So we’ve run into a slightly unfortunate situation here.
My little sisters are twins, they have the same date of birth, the same address and very similar names. One of them has held a Monzo account for a few years and the other has just tried to open an account ahead of some overseas travel.
The one who applied recently has just had her application declined and I suspect it might be because they think it’s the same person applying for a second account.
I’m fully aware there could be a tonne of other reasons why she’s been declined but I’ve got a feeling this is the most likely.
Obviously this is the community forum so I’m not expecting any assistance here, but I’ve shot a message to the team via chat on my account asking them to double check the application and she’s going to email Monzo too.
It’s not the first time they’ve run into issues due to being twins and it certainly won’t be the last, but I’m hopeful Monzo will get this sorted for us soon!
I’ll report back here once we have more info.
As a side note, it’s nice to see the ‘chat with us’ button nice and easy to find on the help page again!
There could also be the issue that their credit files could have merged/use the same one, triggering the issue with Monzo, if they are similarly named, with the same DOB, living at the same house.
Might be an idea to get them both to apply to view their own credit files to confirm they are seperate. You can access all 3 for free.
That’s a very good point! I’ll block out some time with them to take a look and get things sorted if they need to be!
They have issues all the time, one of them applied for a provisional but instead of processing the application the DVLA sent the other a replacement licence
Well the response from chat was incredibly quick, but as suspected they need her to email them before they take a look. Hopefully they’ll get back to her soon!
My other half is a twin, she and her brother obviously have all the same details for their early life and when she went to get an adult debit card (switch at the time) the bank wouldnt let her as her brother already had one so as she didnt have a proper file the credit checks failed. It took several weeks with BoS to sort it out and they said it was made worse by the fact that they both had the exact same initials as well (obv names were different)
Its not an issue now as they diverged from that point.
Things like this is why I’m always baffled when I meet families who’ve given their children similar names. Seems a recipe for confusion, especially when twins are involved.
The most extreme example of a family I met for this was one where the parents had the same initials, and their five children had all been given names starting with the same letter, so they all had the same initials too. Must be a nightmare working out who the post is for in that household!
But I digress. OP, it does sound like it may be a credit file problem, I hope you’re all able to get it sorted. And while it may be an extreme solution, has either twin considered changing their name to be more distinct instead of very similar? Thinking of heading off similar issues happening again down the line there.
I have a feeling this was less of an issue a few decades ago when they were born and named. There’s definitely been a rise in firms using sophisticated computer systems and validation that will throw up issues like these. Changing their entire identity is a bit of an extreme solution though!
Ha, I have the same initial as both of them. We had ‘sorry we missed you’ slip from Royal Mail at the top of the year and none of us went to collect the item because we weren’t expecting anything in the post. A few weeks later my friend told me he’d posted me something and asked if I’d got it yet. Turns out it was a parcel with a printed flask asking me to be his best man.
So update, we’ve had a response from Monzo but it was pretty much a cookie cutter, copy and paste reply - I’m not entirely convinced that anyone actually looked at the case properly.
It’s of course really disappointing, especially when you have money invested in a company and they refuse to provide a service for your family, but equally we’re not going to waste our lives worrying about this. She’ll just open an account with a competitor and move on. Life’s too short to be moaning on the internet about a bank.
In response to the credit agencies stuff. One wasn’t able to register for any of the three credit check services and the other was only able to access her Experian score. We’ve written to the other two to try and make sure nothing has been merged incorrectly and we’re just waiting to hear back.
That genuinely surprises me. Little quirks like this that are seemingly just a small oversight Monzo seemed to add a personal touch and have resolved in no time before.
I’m not so surprised. It sounds like their credit records have got mixed up and made them look like one person, and until their records have been sorted out, Monzo have no way of knowing or verifying that they are two separate people.
I guess this is possibly one mark in the credit side for high street banks, where you can prove you’re separate people by both visiting the branch in person at the same time.
OP, I commend you for recognising it’s best to move on rather than keep moaning about Monzo. I hope you’re all able to get the credit agencies stuff sorted, though, otherwise it’ll probably keep happening - that one opening an account with Starling without having the credit records fixed will end up with the other being blocked out, and so on and so on through any number of banks.
That seems a bit ridiculous. Monzo ask for driving license / passport plus verify that with a video… Of course they can accurately identify different people even with the same DOB.
Really if it’s as simple as it sounds a manual check would have sufficed as the system made the assumption it’s the same person.
I don’t really see how you can justify that there’s no way of knowing or verifying two seperate people when you know they do ID checks.
Completely agree with you. And for that reason, unless something has changed within Monzo and no one is bothering to manually check and verify applications anymore when the automated system can’t, then I suspect there could be something else in play.
A few years ago, when my brother turned 16, he applied for an account with Monzo. Monzo were the first bank he had ever applied for and are the first and only bank he’s ever used. He has no bills, was still in high school living with parents, and was not yet on the electoral register. No credit file existed. He was still able to open account, didn’t even need to prove address. His ID was checked and verified within a day, and Monzo even allowed him to request a preferred name different to his own because of his gender identity, which they allowed, and printed on his card. All that within a few of hours of applying for an account.
As far as the onboarding process goes, he was pretty chuffed with it.
That’s the thing isn’t it, without Monzo giving an actual reason all we can do is speculate. She has no credit cards and whilst I can’t know for sure, I’m almost certain she hasn’t done anything that could block her from opening bank accounts. Monzo’s limitation to one account per person and a potentially merged credit file seems like the only logical reason.
They do both have accounts with Metro Bank and I think these were set up by them both visiting a branch at the same time. I assume a Metro account (with overdraft facility) plus an entry in the electoral roll is enough to display a credit score?
She’s off to France now to study for a few months, but we’ll keep on the credit agencies to get this sorted.
I would have thought so. I’m not sure which agencies metro report to now, but if they report to a different agency than Monzo check against, they’ll have a harder time verifying them electronically.
This feels like a flaw in the system, and I’m convinced I once read a Monzo blog post outlining how they want to fix it and remove the barrier of needing to have a credit file to open an account. I thought they could do this now by doing it manually, but perhaps that’s only if you’re under 18.
I agree that, you you and me, normal human beings, this seem ridiculous.
However, lets not forget Monzo are a bank, which means they have to follow strict regulations. Regulations so strict, that what seems like common sense simply isn’t allowed to play into it if it’s contradicted by what the regulations stipulate.
So if the regulations checks says “credit reports trump everything”, or something to that effect; if Monzo have some information that says “these are two separate people” but the key information says “this is one person”; I can understand their hands being tied, to an extent.
This is what I meant earlier - I perhaps should’ve phrased what I said differently, maybe “Monzo are unable to verify that they are separate people to the standard required”.
Must be a nightmare working out who the post is for in that household!