Hi,
I am new to Monzo. I created the account for the purchase of a UK property. Feeling paranoid with the possibility of getting my account blocked by the bank because I will do a transfer of more than £500K
in 2-3 days.
Does anyone have experience with buying a property at Monzo ?
Thanks.
Many people have purchased property with larger amounts of money using Monzo without issues.
However, as you have you only created the account to solely deposit a significant amount of money, you may want to contact Monzo to ensure that things go smoothly. It could easily be a trigger for a Know Your Customer/Anti Money Laundering check as you don’t use the account regularly and there is a sudden significant deposit into the account. This could happen at any UK bank nowadays.
Ensure that you have evidence of where your money comes from (statements from your current bank showing where the money originated e.g. previous house sales receipts, pay slips etc) as that will be the question they would ask, even if you contact them early. Also, all UK solicitors/lawyers (both your own and the sellers) will also ask you this during conveyancing (the legal aspect of house buying) anyway due to the UK’s money laundering regulations.
It is good to be prepared is all I will say.
What made you create an account with Monzo just to purchase a house?
Is there something that Monzo provides that your old bank doesn’t?
You’ll need to speak to Monzo anyway to get your limits increased as the maximum outbound bank transfer you can make is £10,000 per day.
There are lots of advantages to having a Monzo account, but if you’ve created your account solely to buy a property then I’d seriously reconsider your options. Monzo’s great, but there are banks out there that do what you need better.
Hi Ordog,
I come from overseas. It takes very long to make an HSBC UK account. So I use Monzo instead.
Hi RichardL,
Okay. Thanks for your response. It takes too long for me to make an HSBC account.
Maybe I should talk to them before transferring any money into my account.
Thank you for your answer.
I think I should really talk to them before doing any transfer.
I am glad to know that many people use it for property purchase.
How did the money land in your Monzo? Cash deposit?
It will be from my interactive brokers’ account which is an online trading platofrm.
The money is originally from my hong kong bank account.
Tbh I would expect that to be flagged for extra checks. They won’t be able to tell you if it will or not because of money laundering rules
Can you not transfer from the broker’s account directly to your solicitor? Your solicitor has to do AML checks anyway
If it’s in your HK account, HSBC, BoC or ICBC UK would probably make significantly more sense as they’re not going to flag it as suspicious if they don’t have any issues at the HK side.
I don’t believe Monzo is a wise choice for this purpose or for that amount. They’re very heavy handed when it comes to AML.
As others have suggested, Monzo isn’t the best choice for you, especially given its a new account.
HSBC shouldn’t take that long to open an account and as a customer in Hong Kong, you can get their assistance in opening an account as an existing customer.
You don’t actually need a UK account to make the transfer. You can pay using your account in Hong Kong directly to your solicitor.
The same money laundering checks are going to apply regardless.
Cool. Do you need a mortgage / are you borrowing also?
I look forward to reading how you got on in the “Monzo stole my money” Facebook group in a couple of weeks.
Agreed.
Like mentioned above, if your account is quite new, it might raise a few flags. In terms of transferring the funds themselves, you will have to manually ask support to initiate a CHAPS payment for you (it’s a payment scheme used for bigger purchases like these).
It will take at least one working day to reach the other end
And in case it’s not obvious, you need a UK address before you can apply for a UK bank account (such as Monzo)
@arthur-ceccotti This is incorrect advice and as a bank employee you shouldn’t make assumptions about other financial providers. A UK address is not a prerequisite to having a UK bank account. It’s a Monzo requirement.