Tone of Voice: Account Denial

The tone of voice with Monzo denies accounts to persons seems cold. I understand the decision is final. I also understand there may be legal reasons Monceaux cannot divulge more information. However as an end user it would be helpful to understand why the account was denied, and what the appeals process might be if any.

  • Am I not eligible?
  • Is Monzo confusing me with someone else?
  • Did I enter incorrect information?
  • Have I been a victim of identity fraud which might have messed up my credit report unknowingly?
  • Has someone else already opened an account with my identity?

4 Likes

I donā€™t think any bank gives reasons if they refuse to open an account

1 Like

The tone looks okay to me.

But, like you say, a signpost to more information - even just a Q&A on common reasons, might be a nice touch.

8 Likes

The tone of voice seems completely reasonable to me.

Regarding the reason you could try dropping them an email or DM on Twitter but judging by this response to a thread a few hours ago youā€™re likely to be out of luck:

2 Likes

Iā€™ve never seen any bank give reasons for refusal, and Iā€™m not sure they legally can. The most they do is point you to one or more of the CRAs

Thereā€™s no way Monzo, or any bank for that matter, could tell whether any of this would be trueā€¦ they see one set of data and they have no idea what ā€˜normalā€™ should look like. Itā€™s on the customer to check credit reports and make sure itā€™s all up to date

2 Likes

I think the tone is fine, but I agree, a link to an FAQ might soften the blow. I wonder if refusing an account might come under some of the same jurisdiction as freezing accounts if the reason is related to fraud/AML legislation then Monzo wouldnā€™t be able to give more information without tipping off.

2 Likes

From my perspective thereā€™s still an issue with ā€œat this momentā€, which doesnā€™t really sound like a final decision. I know if I saw that at the end of an attempted onboarding, Iā€™d look for an internal avenue of appeal to figure out if itā€™s something I can resolve or if itā€™s a ā€œforeverā€ thing.

4 Likes

Tone seems fine to me.

Is this your account? If so, might this not have anything to do with it?

I think the tone is fine too, itā€™s short and to the point like it needs to be. Being given a reason wont help anyone. It will probably encourage people to argue their case which is a waste of everyones time if this is Monzos final decision.

Itā€™s not their account, theyā€™ve taken if from someone who posted the screenshot earlier. For some reason the OP has become very pedantic recently and has created a few topics like this :man_shrugging:

3 Likes

Tone is fine, itā€™s emotionless as it should be for such things.

FCA provides info on opening accounts: https://www.fca.org.uk/consumers/opening-bank-account
Monzo Ts & Cs here: https://monzo.com/legal/terms-and-conditions/

Legally there is only so much any bank can tell someone, as others have rightly stated.

This is a non-issue.

2 Likes

Starling is very similar. It just says ā€˜There has been an issueā€™ or something, didnā€™t say theyā€™d actually denied it. I had to contact them to find out what the hold up was as I thought it was an issue with my identity checks or something, to be told they couldnā€™t offer me an account.

Iā€™d say thatā€™s worse, ambiguity is awful.

10 Likes

Just goes to show you canā€™t please all the people all the time.

IMO the statement Monzo issues in these circumstances is fine.

R-

2 Likes

This is fine for a refusal.

Just out of sheer curiosity can you think of any reason why you might have been denied a Starling account but (presumably) you have a monzo account? I get that there are reasons for refusing an account and they donā€™t have to say but seems strange that two similar banks would come to different decisions for the same person, unless your circumstances had changed in between.

Wot?

Not a clue. I applied for both at the same time - Starling may have been first actually, back in the very early days (when it was Mondo Beta!).

I actually found the email I sent to Starling and the attached screenshots at the time. They have have changed since then.

ā€˜We are sorry. We are unable to verify your details and offer you an account.ā€™ with a link to a ā€˜Helpful tipsā€™ section. I thought it meant they needed more info, maybe a utility bill or something but when I got nothing more from them after a week or two I emailed to ask what was going on and got back

Even though Starling is in beta; as we are a regulated bank, we conduct identity, fraud prevention and credit checks to open a Starling account.

Based on the information you provided, we have done our checks, and are unfortunately unable to open an account for you at this time.

We understand you may like to know why; and we can say it is due to one or more matters arising from the identity, fraud prevention or credit checks we have conducted.

Then I realised it wasnā€™t just a ā€˜Weā€™re sorry, we canā€™t offer you an account because we couldnā€™t complete your checksā€™, it was 'Weā€™re done. Maybe that is obvious from the message they provided, but I thought it was a holding message while checks were continuing or waiting for something from me.

(Sorry to highjack this thread and turn it into a Starling issue, I did just want to highlight that all banks use the same sort of language - they canā€™t say too much about why they canā€™t offer you something).

3 Likes

This topic was automatically closed 180 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.