When security works against you - bad times :(

I used to love that Monzo had no passwords to log in - it was just a simple email link and felt much more secure because of it… until it didn’t work.

I should start by saying that my email address is in a valid format but one that some companies have issues with because they are over zealous on the formatting validation. It’s in the form of a@bbbb.ccccc . I have a back up one for companies that do. Monzo have never had a problem with it and I have received the log in emails to that address before with no issues, the last time was in October, I do reset my phone a lot and have never had issue before.

My phone has had to go in for repair a few times so I needed to reinstall the app. I put in my email, waited for the link and nothing happened. I tried again a few times, nothing, so I clicked on the ‘didn’t receive the email button’ followed the steps there and contacted Monzo from that email address as instructed.

I didn’t hear from Monzo for about a week so I reinstalled the app and tried again a few times & tried via to log in via the emergency web portal - nothing. My email was working, I was receiving other mails, I could send myself a test message. Still no log in email. I tried migrating my email from GSuite to Office 365 temporarily in case there was an issue there (I was getting desperate so wanted to rule everything out my end). Still no mail.

Thinking that i may not have heard from support because all of Monzo were having issues emailing that address I then emailed Monzo from a different email address, explaining the situation. A day or so passed and I hadn’t heard from Monzo and it was getting towards the end of the month. I had bills to pay, my salary was due to go into my Mozo account & I had money to move so really needed access. At that point I felt my only option was to do a current account switch and move everything to my starling account so that I didn’t miss payments. So that’s what I did. I didn’t want to but I didn’t want to miss a mortgage payment more.:cry:

A day later Monzo email me on the 2nd address I mailed them on, apologised for the delay and said they were working on response times. I replied explaining that I moved account as I needed access but would love to be able to log into the app so that I could look at getting an account re-opened. Monzo asked to confirm my mobile number and original email, which I did and they then said a specialist was looking at the issue and would get back to me. That was 5 days ago. I know I’m probably being a bit impatient on that part but the whole thing has been going on for almost a month now.:sob:

I would REALLY like a Monzo account back & only closed it because of a technical issue I assume is their end. I even tried opening another one with a different email address (I probably shouldn’t have). It obviously said no as I have my original login, but the email address I used is an alias on the same domain of the one I had originally and I got the login mail for that 2nd account.

Anyway, I just wanted to post as a heads up to anyone else who perhaps has a weird email address like me, if that is indeed the issue but if anyone here has any advice on what could have gone wrong or how I could get an account back quickly that would be great. Managing with just one is taking quite a bit of getting used to.:grinning:

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Why do companies not accept it, do they think it’s just a spam email?
Let us know what the specialist say.

Some companies don’t like the email because there is only one letter before the @, others because the last part has more than 3 letters. It’s less common for it to be an issue now than it was a year or so ago, but occasionally it’s still an issue.

I’ll update if I hear anything more from Monzo. :blush:

If this is your e-mail address format and the domain (@bbbb.ccccc) has been provided from a registered Domain/Email provider (and probably also acknowledged by ICANN) then there shouldn’t be any issues at all with validity.

But if MX records are tampered with or incorrectly configured, it may create all sorts of havoc with email, especially when used with private email servers or forwarded from domains with the same domain name as the one you ‘own’ but are actually hosted on a different server.

There are also lists of domains which are flagged as questionable for whatever reason, so emails from them don’t get through to their intended recipient through no fault of the intended recipient.
While the following is not a single and exhaustive check on all available blocked domains, go here; Email Blacklist Check - IP Blacklist Check - See if your server is blacklisted and type your domain name (“bbbb.ccccc” in your example) to see if it is on a common blocked list.

TL;DR - There may be more to this, one for Monzo to directly confirm/rectify with you.

Best of luck!

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Thanks for the advice.

The domain is one I paid for. The name servers point to cloudflare for management of the DNS there.

Email is just a standard Gsuite setup, no forwarding or anything like that and I’ve checked everything is setup correctly at https://toolbox.googleapps.com/apps/checkmx/ . It doesn’t seem to flag up any issues with MX records and mxtoolbox shows MX etc as expected. Nothing shows up with regard to blacklisting either and I’m able to send and receive emails to and from other sources.

When I say some companies have issues with validation I was probably a bit unclear - its normally down to poorly written customer relations management software or a form on website that won’t recognise anything but the traditional TLDs or parts of an address that contain a single letter. If they are just sending me an email its always fine after I convince them it definitely does not end in .com.

Again, thanks for the advice - I think you are right that it’s something I’ve just got to wait for Monzo to look into more.

It’s just frustrating that I couldn’t get in to the account because of the tight but nessecary security at Monzo, where as with a more traditional login I could. I get why they have it though and the disadvantages of passwords and when it works I’m glad of it.

[edit] there of course always the chance I have been using the wrong email and will look a right Muppet, but I’m confident I haven’t.

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I’ve finished for the night now. But if you’ve not heard anything tomorrow I will look into it myself :ok_hand:

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It’s a shame there’s no way to access the in app chat support and verify with them pre-signing in to the app. There seems to be a few people that have issues getting into their account and having just an email address to go back and forth with isn’t amazing?

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Just an update… I’m still not sure what was wrong but thanks to @BethS my mobile number and old profile was removed and I could set up a new account :smiley:

@anddh - I agree, some way of accessing in app chat support for login problems would be very welcome.

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I had a near identical issue. After a few emails back and forth, the email guys managed to change the address linked to my account and allowed me to re-activate my account. It did take a little time, but all worth it in the end. Hang in there and hope all works out.

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Back in the day I had a .tv domain I used for email - the number of sites I couldn’t register with because it was considered ‘invalid’ was nuts.

Similar issues with a geographic mobile number as well. OTOH That did have the advantage that spammers never called it because they thought it was invalid…

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