Proper facility for removing payment limits

Feedback & Ideas
#1

Rant / suggestion.

Monzo has a £10k payment limit. The hoops that you need to jump through to bypass this are unacceptable for some.

If you want to make a payment in excess of £10k outside of working hours you’re screwed.

If you want to make a payment in excess of £10k within working hours you’re severely inconvenienced.

How so? You’ve got to fire up a chat window, hope that there’s somebody available within a reasonable time, make sure that you’ve got photo ID with you, and hope that the person on chat would be so kind as to let access your own damn money.

This makes Monzo useless as an account for anybody:

  • Buying a house
  • Contributing a lump sum to an ISA
  • Contributing a lump sum to a pension
  • Running their own business

Or who otherwise sometimes needs the facility to move their own money about “at will” without the risk that it’s outside working hours, photo ID isn’t available at that moment, the chat person isn’t available, or you fail their their “test” of whether or not you should be allowed to access your own money.

It might sound petty to many, but when you REALLY need to move money about in a hurry (e.g. paying HMRC on time because a supplier unexpected paid you late; getting a mortgage redemption of >£85k moved out of your current account ASAP so that it isn’t above the FSCS compensation limit etc) it’s quite stressful.

At other times it’s just chuffing annoying. This wasn’t a big deal in the early days of Monzo when the chat service was responsive. These days it always seems to take as long as a legacy bank.

I’ve been sat waiting for 30 minutes now thinking "you know, nice as the app is, at least the Nationwide website actually worked for the basics of banking such as accessing your own damn money when you needed it.

Chat’s eventual response of “we’ll get back to you within four business days to let you know the next steps” is an absolute bloody joke. A customer service level that thinks promising four business days to let you know the next steps for accessing your own money is acceptable.

Perhaps Monzo would consider offering “adult accounts” with the normal limits (£250k per transaction, £500k per day, and £1m per week) in addition to “child accounts” with restricted limits?

Now choosing between Nationwide (packaged account for breakdown/phone/travel insurance), Virgin Money (pays interest on the first £25k), Santander (cashback on utilities) to replace Monzo. Perhaps all three and play the benefits game once again. I wouldn’t have bothered - loyal by being lazy - but your service offering, at the times you really need it, falls so far short that you’ve made me make the effort.

So congrats on the own goal there and perhaps you might want to (a) offer accounts that don’t stop you accessing your own money or (b) employ enough staff so that you can guarantee to a response time of less than four f**king working days for “telling you the next steps to make a payment” (lord only knows what the response time for actually making the payment is - probably the number of days divided by £10k…)

#2

This simply isn’t true and adding such hyperbole to your statements only diminishes the point.

I do actually agree with you that this isn’t up to standard and for this reason, my house deposit is sat in another bank account and won’t go near Monzo so I don’t have to jump through the hoops.

This has always been a problem and Monzo are working to reduce the times you have to wait, they aren’t going to increase their risk and raise the limit. All banks have limits, it’s just others are quicker/easier to get hold of.

If it’s such a problem for you and frequently, then change banks.

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#3

I thought it was £50,000 for business accounts?

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#4

That has not always been a problem.

Historically customer service would review and resolve within 15 mins.

(I’ve been around since the beginning and in the early days it was fab)

It has became a problem now that Monzo have started penny pinching on customer service.

(I suspect they’re in damage limitation mode / reading the forum to prioritise response times as the limit was magically raised within a couple of mins of that post with no “next steps” required after all)

As you say one workaround is not to use Monzo for anything serious.

The feedback for Monzo is that they could avoid the need for a separate “adult bank account” by not treating all of their customers like children. The standard limits are £10k for a single faster payment / £250k per day. Monzo choose to implement lower limits and that’s probably sensible given the userbase. Having the option to remove these permanently - or staffing customer service adequately such that sensible turnaround times can be guaranteed - would resolve.

Doing anything with the feedback is optional. I’m not going to wait - the time of Monzo as the only current account is over. Worst case for Monzo is I keep it as the travel card and there’s never more than £250 in it / it’s always used to withdraw cash overseas etc. Best case is probably that I close it.

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#5

So because I don’t have over £10k I’m a child?

