Advantages of Holding a Traditional "Mainstream" Bank Over Mobile Current Account Providers

peachyprice

Takmon wrote: »

But getting instant notifications should be the standard anyway because it also instantly updates your balance which is good for people on a tight budget and people can react quicker to any fraudulent transactions on their account.

Instant notifications on my Amex certainly saved me from fraudulent activity last month. I don't know why every bank doesn't do it, the technology exists, I can see no reasonable justification not to.

Imagine all those 'duplicate' contactless transactions people speak of, you know, the ones where they swear their contactless card took payment when they were just standing next to the terminal :whistle: an instant notification would solve that problem immediately, while you're there in the store.

JuicyJesus

peachyprice wrote: »

A Monzo staatement is exactly the same as any other bank's statement that you export from the app as a pdf, there's no reason whatsoever that they wouldn't be accepted.

Please see my other posts on this thread. I'm a bit bored of making the same points repeatedly and then having them ignored.

If you can't be bothered to read those - the basic argument is that the Home Office are t*sspots who I don't trust.

Instant notifications on my Amex certainly saved me from fraudulent activity last month. I don't know why every bank doesn't do it, the technology exists, I can see no reasonable justification not to.

Two reasons:

1. Most banks are running on extremely old systems that aren't geared up for such things but also underpin lots of very crucial transactions for millions of people such that any change is quite dangerous (c.f. RBS/NatWest in 2012). Amex, not so much.

2. Monzo, Starling and indeed Amex's handling of transactions (treating pending transactions as actual charges for the purposes of reporting them to the cardholder earlier) is arguably wrong and leads to confusion. There are threads about it on this forum, even. Scale that up to the millions of people who use a bank like Lloyds or Barclays, whose customer base is likely to be a lot less tech-savvy than that of Monzo or Starling, and that's a lot more customer service contact with a lot more confused people.

d123

JuicyJesus wrote: »

Please see my other posts on this thread. I'm a bit bored of making the same points repeatedly and then having them ignored.

If you can't be bothered to read those - the basic argument is that the Home Office are t*sspots who I don't trust.

So the basic argument is that it’s just your opinion that has no actual basis in fact?

JuicyJesus

d123 wrote: »

So the basic argument is that it’s just your opinion that has no actual basis in fact?

If that's how you want to see it, sure, but I can assure you that expecting the Home Office to look for even the slightest reason to turn down a visa application is a perfectly rational activity, and anyone who has had to deal with them will understand precisely why.

Not sure why it matters anyway. I'll stick with my brick and mortar bank and my paper statements and other people can chance their arm with Monzo's printer paper and weird round stamp.

System

JuicyJesus wrote: »

If that's how you want to see it, sure, but I can assure you that expecting the Home Office to look for even the slightest reason to turn down a visa application is a perfectly rational activity, and anyone who has had to deal with them will understand precisely why.

Not sure why it matters anyway. I'll stick with my brick and mortar bank and my paper statements and other people can chance their arm with Monzo's printer paper and weird round stamp.

My friend is currently going through a spousal visa for her DH.

The HO seems to confuse even professional immigration solicitors with their unilateral rule changes and idiosyncrasies.

peachyprice wrote: »

Instant notifications on my Amex certainly saved me from fraudulent activity last month. I don't know why every bank doesn't do it, the technology exists, I can see no reasonable justification not to.

Imagine all those 'duplicate' contactless transactions people speak of, you know, the ones where they swear their contactless card took payment when they were just standing next to the terminal :whistle: an instant notification would solve that problem immediately, while you're there in the store.

You mean saved Amex as it was their money not yours.
Duplicate contactless payments aren't a big issue either.

JuicyJesus

Heng_Leng wrote: »

My friend is currently going through a spousal visa for her DH.

The HO seems to confuse even professional immigration solicitors with their unilateral rule changes and idiosyncrasies.

Exactly. The decision you get can vary from caseworker to caseworker based on guidance that changes from time to time with little announcement or fanfare, and you get no updates on your application (which can take eight weeks or more) until you get the decision letter in the post, and at that point your relationship is dependent upon some overworked civil servant somewhere who's actively looking for an excuse to refuse applications. It's hell.

I don't think the people here arguing with me have had that experience. If they had, they'd not be going on about how Monzo is a real bank and that means I'm being silly, they'd understand totally where I'm coming from. Can't blame them too much; it's one of those things you don't know unless you have a reason to.

peachyprice

Heng_Leng wrote: »

My friend is currently going through a spousal visa for her DH.

The HO seems to confuse even professional immigration solicitors with their unilateral rule changes and idiosyncrasies.



You mean saved Amex as it was their money not yours.
Duplicate contactless payments aren't a big issue either.

I don't think I said it saved me money did I, I said it saved me from a fraudulent transaction.

The money isn't the issue, it's someone gaining access to £1000's of credit in my name and the headache of me having to sort it out. As it was the transaction was stopped immediately. I really can't see an argument against that, other than disagreeing for the sake of it.

peachyprice

JuicyJesus wrote: »

2. Monzo, Starling and indeed Amex's handling of transactions (treating pending transactions as actual charges for the purposes of reporting them to the cardholder earlier) is arguably wrong and leads to confusion. There are threads about it on this forum, even. Scale that up to the millions of people who use a bank like Lloyds or Barclays, whose customer base is likely to be a lot less tech-savvy than that of Monzo or Starling, and that's a lot more customer service contact with a lot more confused people.

I find quite the opposite, I know exactly what I've spent where rather than just seeing my balance go down and having to wait up to 3 days for transactions to appear on my account. No confusion there at all, all as clear as day, unlike other banks.

JuicyJesus

peachyprice wrote: »

I find quite the opposite, I know exactly what I've spent where rather than just seeing my balance go down and having to wait up to 3 days for transactions to appear on my account. No confusion there at all, all as clear as day, unlike other banks.

It's clearly not clear as day because you don't seem to have understood what I've said.

You're not seeing the transactions any earlier, you're seeing authorisations. These can change or be reversed at any time, or be for different amounts than whatever transaction eventually gets posted on your account. This can lead to confusion - it works absolutely fine day to day, until it doesn't.

jonnygee2

Exactly. The decision you get can vary from caseworker to caseworker based on guidance that changes from time to time with little announcement or fanfare, and you get no updates on your application (which can take eight weeks or more) until you get the decision letter in the post, and at that point your relationship is dependent upon some overworked civil servant somewhere who's actively looking for an excuse to refuse applications. It's hell.

I don't think the people here arguing with me have had that experience. If they had, they'd not be going on about how Monzo is a real bank and that means I'm being silly, they'd understand totally where I'm coming from.

Well you are wrong. My partner and I have been through two visa applications, an IDL application and citizenship. And I had no hesitation in sending in Monzo statements because there is no difference between a Monzo statement and any other statement.

If you don't want to fine, but if you did it would make no difference to your application success chances.It's just you being fussy and nothing to do with Monzo or the Home Office.