Too Early To Fully Switch To Monzo Current Account?

Hey dude,

Am I right in saying that banks don’t really factor into your credit rating unless you have direct debits etc (which work in your favour) or overdraft fees (which work against you)?

Dunno, the last time I applied for credit they simply wanted to know how long I’d had the account

And the reported figures are all zero unless you are overdrawn.

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True, might be part of a fraud check rather than credit in that case, either way, good to have one long-standing account at least. Cheers!

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Payslips are one of the easiest things to make fraudulent copies of. I work in car finance and my company doesn’t accept them for anything.

We use something called CATO which checks average money into your account meets your stated salary. We also accept statements that show your salary coming in. We would have questioned the last two months not being there :rofl::rofl:

How do you get average money into the account data?

You’re definitely a winner, Thomas - couldn’t have timed it better! :1st_place_medal:

We’d absolutely love it if you were to start using Monzo as your main account! We’re still working on offering full statements, but in the meantime you can export your transactions from the app into a CSV or QIF format. If you need proof of account ownership, we can sort that out for you - just give us a shout through the in-app chat :+1:

There’s no harm in keeping your existing account with HSBC open, especially if you’re moving soon! As a few others have suggested, you could even keep it active and empty, and still use Monzo as your main account. We only run a ‘soft’ credit check when you open an account, and this leaves no digital footprint - you’ll have had this check done already when you opened your account.

We don’t support international payments yet, but it’s definitely something we’re looking to implement.

There’s no pressure, though! If for now, you’d like to continue using the current account in the same way you’ve always used the prepaid card, that’s cool! Do what’s best for you, and if doing that allows you to use Monzo as your main bank, then that’s all the better :raised_hands:

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Yeah! I mentioned that my latest two pay cheques hadn’t gone into that account and they were like “We’ll run our tests and see what happens” so… yolo I guess!

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A system our underwriters use that connects to banks :slight_smile: probably similar to MOGO I guess …

When Monzo say: “We only run a ‘soft’ credit check when you open an account, and this leaves no digital footprint”, that’s not true.

They leave a massive digital footprint all over your credit record which shows the fact you have a Monzo Current Account. I wouldn’t have thought this was an issue but to say there’s no digital footprint is just incorrect.

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You’re right, I should have been clearer here - apologies!

When we refer to a ‘soft’ credit check and say this doesn’t leave a digital footprint, what we mean is that these kinds of searches don’t impact your ability to obtain other credit in the same way that a ‘hard’ credit check could; other companies checking your credit file to make credit decisions won’t see this ‘soft’ check we’ve run. We’re not running a credit check in order to make a credit decision, rather, we’re running it for identity and verification purposes. Every ‘hard’ credit check you go through is fully visible on your credit file, and other companies performing searches on your file will see these; generally it’s advised not to have too many ‘hard’ searches on your file in a short space of time, as lenders can view this negatively.

Hope that helps clear things up!

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No way would I let them near my bank account!

It’s a foot print only you can see

I assume it’s also visible to anyone else who wants to see my data. It just reports the date your account was opened plus any borrowing (I assume).

nope, soft searches don’t show up for others

for instance you’ll see your own searches in the soft search list - the ones that create a printout of your current credit file.

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I’m not talking about the soft search. I’m talking about the fact that the Monzo account will show up in your list of accounts. Like this…

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Thanks for all the responses :raised_hands:t2: I was definitely planning to keep my HSBC account open anyway. The Monzo prepaid card has basically been the only way I spend since I got it so the current account will be much the same. Unfortunately quite a lot of the payments I get are international (I do a lot of work for a company based in Berlin) so I’ll just stick with the system I’ve had of getting paid into HSBC but then transferring everything to Monzo :grin:

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You said the above. That’s a soft search. You have now shifted to credit reporting which is different.

Yes, but a current account shouldn’t (obviously depending on the lender’s scoring model) factor in negatively, as long as it’s not in overdraft, which Monzo can’t be. Obviously, if you replace an old account with a newer one that doesn’t look great, but the new Monzo account itself shouldn’t really be a problem, and if it is - only will be for a few months.

Ian said that Monzo leaves no digital footprint in the process of setting up a current account. That is what isn’t correct. Whether this is a search or whatever, I think it’s important to be clear what information other organizations can find from your credit file when you sign up with Monzo.

I don’t think having another current account is likely to (negatively) affect your credit rating with anyone but, again, that isn’t the point.

As you say, it’s unlikely to be a negative factor when determining your suitability for credit. My point is simply that there is a footprint on your credit file when you sign up for an account.