Monzo Closing Account

tomxlisa

I had this notification come up last night asking about a couple of payments which was sent from an ex friend a few months ago, asking what they was for and who sent them anyways I replied and thought nothing of it but it kept playing on my mind, today I’ve had a email from monzo informing me that my account will be closed from today and any money I have in it will be moved to another account when I give them the details, I’m guessing this so called ex friend is trying to pull a fast one and get this money back that they sent me, it was money I had lent him which he paid back to me, the thing I’m most baffled about is surely monzo would of needed hard proof that it was a scam cause you could literally do this to anyone if it’s this easy to ruin someone’s bank account, I mean it’s obvious he doesn’t have proper proof as it was a genuine payment to me, they say I can appeal it or if that doesn’t work appeal to the ombudsman, I know exactly what’s gone on here and it’s exactly what I’ve explained above, will this affect any other banks I’ve got, also I’m guessing monzo hasn’t approved his scam request as there letting me take my money back out of it and all of it, would of thought if he’d had won it would be minus the amount he’s questioning, please let me know your thoughts on this and what I can do about it as I’m losing my monzo account here for no fault of my own and I liked my monzo had it years. Thanks.

la531983

Well they will send the money to an account you nominate, and not back to him.

They must not have liked the explanation.

Section62

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6684554/monzo-closing-account

I know exactly what’s gone on here and it’s exactly what I’ve explained above

Do you have any proof of that?

There's other reasons why Monzo could have done this - for example if the ex-friend is doing something criminal or fraudulent the payments he's made could be investigated with the trail leading to you. Say the money he (re)paid you was obtained by fraud - his bank investigate his payments and inform Monzo you've been paid dodgy cash. When Monzo ask you what the payment is for and you tell them repaying a debt, they might decide that sounds dodgy enough that they simply don't want you as a customer any more.

The advice on here in similar situations is to stop thinking of the person as a friend, but as they are an ex-friend already that base is covered.

Worth trying the complaints process / FoS, but keep an open mind about why this has happened. If you assert the friend has done this as revenge without proof then it won't help your case.

tomxlisa

Unfortunately I don’t have any proof of sending him the money as it was all on whatsapp and he changed his number in july so any previous messages was deleted which is unfortunate for me, what I don’t get is surely he hasn’t got any hard evidence of this apparent scam so how has monzo closed my account purely on no evidence, will this go any further will other accounts get closed because of this, I definitely want to appeal it but I don’t have that whatsapp conversation I even wanna take it further if they don’t accept my appeal and take it to the ombudsman as I really liked my monzo account I’ve had it years so it’s proper annoyed me.

friolento

As Monzo are giving you your money back, you shouldn't stress over the reasons for the closure. Move on and don't in future send or receive money to/from mates who might be involved in dodgy business. Otherwise could find yourself without bank accounts quite quickly.

Might however be worth checking whether you now have a CIFAS third-party fraud marker.

tomxlisa

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82148937#Comment_82148937

I don’t actually think it’s that reason when we fell out he wanted the money he paid back to me which I had lent him paid back I was like no you owed me that money it’s mine, so I’m guessing he is just trying to pull a fast one and has reported the payments to me to try and get it back, I don’t think it’s anything to do with him being in anything dodgy, I’ve been his friend for 20 years or so and been lending him for the majority of that, unfortunately our friendship died and he’s trying to push the knife in and get some money back which isn’t his in the first place, unfortunately this seems way too easy to do as it seems he’s just reported the payments monzo have gone okay no worries we will close his account and give you the money back, I mean I don’t know if they have give him the money back but if it’s the case it seems way too easy to do this, you’d have thought they’d ask him for hard evidence before doing anything to my accounts, just seems way too easy to mess someone’s back up if that’s the case, they won’t even let me appeal it either, so yep I find the whole thing mental.

tomxlisa

I’ve filed a formal complaint and they are gonna get back to me within 3 days, but I can’t see this doing much good, the only people I’ve seen get accounts back are the ones with big following on say tiktok who have put them all over there socials or people who have gone to there MP and took it further without giving up, maybe I can try this if the complaint fails if I’ve got the energy to.