I have two credit cards with the cooperative bank.
I set up standing orders for both cards with the credit card numbers as the references.
What happens though is that the first payment goes out, and any payment to either card after pays towards one card only. The payment reference is “remembered” and thus my standing order is re-written.
This appears in my app as though i have paid both cards - no problem.
Then i get both a non payment notice and charge and mark against my credit score.
I report this to Monzo, seeing as this seems to be a technical / programming issue. Attached is the response I got from Monzo.
I actually stand with the OP on this. If you set up two standings order with correct references. Then Monzo overwrites one, that isn’t entirely on the OP
They should remove the marker though if you explain you sent the money with the wrong reference (co op)
I don’t think you’re understanding the issue (or possibly I’m not understanding it). But this is what I gather is happening.
Standing order 1 is set up, to pay Coop with Reference 1.
Standing order 2 is set up, to pay Coop with Reference 2.
Monzo pays out standing order 1 with reference 1.
Monzo pays out standing order 2 with reference 1, because it has ‘remembered’ the reference instead of applying the one in the standing order.
This is absolutely Monzo’s fault, as from the point of view of the user, they did indeed put the right details in when setting up the payment.
Thanks for replying and adding the information that you’ve done this sort of thing yourself with no problem. That’s helpful to know.
I will say that when faced with such posts, I try to apply the principle of “Assume good faith”. With the addition of your actual experience, and a re-read of OPs post, I’m now inclined to agree with you that something’s not adding up here.
The part I noticed in the re-read: OP states “two cards with the cooperative bank” but the chat screenshot refers to Virgin Money. They’re not the same thing, are they?
That said, and again to be fair to the OP, payments handling isn’t the most graceful aspects of Monzo, so even if this is happening because OP is making an error somewhere, it could still be that Monzo design has contributed to the course of the error somehow (I once had trouble adding a reference to a Freetrade transfer, because I’d managed to go down a different payment flow than the one I normally used).
So I wanted to pay off more than the minimum, which is what direct debits are for. I set up a pot for my bills, with the credit cards both included. That way the amount was set each month and was significantly more than the minimum. Regardless of standard practice for credit cards the case still remains - you cannot use two references to pay one bank account. Something that any bog standard bank allows you to do.
What shows for me are two separate referenced payments. It is only when I go into the payments details, once made, that it shows a different reference.
But did you do these manually? As the issue I have is with the standing order defaulting back to the the first card. Monzo seem to be aware but not willing to help rectify the problem.
I have got a refund on the charges from the Co-op but this seems like a bug. I am reporting it so it can be fixed and so I can get my credit score corrected.
Thanks for your support - I have raised a complaint and, similarly to this thread, have been passed from pillar to post with a lot of confusion and misunderstanding. I am now going to go to the Ombudsman (UK) to report the mishandling of my complaint.
It is the first issue I have had really and they have handled it in such a lazy way that I am reconsidering banking with them. When you need help it is a good test of a bank and its values.
The virgin money mention confuses me as I don’t use virgin and not sure why they mentioned it - they ignored me when I asked what they meant. The two credit cards are both with the Cooperative bank.
It does sound like Monzo’s fault, to me, now you’ve explained that you can see both references in the standing order list, but Monzo has somehow changed one of the references on making the payment. @Amy7, thank you for clarifying that you set up standing orders.
Co-op Bank removes the marks from your credit file, not Monzo. As it has already refunded you I think it’s reasonable that you ask it to do this.
The Ombudsman can order a bank to remove the marks, but it can’t in this case as your complaint is with Monzo, and only Co-op can deal with the mark, as it placed it on your record. You could, of course, raise a separate complaint with the Co-op to do this.
Moving forward, I would also set up two different direct debits with the Co-op, each to pay a fixed sum every month, both from your Monzo account but each with a different reference pointing to each card. The fixed sum is possible, and I expect the Co-op would prefer to deal with direct debits rather than standing orders as direct debits are the usual way you would pay a fixed sum every month to a credit card. You’ll then benefit from the Direct Debit Guarantee if something goes wrong again.
