This morning, a writer at the Times published an article claiming that we’re lending money to customers to buy shares in a supposed “overdraft offer” as part of our recently announced crowdfunding round. The writer has chosen to paint a particular picture and taken comments from users on our forum out of context to support a negative piece about our approach to this raise.
We want to set the record straight.
Poor form from The Times
The writer hasn’t even got the colour of the card correct ‘coral pink’ 
top class journo 
You nailed it, Tom! Excellent post 
It sucks that news outlets find a way to put a negative spin on pretty much anything…
Never let the truth get in the way of a click bait article. Well done to Monzo for responding and calling them out so quickly.
They clearly missed how a few forum members posted it is NOT a good idea to take on debt to invest.
Excellent post setting out Monzo’s stance and calling out the blatant click bait from The Times.
At least Monzo makes their posts free and open for the public to read.
I think we should invite this Times journalist to the community and explain a few things and ask some questions on how they came up with this 
I expect better research from Times.
Maybe they are already watching this 
Probably a good time to remind everyone of the:
I can’t read the article, but what forum user comments were taken out of context?
Wouldn’t expect anything else from a Murdoch company.
I do think it’s poor journalism for The Times to publish an article without giving Monzo the chance to respond.
Great to see such a firm rebuttal from Tom on BBC Breakfast this morning, and now on the Monzo website.
Very well written response.
I read the front of the article (it is behind a paywall to read the full thing), and had to assume this wasn’t the full picture. I read all the investment material and the tiny bit of The Times article didn’t gel with what I had read in the materials or on the forums at all.
Sadly, we live in an age where people blindly believe what they read.
Many will now consider this as fact
It’s a shame that when any person/company/endeavour flourishes we have media that will attempt to knock it down a level even if that involves misusing the truth
Is this comment true?
At the bottom of the article they say this;
A Monzo spokesperson said: “We are committed to lending responsibly, so we only offer overdrafts to people who have a good credit history and can afford the repayments.
“We’ve made people aware of the risks that come with crowdfunding. We don’t think it’s our place to restrict how people spend. Before investing, customers also need to pass a regulated test to make sure they understand the investment — and anyone who doesn’t pass can’t invest.”
2 free articles per month if you sign up.
There really should be legal repercussions for warping something so out of shape that it barely resembles reality anymore.
The 2 comments were…
and
You’d hope that people would see past the fact that it’s enthusiastic users posting, and not a financial endorsement from Monzo… But where is the story in that? 
It’s a loaded question - accuse Monzo of “letting” people get into debt to buy shares, or accuse Monzo of taking a paternalistic approach towards their users, restricting their choice. Mostly it’s The Times using a hatchet-job article to parasitise Monzo’s popularity though.
Wow. I didn’t expect the comments picked up to be quite so… mundane and normal. How they made those comments into a story worthy of a national newspaper takes some skill.