So I had the horrible experience of inserting my Monzo card into an ATM and watching it give me a Windows XP shut down prompt whilst simultaneously charging me and eating my card.
Its the early hours of the morning and while I’m lucky enough to bank with a bank that offers 24/7 service this is the first time I’ve used Monzo’s customer service. I sent a message and expected to wait until business hours the next day to receive a response.
No, 3 minutes later I am contacted by the wonderful @francesco. Unlike my regular bank (which is exceptionally good for a bank as it does offer 24/7 support and is the sole reason I chose them) there were no security questions, I spoke to someone who understood my issue, even before I said it he knew that the card was what I really lamented, a tiny bit of plastic that is replaceable but gave me a story to tell (it was an alpha card).
I know you say you have Fast and friendly support, but I think this is your main selling point. Before that when I told anyone what you do it was always Monzo is the card to travel with because of your interbank exchange rates and instant conversion on my phone into my home currency. Or that if you lose your card you can just freeze it and when you find it in the fridge later that day you don’t have to wait a week for your replacement and feel sheepish.
You have no idea how many of my friends hate their bank purely because of sluggish service, I have been touting First Direct to them all because its the best so far and that’s all they really care about. It’s a place to plop your money, interest rates are so low that they are irrelevant to anyone who understands opportunity cost. All most people I know want is to know that when they do have an issue, a payment doesn’t go through then they can sort it out with ease.
I’m so surprised that I’ve used Monzo since Alpha, I’ve invested twice but I never knew that you had 24/7 human customer service.
Just last week my girlfriend really lost her shit (she’s normally very patient) with her bank when she lost her card phoned them to cancel it and after going through numerous security checks they lost connection and asked her to do it all again. I understand the need for security checks before sending a payment but totally understood her anger that they wouldn’t cancel her card without going through security again. Something that is totally unnecessary yet likely not the customer service representatives fault because they have strict rules to follow.
I hope we can keep this up in the switch to current accounts and I understand that yes it will probably require some additional security to meet regulations, but it was the first time speaking to a bank and feeling like I was just chatting to a human.
Also chat is so much more secure I feel like I can do it on the bus or the train and not worry about the fact that anyone in earshot clearly knows I’m speaking to my bank and providing my security questions.
