Best way to complain to Ombudsman about Monzo ?

eskbanker

jasonwatkins said:
If they don't want me as a customer, they don't want me but they were quite happy to have me in January and I don't believe they've made any fundamental changes to their business practice since then.

jasonwatkins said:
I'd simply like an answer why my custom was deemed good enough in January and not recently when, at least on the face of it, nothing has changed.

The change between then and now is that you opened an account with them and then closed it without using it, so you're now an ex-customer (who could be deemed to have wasted their time and money) whereas back then you were a prospective new one with a clean slate....

callum9999

jasonwatkins said:

sheramber said:

others have reported that once you close a Monzo account you cannot open another.

Thankyou.   I'd heard that you couldn't re-open another account for at least a year but if it turns out to be permanent then fair enough - at least I'll know.

TheBanker said:

jasonwatkins said:

TheBanker said:

As others have said, the Ombudsman service won't look into your complaint until you've raised it with Monzo and they've had the chance to issue a final response. Although the Ombudsman's call centre can take details and pass them onto Monzo, I wouldn't recommend this route. I used to receive this kind of complaint from the Ombudsman, and basically their letter would say 'Mr xxx is unhappy that he can't open an account', so the first thing I would have to do would be look through our records, and then I'd have to contact Mr xxx to find out what the actual complaint was. It just adds delay and the fact it has come via the Ombudsman does not result in it being treated any differently to any other complaint.

I don't think you have a valid complaint - Monzo can choose who they do business with and do not have to give a reason for declined applications. Their complaints team may choose to offer a solution such as opening an account, or providing more information, but they are not obliged to.

Once Monzo have dealt with the complaint, you can then go to the Ombudsman if you are still unhappy. My expectation would be that the ombudsman will reject the complaint. Even if the ombudsman found that you'd been treated unfairly, all they could do is award modest compensation. There are no circumstances where the Ombudsman can force a financial organisation to enter into a relationship with a specific customer. 

I'm not looking to force Monzo to allow me an account because I'm set with banking at the moment and I certainly already know that it wouldn't be possible to do that anyway.

I've asked for the complaint to be looked at by the complaints team but they're currently ignoring me so it might all go away anyway.

So what is the outcome you are seeking? Your thread title asks how to complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service, but what outcome would you like to your complaint? The FOS will ask you this question. 

I'd simply like an answer why my custom was deemed good enough in January and not recently when, at least on the face of it, nothing has changed.

If, as the other poster has mentioned, you're not allowed to open another Monzo account if you've had one and closed one then I can, and will, accept that.

What I'm not prepared to accept is an employee of this company telling me that they don't know one day to the next what may or may not happen.   They're a bank and they have Terms and Conditions of use.   While a privately owned family corner shop might get away with making up the rules on the spot, a fully licensed bank shouldn't be able to do that.

While I sympathize because you've explained why it's hard to drop things for you, it doesn't matter whether you're "prepared to accept it". That is how it works. That is how it's always worked. That is how it works at every single bank.

They do indeed have terms and conditions of use, but you're not a customer so they're irreverent. There are no "terms and conditions for guaranteed acceptance" - nor do I imagine there will ever be.

eskbanker

callum9999 said:
They do indeed have terms and conditions of use, but you're not a customer so they're irreverent.

Disrespectful Ts & Cs?  Must fish those out and have a look....

jasonwatkins

Daliah said:

jasonwatkins said:

What I'm not prepared to accept is an employee of this company telling me that they don't know one day to the next what may or may not happen. They're a bank and they have Terms and Conditions of use.

With all due respect, whether you accept it or not, they still won't know one day to the next what may or may not happen. As you are not an account holder, the T&Cs don't apply to you.

jasonwatkins said:

sheramber said:

others have reported that once you close a Monzo account you cannot open another.

Thankyou.   I'd heard that you couldn't re-open another account for at least a year but if it turns out to be permanent then fair enough - at least I'll know.

Their actual policy is documented here: https://monzo.com/help/account-and-profile/reopening-your-account

For the record, it was around 6 months before I tried re-opening the account so I'd certainly passed the 30 day deadline.

I will admit I hadn't actually seen that link, so I was interested to see what Starling Bank's policy was regarding the same thing and it's this.

We are unable to reopen an account once it's been closed. But if you would like to open a new account with a new account number, please contact us first before starting the application in-app.
Our current policy is that we can’t offer new personal accounts to previous account holders for 12 months from the date of closure or account switch.

Now with regards to the bit in bold, why can't Monzo have that ?.   If their employee had sent me a link that had stated it was clearly company policy not to offer accounts to people for 12 months from the date of account closure then I could have drawn a line under it.

All things considered, that's what I'm going to try and do.

Daliah

jasonwatkins said:

We are unable to reopen an account once it's been closed. But if you would like to open a new account with a new account number, please contact us first before starting the application in-app.
Our current policy is that we can’t offer new personal accounts to previous account holders for 12 months from the date of closure or account switch.

Now with regards to the bit in bold, why can't Monzo have that ?.

Because Monzo have a different policy to Starling, ref the link I posted earlier, incl There is no guarantee that we will be able to re-open your account when you request it. You have a choice of current accounts with at least a dozen other banks, why pursue the one that doesn't want you again?