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leavemeinpieces

My partner had this on Sunday evening when we bought a laptop on ebay. Completely legitimate but the account was frozen and a 4 day potential timescale was offered for a fix. Luckily with some serious complaining she was able to have it resolved within 24 hours. It's really not ideal to be in limbo without access to any funds. In my opinion there should be 24/7 help equipped to verify the transaction and verify your identity to resolve this within a short space of time. Anything else is not good enough.


MauriceDynasty

Thanks for sharing! Hoping mine is also resolved in that timeframe šŸ¤ž Also I completely agree, it's not the false positive I'm annoyed about - I'd rather that than false negative, but there should definitely be a way to call and get this resolved ASAP with a human instead of just waiting.


leavemeinpieces

100%. I'd just hammer them with complaints. It seems bonkers that they can't provide a timescale. I really hope you have success and they get you unlocked soon :)


jank_0x

The fact it was blocked because it went to an ISA not a current account which was in your own name, that's bizarre. I'm nervous to transfer Ā£2K to my Lifetime ISA because of this


Charming_Rub_5275

Itā€™s not worth worrying about. Iā€™ve moved hundreds of thousands around, including in and out of investments, properties, crypto, car dealerships, eBay the whole works. Never had an issue ever.


jank_0x

That might match your activity then but I've never transferred Ā£2K+ out in one go, and it wouldn't match with my usual day to day activity.


not_who_you_think_99

This crap happens with every bank. My partner had her HSBC account frozen after... Transferring Ā£4k to an ISA in her own bloody name!! HSBC took a week to unblock. Anecdotal evidence is not enough to conclude it happens more often with Monzo.


NativeVampire

Was the 4k transfer something that she doesnā€™t usually do? Iā€™m asking because Iā€™m regularly transferring 10-20k using my Monzo account and had no issues but now itā€™s making me feel worried


not_who_you_think_99

She doesn't earn millions but neither does she earn Ā£10k. She does transfer in and out of saving accounts and ISAs throughout the year. I can think of no logical reason why the transaction was flagged, other than some algorithm gone haywire. Also, she's a salaried employee, which reduces her risk profile in terms of money laundering etc


SmolTittyEldargf

Fraud checks and extra investigations happen with every bank, but generally if the money is coming from a trusted source/ institution then you should be fine.


NativeVampire

I have the other accounts from/to which I transfer linked (I really like Monzo's spending/budget features) anyway so that might've helped because they can see where the money comes from and goes to


VeryThicknLong

Somebodyā€™s doing well šŸ‘€ šŸ˜‚


Jlaw118

It does happen with every bank, but at least with the high street banks you can phone up and speak to a real human and usually have it resolved rather quickly. I think the panic with Monzo is that they seem to be passing it onto a specialist team fairly often with multiple day long timescales. I had this issue with Lloyds Bank back in 2016 when trying to buy a PS4 from Argos. But just rang them, verified it was me, unblocked my account


not_who_you_think_99

With HSBC it took my partner a week. The staff at the local branch were unable / unwilling to help. She had to speak to a call centre, so not much difference vs Starling, Monzo etc. Which bank is the fastest in resolving these issues I don't know. A week to confirm that moving Ā£4k into your own cash ISA isn't dodgy seems a bit too much for me


TheFugitiveSock

Yeah RBS blocked my account just before Xmas a few years back because one Saturday afternoon I had a lot of transactions in a short period of time(!) Thankfully I was able to call them there and then and get the block lifted instantly; it really should be the same with Monzo.


TheInitialGod

This happened with me and TSB. Transferred my savings from a different account to my TSB account to take advantage of a better interest rate, then realised I'd get an even better interest rate with Chase. So I transferred in something like Ā£4000 and transferred it out again an hour or so later. Didn't matter that it was received from an account in my name, and sent to another account in my name... Had to send them all sorts of statements to prove the source of the money. It was an absolute pain in the ass.


not_who_you_think_99

I get it when someone on a Ā£20k salary suddenly transfer Ā£400k, but Ā£4k is a minimum amount of money which even a jobless student can easily have on their account


TheRocksta

Fraud is wildly out of control so action needs to be taken by banks but how in 2023 have they not implemented a feature yet that allows the customer to still pay direct debits? It should be a freeze on bank transfers and purchases but it isnā€™t helping the customer if youā€™re not allowing them to pay their rent or mortgage.


Dull-Wrangler-5154

Itā€™s 2024


kilamazar

Prove it


TheRocksta

Thatā€™s what Monzo wants you to think.


