I have always been able to get a reasonable sized overdraft from my bank. I’ve got a £2,000 overdraft front Starling. I rarely use much more than £500 of it and broadly speaking only go into it now when months tend to get busy with family stuff. My credit rating is high (good high!) and my salary is pretty sufficient on a monthly basis.
And yet… my Monzo overdraft is maxxed out at £100. I know people who have £1000 overdrafts with Monzo. When I ask help they give me the general answer they are being ‘cautious’ about overdrafts. However, this provides me with zero information as to why every other major bank and competitor challenger bank offers me a reasonable sized overdraft apart from Monzo?
Apologies for the venting, but it’s the one thing stopping me from pulling my salary into Monzo and I can never get any answer as to why. My main bank is Starling now and whilst I like the Bank, I think the Monzo app and features edge it out in terms of functionality and design. But right now it feels like Starling offer more banking related offerings like overdrafts, where Monzo offers a more Style.
Anyone else have any issues getting or expanding an overdraft at Monzo?
It’s a blessing in disguise for me. I’ve always lived in an overdraft and paid many thousands in fees.
Monzo offered me £0 overdraft and I have learned to create my own overdraft by making a pot with a couple of grand in it that I can use when I’m short, and instead of paying through the teeth for the facility I’m earning interest.
I know this doesn’t answer why Monzo are so tight on overdrafts but I just thought I’d share one way of making this work out to your benefit.
We can only speculate as they aren’t going to make the criteria public
Possibly its the amount of credit you already have available instead of credit utilisation as other banks assess on?
There was a report the other day saying new banks weren’t properly assessing risk so i think the conservative policy Monzo has is probably wise for them as a business (although annoying for you as a customer)
Thanks for the idea - it’s a good one! I might think about it. I guess the only issue would be if some unforeseen charge hit the account and it hit zero, with no overdraft option everything else would bounce - ie you would have to know when your account is near its limit to transfer form the buffer pot. It just annoys me not knowing why too lol! But I like the idea it’s a workaround! Or just build up a buffer in the account anyway
you get a notification the day before direct debits are due out so you can transfer money to cover and you can manually retry them (until 2pm that day i think) if you’ve forgotten to move money
I guess my expectations are pretty high,
perhaps unreasonably so and sometimes due to their growth and ambition I forget how new the bank still is. I still remember going to their HQ to pick up my Current Account card when it was in beta, and that ain’t that long ago really!
Haha! No I’d like style and substance. I’m greedy haha
2 Likes
tbutz
(🏳️🌈 Producer of "low value commentary")
10
Maybe I’m on the wrong track, but if you have a £2,000 overdraft with Starling, why would Monzo – who want to be responsible with their lending – give you yet more of an overdraft? That doesn’t sound responsible to me, and I would imagine any other bank would be wary of handing out massive overdrafts when such a facility already exists elsewhere.
Perhaps if your Starling overdraft was lower then Monzo would be more inclined to offer you a larger overdraft facility…?
General point on this. Santander took my £100 overdraft away. I presume because I had a Monzo and Starling one. Nothing else had really changed in my financial picture and my credit score has only improved.
Criteria is never straightforward imo, though I’m not in lending and don’t know specifics.
I have over £20,000 of unused credit (I do plan to trim this down in a few weeks). I’ve had an unused £2,000 overdraft at RBS for the last 3 years. I also had a £500 overdraft with First Direct (since closed) when I was offered a Monzo overdraft.
I now have an unused £1,000 Monzo overdraft (mainly if I have payday issues all my bills will go out while I sort it) and recently took out a £1,000 loan with Monzo which I’ve overpaid down to £500. While I did all that in Monzo, I still have the £2,000 RBS overdraft because I haven’t closed that account yet as I pay cash for free into it.
There is no point trying to guess Monzo’s lending criteria as it could be anything. I have a long good credit history. I’ve been on the electoral roll for the same place for the last 9 years. My oldest credit card is 10 years old and I’ve always paid it on time.
Similar position to Chapuys, but no loans and homeowner with no mortgage, and my “main” bank (first direct) has provided a £1k limit since day 1 (30+ years ago).
Monzo overdraft limit is £0 and they won*t budge on that.
Having a decent overdraft limit available is more of a comfort thing than an often used necessity, BUT I’m sorry to say that it’s the one thing that stops me from going full Monzo.
Thanks for all the thoughts and opinions. So to clarify, I don’t have hundreds of overdrafts with old banks - most are closed and or taken off due to lack of use. It’s more of a comfort thing - the access to the overdraft in the event of an emergency. And I wouldn’t want to close my Starling overdraft until I had one with Monzo, at which point I could then close it off.
I get it is a good thing they are a responsible lender and as a challenger bank with 3m customers it might not even be financially possible to offer a £1000 overdraft to them all. It’s just really frustrating not knowing why as well - ie is it me? Is it them? Will I be able to increase it in future?
I suppose the only thing that you could say to that is it is unlikely not to be a specific thing with you as you have an overdraft with Starling and therefore are less likely to be a credit risk.
However, banks aren’t obliged to lend any money to anyone, even if the risk is minute. I think in general it appears to be more Monzo erring on the side of caution with their lending - if they threw all their money out at once and then fell short it’d be pretty dire.
It may be with increased CA account usage you’ll see the cap increase. Out of interest how do you currently use your Monzo account? If it is just for discretionary spend (few £s here and there) this may impact the decision made.
Worth adding that when you have an overdraft facility with a bank, this means they have to hold capital against part of that overdraft. This applies even if the overdraft facility is mostly unused. This is why a few years ago, many of the legacy banks were anxious to reduce any unused overdraft facility that customers held.
I’m sure this isn’t the reason Monzo haven’t offered you a larger overdraft, but worth bearing in mind.
Utilising the features that Monzo have I don’t see the need for an overdraft but I guess that people won’t be aware of how good they are if they’re not full Monzo.
For comfort or emergencies it’s not a good idea to be reliant on overdrafts either. There are far better options available for borrowing or just a simple change in habit to have some savings will be far more beneficial.
Use a roundup pot or the penny savings challenge and you’ll be surprised how easy it is to accumulate some savings that you can even make money off in interest too! Stick it in a locked pot and use that as an emergency fund, as you would if you needed to dip into your overdraft.
It beats paying the bank money in fees and you can increase your credit score too instead of making it worse by borrowing
I don’t have an overdraft with Monzo because of the fees (they are extortionate IMO) - but I am lucky to still have my student/graduate Santander Account with a £2,000 overdraft with no fees. When that account expires, i’ll close it down and go overdraft free.
phildawson
(Sorry, I will have to escalate this.)
22
Monzo are offering me up to £750 overdraft and no loan.
When I swapped my burner legacy to HSBC Advance to collect the switch cash they were actively trying to push a £10,000 overdraft and £20,000 credit card on me. They had actually pre-done the amounts and wanted just a signature on a the paper they shoved in front of me to proceed. I wasn’t impressed, I don’t want either so didn’t sign it.
