This is mostly an idea but wanted a general view before making a full on suggestion post as some may think this is a stupid idea.
For people such as my mother and elderly family, they find banking really difficult and as such have given me all their usernames, passwords etc so that they can just tell me what they want and I can do it.
Would it be a security risk to formally allow this between accounts without it being joint? For example, if my mother’s card needed replacing and I was able to put the request in, she would only have to click a button asking “X would like to order a replacement card for you, are you okay with that?” or something along those lines.
The only other solution would be to go to see them whenever there was a problem as Monzo is only a single session app which would be a pain as some live hours away.
I know in app chat is helpful but they’re ‘scared’ of contacting customer service so would never want to use it. Any help with this would be appreciated - it’s the only thing stopping them moving to Monzo.
I think there are elements of business accounts that could be ported over in order to provide benefit as I think there are loads of potential groups that could benefit from that sort of system
Glad I’m not the only one that thinks this would be beneficial was worried I would be majorly shot down. Phew
Would help Monzo be able to ensure there are no barriers to banking for those who need the extra help
I know that this functionality has been under consideration by at least some banks. It’s an attractive proposition because it means that people then wouldn’t share their own logon credentials. Another benefit is that you might be able to opt for different levels of supervision. For example:
The person to whom you’re granting access may only be given read-only access, so they can see what’s going in and out of your account
They might have authorisation access, so whenever the account holder tries to set up a new payment, it would have to be authorised by the person acting as supervisor. This would be particularly useful for vulnerable account holders who may be at risk of falling prey to fraudsters. You could imagine yourself receiving a notification whenever, for example, your grandmother had tried to set up a payment, and you’d exercise your judgement
They may have full control, but would log on with their own username and password, and so it would be much clearer who had made what transaction from the account - reducing the likelihood of confusion later
It’s not clear to me whether a formal power of attorney would be necessary in all cases, or only in the third case.
This is usually done by just calling the bank to give permission for it to happen. And if you can’t do that then signing a power of attorney is all you need.
Edit. When I’m away for long period I call my non monzo bank to say my wife can carry out all banking matters and they are always fine with it.