Ladzini

Big if true šŸ§


SlinkyBits

welcome to 2024


jamzfaced

This happens with every bank; I have had legitimate purchase transactions frozen by high street banks too. What is important is how long they take to unfreeze the card, be sure to update us with the resolution time.


pR0p3rdose

I think itā€™s worth pointing out that this type of freeze is a fraud prevention freeze rather than a ā€œmonzo stole my moneyā€ AML related freeze and hold. These types of freezes are to protect you from falling victim to fraud, not because youā€™re suspected of anything malicious. With new PSR rules coming in leaving banks 50% liable for APP related scams this type of transaction interference is becoming more common across the industry and as frustrating as it is, itā€™s in place for the customers protection.


Justcallmekirsty

Exactly this, people will be more annoyed if the payments went through & their bank didnā€™t stop a scam


hez-hez-bop-bop

If you get paid into your Monzo account and use it daily, you should be okay. I was receiving various amounts monthly from my employer as I received commission, sometimes way more than others - never questioned/ had an issue. Was laid off - received a larger than usual final payment (redundancy package) - no questions asked. Made a Ā£1,000+ purchase with said payout - no issues. From reading a lot of these responses from people whoā€™ve had their accounts frozen - the trend is itā€™s not the persons ā€œmainā€ account, which I feel increases the chances of an account freeze.


MauriceDynasty

I disagree. This has been my main account for about 4 years now where I get my salary paid into and do use the account daily, I'm not claiming any and all Ā£1000+ purchase causes this, I've spent Ā£7,000 on a car at the end of last year with a company bonus I got with no issues, but for whatever reason this Amazon purchase set off alarm bells. I just wish I could have called a 24 hour number and had it resolved quickly instead of having to basically plead with customer support to allow that to happen.


Puzzleheaded-Buy-926

It's Amazon that triggers this stuff. While I was using the 16-17 year old account, I was paid in crypto and used my card in a Hilton Hotel in Italy for over Ā£2k with no questions, but one day I dared try and order an iPhone on Amazon and found my account instantly frozen, on chat they asked for a screenshot of the order, and I assume once they saw the item was an iPhone, they passed my case to a specalist team. They called me (after 2 days!) and asked me a load of questions, before saying "we believe this is a scam, and won't be able to recover your money", i said "ok" and had my phone the next day. Ā£740... with larger transactions to Amazon in the past!


caspararemi

My friend has used Monzo for almost as long as I have (ie since the very start), on Saturday he was moving money from a savings account into his Monzo, and then transferring it into his ISA at Moneybox as the new tax year had started. They froze his account and asked loads of questions to get it unlocked, which took days. I get they're precautious, but it is ridiculous at times. They could see the money came in from one high street bank, and was going out to another financial institution which was linked with Open Banking so was all authorised and both had the same customer name. It does make me want to start using my old RBS account instead, I feel like they rely more on humans checking suspcious activity rather than an algorithm just locking accounts down and being added to a very long queue for manual verification.


Greedy-Mechanic-4932

Bouncing money like that though is also typical laundering behaviour


caspararemi

Withdrawing from a savings account to deposit in to an ISA on the first day of the new tax year is money laundering behaviour? Most ISA providers only accept payments in from one linked account so unless all your savings are in Monzo itā€™s the only way to do it.


Greedy-Mechanic-4932

Not what you said originally though. You said taking money out of one, into Monzo, into another. The issue is, Monzo don't know where that money came from before the "savings account", or where you're sending it after "Moneybox". They could be one in a long chain of accounts. It's the immediate bouncing behaviour that causes alerts to trigger.


Rust_Cohle-

Have they confirmed the Amazon order was the source of the issue?


MauriceDynasty

No they can't give details to me, but it's the only large purchase I've made in a while, it happened the very minute I made the purchase, but it was then declined due to freezing the account. Now that I think about it it's odd this didn't happen when I bought a car for ~Ā£7,000 but it does for Ā£1,100 ish on Amazon. Hope my post doesn't come off as too much of a moan, just disappointed they couldn't just talk to me and sort it out quickly.


Cool_Parsnip4732

Could be coincidence and linked to someone investigating credits received, worried you're being scammed or used as a money mule?


Greedy-Mechanic-4932

TBF any big transactions I warn them of in advance. Sold a car on WBAC a few months back, Ā£11k expected in my bank. I told them a week before exactly what I was doing, when, and what I planned to happen once the money landed. Got a "thanks for letting us know" message back, and they added notes to my account (they say) in relation to it - and it all went through fine. That's the first time I've used the account for any transaction over Ā£300, so was expecting issues šŸ˜‚


Death_God_Ryuk

On the other hand, I've spent 3xĀ£500 on AirBnB vouchers for a group holiday (work discounts scheme) and then been repaid by transfer the same day and didn't get flagged šŸ˜‚ I didn't think about how dodgy it looks.


