My son who is 15 has just tried to buy milkshakes from the bar in the resort we are staying in and to his embarrassment his card was declined because of the silly blocked categories for Under 16’s.
There should really be an option that either we can authorise the transaction of choose which categories are blocked for the Under 16 accounts. This setup is too restrictive so for now he will go back to using his Nationwide account.
It’s because it’s a bar, meant for 18+ therefore the MCC attached to it is blocked, the same way gambling is.
It wouldn’t be responsible of Monzo to allow under 16s to spend in pubs and bars.
But it also serves milkshakes, ice creams, lunch and snacks. It should be up to the parent of the account rather than Monzo to decide if it’s appropriate.
This isn’t an issue with Nationwide or any other high street bank.
Different banks have different morals.
The pub/bar is classified and set by Mastercard by the type of business, and those businesses are for over 18s.
At least you’re happy with Nationwide and can use them freely.
It’s also happening at Slim Chickens, which to my knowledge do not serve alcohol. Why do merchants have wrong MCC codes? Particularly large merchants like Slim Chickens. Is it to do with fudging their MCC to try and boost auth/conversion rates
How would you feel if tomorrow you suddenly found out your son instead of buying milkshakes was instead buying alcohol? Not sugguesting he would I don’t know you or your son but that’s the potential implied risk of they were to pull a nationwide and lift it. Bars and Pubs along with other restricted categories are off limits for under 18s for a reason. Letting parents police it and potentially allow their kids to break the law (again not saying that’s what’s happening here) is another thing, again these rules are in place to protect minors.
Ultimately the final blockade is the pub/bar/shop doing its proper check but this helps it not even be a possibility if a kid is using a kids card. An extra level of protection per say
It could be the overriding ownership that has it (if any) and just marks them all, or some might sell booze some not.
Unfortunately there’s not much you can do here.
I agree that this needs some way for a parent to toggle off if the parent feels this is appropriate.
My son has started going out with his friends on a weekend, so we really need to be able to rely on his card working when he needs to use it.
Similar situation he tried to buy a coke while playing snooker and card got declined.
I also noticed “off licences” are blocked. Kids will often buy sweets/crisps/drinks from off licences.
Unfortunately, despite wanting to stick with Monzo, and despite appreciating Monzos efforts to protect children, this is a deal breaker for us (as it will be for other families too). Knowing that his card just might decide to decline because a merchant code might be setup incorrectly or when he is innocently buying something from a point of sale classed as a bar/pub is enough to make him not want to use his card.
Please allow a way for parents to disable this block, until then we will have to open an account elsewhere.
Just had the same issue and found this forum post searching for an answer.
My son is away on a school trip in Madrid and we sent him with some cash but most of the money is on his card as we thought that would be better.
So far it’s been decline in a cafe (just a coffee shop, no alcohol served) and now at a Burger King.
Obviously it is a common issue for places to be mis-categoried so having the option for the parent to turn it on and off by category would make a lot more sense.
Very disappointed by the lack of flexibility with this.
Hopefully someone at Monzo will take note and a change can be made.
If you reply directly to this engineer in the thread hopefully it’ll be looked into.
@AlanDoe Could this feedback be merged to the appropriate thread?