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#6

tl’dr

A smoother process for raising the limits is required in line with other banks.

I don’t think all the added nonsense is necessary or helps your cause.

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#7

Standard for whom?

Lloyds - £25k per day
Natwest - £20k per day
HSBC - £25k per day

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#8

I know it’s inconvenient but it’s probably got a reason behind it.

Your possibly being scammed
Tax purposes
Bank reporting thresholds
Combat money laundering
Make sure it’s definitely you completing the transaction

Highstreet banks can do more because they can afford to cover you if more goes wrong.

I’m just guessing by the way on this one but you get my point, inconvenient as it may be, there must be a good reason behind it.

Have you tried asking them why the policy is there?

I still have my highstreet bank just incase it’s ever needed for these exact reasons.

Monzo are alright upto a point but the customer services are bad with the replies, it takes days sometimes for them to answer.

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#9

Personal opinion, but perhaps Monzo isn’t the bank for you wanting these types of limits?

Edit: these types of limits seem far beyond general retail banking consumers, and more refer to business like transactions if regularly needing these amounts.

“Adult accounts” are anything over the age of 18.

16-17 year old accounts have different limits.

Depending on the amount you wish to transfer, the process is quite simple. It generally doesn’t take too long to resolve these types of queries if you’re forthcoming.

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#11

Pardon? This is a good analogy in your opinion because….,

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#12

Monzo’s limits are definitely on the lower end of what you get from a basic account offered elsewhere. For regular accounts, and of course those higher tiered accounts locked behind wealth offer increasingly greater limits.

For the working middle class or higher, Monzo’s limits can oftentimes be a very low ceiling, especially in April.

The issue is perhaps less the limit, and more the brevity of getting it increased. Most banks can do it with a quick 2 minute live chat or phone call. Some can even put them permanently if you ask them too, and some have started to automate it.

Don’t be fooled! It’s to protect them, not you!

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#13

These can be done the same day as far as I know.

Maybe I’m totally missing your argument, but just reaching out in chat to request this, and follow the information requests to have this resolved is the best way.

It’s all in favour of the customer not losing money through any reason, not treating you like a child, more protecting your finances in a responsible manner.

If you forgot to lower your limits and you were scammed somewhat, would you blame Monzo for not having adequate processes in place to prevent this in the first place, or would you blame yourself and cut your losses through human error?

#14

£250k in branch. Right. But you’re not in a branch are you? You’re whereever you want to be and using your phone.

I’m not sure where you’ve got 4 days from either.

They are not direct competitors. They are not banks.

#15

This is currently the ETA Monzo offer when you ask them to raise your limit. Someone will get back to you in 4 business days. And that’s not even the waiting time for getting the limit raised, just for someone to get back to you to begin the first step of the process.

#16

Well there’s a Monzo employee above me saying it’s same day.

Has that been said to you?

#17

The actual process can be done the same day once you’ve gone through the 4 day wait to get to someone yes, but not always. I account for another 24 hours, unless it’s a weekend, then I assume Monday. But yes I get quoted 4 days too, and typically the full 4 days has been how long I’ve waited.

Last time I went through this was just before October I think! Or might have been during October. Will be doing it again in April.

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#18

We definitely need a better process to request higher limits.
A lovely automated flow, where you select why you need it (house deposit, for example). It does some checks and then goes boom, enjoy.

That would be so nice, and so Monzo.

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#19

This is nonsense sorry. Beyond a plethora of other reasons if you google payment limits via FP, both come up on the same list on the FP website.

The license is one area of competition - there are plenty of others.

#20

What list they appear on is irrelevant. They are not banks.

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#21

@Rat_au_van

Sorry - bad taste - edited.

The point being made is that if being bashed on the head with a brick / having a drink spiked is a concern then even the £10k is too much.

Granted it’s unlikely. You’re not likely to keep £10k in the current account for any length of time and the linked savings accounts that Monzo offer are next day only anyway.

Light bulb.

Perhaps that’s another reason for the £10k limit. Keep you money in the (crap) Monzo-linked savings accounts and you can withdraw large amounts / deposit large amounts next working day. Try to move your money into (better) non Monzo-linked savings accounts and they introduce more friction.

1 Like