Takeaway block Feature

[Westyx (Aaron)]

I’m not sure if this is possible but it would definitely help in my situation. Currently I’m addicted to takeaways and spending roughly £400 to £500 a month on takeaways, sometimes more. Its a daily thing…

I know there is a feature to block gambling transactions and I’m hoping a similar feature could be made for takeaways. I’m not saying to block every possible takeaway payment because that seems extremely impossible but I would have thought a feature to block the most popular ones such as ‘Just Eat’ and ‘Uber Eats’ etc would help me and others significantly.

[N26throwaway (Sir Tom MacMonier)]

Hi there!

I can speak from experience in here in saying I know how you feel! Like any addiction it’s hard to break. For me, it took the concept of a product like Huel or Soylent to help wean me out of my addiction to fast food. They solved the same problem I was relying on takeaways for, but were much healthier, and quite a bit cheaper.

As much as I’d love to see the gambling block feature expand to cover other addictions that can lead to financial vulnerability, I believe Monzo are at the behest of a system incapable of supporting such a facility. It works with gambling because gambling transactions are easy to identify. Takeaways not so much.

That doesn’t mean there is no help for you though. I would encourage you to reach out to Monzo’s vulnerable customer team and explain your addiction to them. They’ll try to help as much as they can. More on that here:

Monzo Help - Talking to us about an addiction

I’m not a doctor, nor a therapist, but it may also help to try to determine the underlying cause for your addiction, and work on addressing that if you can. Speak to your GP about your addiction too. Please don’t be afraid of asking for help.

Good luck OP!

On a side note, similar to your idea but a bit different in implementation, perhaps it would be possible for Monzo to enable users to block transactions or set limits on a per merchant basis, applying the same level of friction to disable as for gambling transactions. Perhaps this is already something the vulnerable customer team is able to do.

[shizzle]

i think it will be kind of hard for a bank to help someone block their card from buying food, how would that look for them to do that

[Anarchist (Press ‘Help’ search ‘Contact us’ or email help@monzo.com or call 0800 802 1281)]

@Westyx

I know there is a feature to block gambling transactions and I’m hoping a similar feature could be made for takeaways.

I can see it being as popular as the gambling block. But I think that the gambling block is based on the MasterCard Merchant Code. There’s a separate code for gambling businesses, I don’t know if there is one for takeaway food. How would Pizza Hut be categorised, for instance?

[TonyHoyle]

Or the Asda takeaway pizzas…

I don’t think the system is nearly granular enough to handle enough cases to be useful. It would have to look at itemised receipts to work.

[Revels]

And from what Dan said here, the big boys just find a way around it…

Can I block certain merchants?

You can get in touch via chat and request a block of a merchant. However we can only block certain payments - basically ones where the card is not present. Some merchants are notoriously hard to block, such as Uber/Apple/Amazon because they use so many different merchant details that once the payment fails they’ll often come back and use a different one and that won’t be blocked. In that case replacing the card is often a better experience (and in the long run, more cost effective for us!)

[danbeddows (Dan)]

@natalieledward

[betalogic]

@Revels

the big boys just find a way around it

Given the topic, I had to double take on who you was referring to here

@N26throwaway

I would encourage you to reach out to Monzo’s vulnerable customer team and explain your addiction to them. They’ll try to help as much as they can.

Spot on with this, the response as I whole I couldn’t agree with more! But I do agree with @Revels about seeing if they can block a certain merchant for you!

[anon70107404]

Addictions to things like gambling (or alcohol, or drugs) are complex and to do with the way the brain’s reward system is stimulated.

These are very real addictions than can, for some people, cause serious harm.

Is it possible to have an ‘addiction’ to takeaway food? Or is that a product of factors such as convenience, taste, immediacy, laziness? I like a takeaway as much as the next person and I think I could do with exercising a little more self-restraint and personal responsibility at times!

Monzo has done something innovative with its gambling block. I’m unsure as to whether something similar can be implemented for alcohol or food?

[betalogic]

@anon70107404

Is it possible to have an ‘addiction’ to takeaway food?

By definition you are right, but you can be addicted to anything

[anon70107404]

@betalogic

you can be addicted to anything

I take the point and I don’t dispute it. But, excessive behaviour on its own does not mean someone is (necessarily) addicted.

They may (or may not) be addicted. Which is why I posed the question and whether may be the product of other factors rather than an addiction?

That is not to detract from anyone who genuinely has an addiction to something, as that can be particularly debilitating.

[StuartB (Stuart)]

I’d argue it’s more a compulsion than an addiction. If I have an alcoholic heroin they would still crave alcohol. If I gave the OP a roast dinner when they were thinking of ordering a Chinese takeaway I imagine they’d no longer want the takeaway.

Compulsive behaviour can still be a major problem though and I don’t mean to downplay the issue at all. I would say your first point of call for support should be a medical professional rather than your bank though.

[natalieledward]

@Westyx

I’m not sure if this is possible but it would definitely help in my situation. Currently I’m addicted to takeaways and spending roughly £400 to £500 a month on takeaways, sometimes more. Its a daily thing…

I know there is a feature to block gambling transactions and I’m hoping a similar feature could be made for takeaways. I’m not saying to block every possible takeaway payment because that seems extremely impossible but I would have thought a feature to block the most popular ones such as ‘Just Eat’ and ‘Uber Eats’ etc would help me and others significantly.

Hi @Westyx,

Thanks for posting this here. You’re not the first customer to request this, and it’s actually something we’ve been testing with staff to see how we can build an effective block for requests like yours.

In the meantime, @N26throwaway is spot on. if you follow any one of these help articles about understanding your needs you’ll get through to share with us. If you explain your situation, you’ll get directly through to our specialist support team who can explore the ways we can support you now whilst we work on a more long term solution.

I hope that’s helpful,
Natalie