Monzo has disabled my account, it's been two weeks and no updates

tomxlisa

Snowy4 said:

I would strongly advise against anyone using Monzo as their main bank/savings account. Unfortunately my husband has learnt the hard way. We still have no idea what’s going on and can’t get through to anyone by phone or email. It’s so stressful, we are going to run out of money soon and have absolutely no idea when he will have access to his account again 

Thankfully monzo has been nothing but good to
me so far in using them and I’ve had them over a year now so hopefully I don’t experience the same as some customers on here, all being well your issue resolves asap.

huw01

https://www.fintechfutures.com/bankingtech/monzo-bank-accused-of-freezing-accounts-for-no-apparent-reason-

Nasqueron

tomxlisa said:

Nasqueron said:

tomxlisa said:

Snowy4 said:

cronzo95 said:

Over the holidays my bank account suddenly stopped working. I gather I've been flagged as suspicious, the only thing that I can think that happened is I received a significant pay out (5 figures) when my employment ended with work.

I totally understand that they have rules they need to follow so can't / won't say anything. But I had lots of unsued bank accounts a while ago and closed them all to put my money in one place which I'm now really regretting. I have bills and tax to pay and have had to borrow money to buy food. It's really not making me feel good that I can't access my own money.

Yes I was foolish to put it all in one company that's just online and not have some cash at home. But they can't tell me how long this will take, do they have any obligations at all to me as I'm struggling with no access to money.
 

Please can I ask if you got this resolved and how long it took? My husband is currently having the same issue. Monzo account frozen for 4 weeks and he doesn’t know why. He’s spent hours on the phone (promised call backs but they never happen), more hours on the webchat which is useless and countless emails unanswered. We don’t know what else to do. 

This is scary to read as I use them for my main bank account now, I’ve still got other banks but they are my main day to day account that I use mainly but reading that they have frozen accounts kinda puts me off building a large sum of money in there, by the way the user probably isn’t gonna get back to you letting you know the outcome they had as they haven’t been active since january 15th. 

Freezing accounts under AML rules is normal for all banks, you won't escape it by using a different bank. Having multiple backup accounts and spreading funds is the way forward

I’m guessing AML means (money laundering) or something like that.

Anti Money Laundering yes

Comes under the KYC (know your customer) area, tracing funds etc

Snowy4

We have also banked with them for a long time (5+ years) and up until now have had no issues. Safe to say I have now moved all my funds to another account. 

We are sending letters via post to the complaints team and legal team as they are completely ignoring emails and do not pick up the phone. Absolutely nothing suspicious has gone on with the account and we have no idea why they refuse to communicate. 

If anybody has any advice I would be hugely grateful. 

Kim_13

TheMod1 said:

Why does it always seem its the app based banks like Monzo, Revolut etc that so many people have problems with accounts being frozen.

I'm not saying that the big banks won't do the same but it seems less likely plus you have the option of going in branch. This is why I only use the big banks with physical branches as my main bank.

People are far more likely to post at the end of their tether with no money to pay for rent/mortgage/food/transport when an online bank is involved, as the obligation for the bank to provide access to salary/benefits in cash when proof of entitlement to funds is presented is removed when there is no brach to attend with such evidence. Having to transact in cash in this way is far from ideal, but better than having to beg, borrow and perhaps even steal.

Nasqueron

Snowy4 said:

We have also banked with them for a long time (5+ years) and up until now have had no issues. Safe to say I have now moved all my funds to another account. 

We are sending letters via post to the complaints team and legal team as they are completely ignoring emails and do not pick up the phone. Absolutely nothing suspicious has gone on with the account and we have no idea why they refuse to communicate. 

If anybody has any advice I would be hugely grateful. 

They are not allowed to communicate if it's an anti-money laundering or similar investigation, they err on the side of caution even when it seems ludicrous because of the tipping off rules.

Complaints when it's a legally required process won't achieve anything 

Nasqueron

TheMod1 said:

Why does it always seem its the app based banks like Monzo, Revolut etc that so many people have problems with accounts being frozen.

I'm not saying that the big banks won't do the same but it seems less likely plus you have the option of going in branch. This is why I only use the big banks with physical branches as my main bank.

They're used by scammers as they're easy to setup, so they have to be more careful now, especially after Starling took a £29m fine for not being careful enough

https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-fines-starling-bank-failings-financial-crime-systems-and-controls

Starling, Chase, Monzo and Kroo, all very easy to create accounts and easy to wash money though 

Snowy4

Nasqueron said:

Snowy4 said:

We have also banked with them for a long time (5+ years) and up until now have had no issues. Safe to say I have now moved all my funds to another account. 

We are sending letters via post to the complaints team and legal team as they are completely ignoring emails and do not pick up the phone. Absolutely nothing suspicious has gone on with the account and we have no idea why they refuse to communicate. 

If anybody has any advice I would be hugely grateful. 

They are not allowed to communicate if it's an anti-money laundering or similar investigation, they err on the side of caution even when it seems ludicrous because of the tipping off rules.

Complaints when it's a legally required process won't achieve anything 

How long do we just sit and wait for any kind of communication? Who can we go to for advice? 

gt94sss2

Nasqueron said:

TheMod1 said:

Why does it always seem its the app based banks like Monzo, Revolut etc that so many people have problems with accounts being frozen.

I'm not saying that the big banks won't do the same but it seems less likely plus you have the option of going in branch. This is why I only use the big banks with physical branches as my main bank.

They're used by scammers as they're easy to setup, so they have to be more careful now, especially after Starling took a £29m fine for not being careful enough

https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-fines-starling-bank-failings-financial-crime-systems-and-controls

Monzo got it's own fine earlier this year

https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-fines-monzo-21m-failings-financial-crime-controls