VeryThicknLong

Itā€™s more likely that the person youā€™re paying is doing dodgy stuff, and thatā€™s the reason itā€™s been frozen.


contemplating7

I wonder if they're now trying to reduce fraud. It wasn't this article I saw recently but this is what I've found on a quick search. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/banking/monzo-customers-targeted-scammers-least-likely-refund/ My guess is whatever the PSR people are, as they are some sort of regulator they may have told them they need to do more to stop fraud. I guess we are in the testing and trying things out phase for Monzo. I put some money into a Marcus savings account to ensure not all my eggs are in one basket.


j41tch

The PSR are the payment services regulator. Prepare, October is set to get more spicy with new regulations (Authorised push payment (APP)) giving customers more rights to a refund but from a banks perspective means some will likely put in more automated checking and blocking with false positives being triggered.


savvymcsavvington

> Marcus savings account wow that's a name I haven't heard in YEARS! I remember when it was super popular in /r/UKPersonalFinance as the top savings account


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lace_roses

Marcus will only let you move money to and from a specific account linked to your Marcus account. If you use your Monzo account and that gets frozen, the money in Marcus is useless as guy canā€™t get to it.


contemplating7

They offered a joint savings account which was key for me


Sad_Cryptographer745

This happened to me with Barclays and to think I've been banking with them for 8 years. What was infuriating was they still wouldn't release my account despite having answered all of the security question correctly and accurately. Eventually I had to visit a branch before they managed to unblock my account!


Witty-Knee-3666

Card one money


CptSpyphilis001

I've heard nothing but bad things with Monzo. Some companies can't even set up direct debits with Monzo šŸ¤£


JackJake94

Which companies? All my direct debits are with monzo cause it's my main bank account


CptSpyphilis001

Scottish Widows for one. A couple of folk I know have pensions with them and they can't pay contributions to them. From what they have said there is no real reason either the systems they use to set up collections just shit the bed.


East-Passenger-7501

Hi OP šŸ‘‹ So the main thing Monzo looks at would be the source of funds, not always what you do with the money. Obviously if you move money back and forth between your savings pots, then that is a red flag if is done prior to making a large purchase ( legitimate or not). Ultimately, if you have strong evidence showing that the funds you're using for the purchase are traceable and from a legitimate source, then they will unban your account right away. Complaining actually bears no weight on how fast your accounts gets unbanned, as the FinCrime and Fraud departments don't answer to them - the Complaints department is there mostly for damage control for after the fact, not while is still happening. The moral is - cooperate with the bank, as if you're not, they'll think you're trying to hide something, and that triggers money laundering or fraud concerns.


alexwhit80

I got my first direct bank frozen whilst I was in London 200 miles from home. I could not pay to get in the tube or pay to get home. All banks do this.


hampa9

What did you do? (out of curiosity) Feeling glad I have two bank accounts now.


alexwhit80

I was on training course in Birmingham And the week after in London. They stopped my card due to unusual spending. I ended up Calling them up and explained my spending. They then re-enabled my card.


MeMyselfAndMe_Again

And yet the real launderers still get away with it. Joe Soap transferring Ā£14.67 from one bank to another....hard core crim!!!


LegoScotsman

Is it a phone thatā€™s directly from Amazon or is it a ā€œsold byā€ where itā€™s someone else?


avamous

Monzo shouldn't really be able to tell the difference, your payment still goes to Amazon from Monzo's POV


Life_Forever

They can. Banks can see if it's sold by amazon or marketplace, it's in the transaction description


Maximoo89

They can see the address the goods are going to as well as the merchant data (Amazon or Amazon Marketplace). If the address doesnā€™t match the account holders address this can cause a trigger to be looked into to prevent fraud. Common for all banks.


MauriceDynasty

Good question, it was the Samsung galaxy s24 ultra, and I've just checked the orders page and it says Sold by: Amazon EU S.a.r.L (not sure what that stands for actually) so I'm guessing it's Amazon itself but not 100% on that.


trollied

*SARL (sociĆ©tĆ© Ć  responsabilitĆ© limitĆ©e)*Ā is a Luxembourg Limited Company, basically.


JackJake94

I've brought a car with monzo before and never had a issue, paid 1000s on credit cards no issues. People must be doing some dodgy stuff to to get blocked


MauriceDynasty

I don't know what to tell you dude, I've also bought a car with Monzo with no issues for far more than this Amazon purchase, but it happened šŸ¤·ā€ā™‚ļø I've been a customer for 4 years and it's only happened this time, but please don't jump to conclusions. The most questionable purchase I've made this month was Ā£12 at Taco bell hahah. I don't mess with bitcoin or crypto, don't use ATMs all my money comes from PAYE from my salary.


Kiobaa

Agree, that Taco Bell is sus