Monzo charged unexplained £150 for debit account switch

Friendly87

Hi your advice is appreciated ?

I had a monzo account and I switch that to NatWest. 

There is an unexplained £150 charge at the end of the transfer by monzo. Im very appalled by this.  

I called monzo,  trying to discuss this matter. It’s more than hour on hold. no answer.

I contacted Monzo by email, as failing a few phone calls. Monzo are asking me to send a selfie holding an ID. i find it very odd and not wiiling to do that.

1. Is it normal practice ask this kind of identification?

2. im planning to report this to the financial ombudsman, i know it takes 8 weeks. it it the right approch or could you please advice?

best wishes

flaneurs_lobster

It's the method of ID I was asked for when re-activating a closed Monzo account, so yes, normal for Monzo. 

eskbanker

Friendly87 said:

2. im planning to report this to the financial ombudsman, i know it takes 8 weeks. it it the right approch or could you please advice?

Depends what you mean by 'it takes 8 weeks' - you need to log a formal complaint with Monzo first, and then if you don't receive a satisfactory response from them within eight weeks you can escalate to the ombudsman, but it'll take months after that....

flaneurs_lobster

Online chat was my method of contacting Monzo, still available in the app even after account closed. Still going to need that ID.

Friendly87

flaneurs_lobster said:

Online chat was my method of contacting Monzo, still available in the app even after account closed. Still going to need that ID.

Monzo closed my account. do i have to login using old login credentials, in order to use the chat option ?

flaneurs_lobster

Friendly87 said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

Online chat was my method of contacting Monzo, still available in the app even after account closed. Still going to need that ID.

Monzo closed my account. do i have to login using old login credentials, in order to use the chat option ?

Not sure, my (second) Monzo account is now closed but the (never deleted) app still gives me access to chat, via the help button, without any login/fingerprint screen. No other details in app at all.

Band7

There's a phone number and an email address for complaints.

TheBanker

Friendly87 said:

Hi your advice is appreciated ?

I had a monzo account and I switch that to NatWest. 

There is an unexplained £150 charge at the end of the transfer by monzo. Im very appalled by this.  

I called monzo,  trying to discuss this matter. It’s more than hour on hold. no answer.

I contacted Monzo by email, as failing a few phone calls. Monzo are asking me to send a selfie holding an ID. i find it very odd and not wiiling to do that.

1. Is it normal practice ask this kind of identification?

2. im planning to report this to the financial ombudsman, i know it takes 8 weeks. it it the right approch or could you please advice?

best wishes

Is there any narrative or description against the £150 charge? What type of payment is it (e.g. a card payment?)

Maybe someone will recognise it and save you having to make a complaint.

If you do make a complaint, it needs to be about the £150 charge. If you complain about being asked for ID, the FOS will likely reject the complaint on the basis that the bank is required by law and regulation to confirm the identity of customers, and it is a commercial decision how they do that. 

pridehappy

That’s extremely frustrating and I’m not sure why Monzo would do such thing.

In terms of the ID, I’m not a Monzo customer so can’t confirm but taking advice from other forumites here I believe it does sound like a legitimate method of ID, albeit less professional and technologically advanced than others.

Regarding the £150 payment, if you still have access to online statements, check and see if they listed a reason why. Have you made sure there’s nothing else which is meant to come out of your account that you’ve forgotten about?

Don’t worry, you’re legally protected so ensure to submit a complaint to Monzo (don’t mention ID) and explain, if they don’t help, take it to the ombudsman or FCA. Depending on the result from that, if all else fails, contact a legal advisor about a small claims court case?