.

The Sutton Privacy notice can be read here:

To address your concerns more specifically:

  • Monzo will share your data with our partner, Sutton Bank
  • Sutton Bank may use your information for their, and their affiliates everyday business purposes. An affiliate is a company that has common ownership or control with Sutton.
  • This is the everyday stuff that Sutton need to be able to do to run the service and be compliant with financial services regulation. Specifically, Sutton use this information to maintain your account, check for suspicious activity, submit required reports to regulators, and respond to any legal investigations.
  • Sutton Bank does not share your information with non-affiliates (i.e. companies that are not related by common ownership) for them to market to you.

I hope this helps answer some of your questions and do take a look at the links listed above. If you have any more questions, we’d be happy to answer them here!

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6

Thanks for the response. Do you have any timeline at all on when Monzo will become its own US bank? Also, any timeline on when a US resident will be able to open a UK Monzo account?

Ideally someday I’d have one Monzo account wherein live both a UK and US bank account holding GBP and USD respectively.

Thanks,
Gaj

7

It’s very early days for us in that regard, so we’d rather not make any predictions on timelines. There’s a long road ahead there.

If you are a US resident but you spend a lot of time here in the UK, there’s nothing to stop you signing up for a Monzo account when you are here. :grinning:

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