How to check if you're owed compensation as Monzo app goes down leaving thousands without access to accounts
The mobile app for UK online bank Monzo has been reported as not working for thousands of customers, with it being down across the country.
Issues have been reported since mid-morning on Tuesday (13 August), with the first reports of Monzo being down reported on website DownDetector by 10am.
A peak 2,568 people in the UK reported Monzo as being down shortly after lunchtime.
Monzo customers complain
Some customers have reported he phone lines also down, as well as general access to their money, never mind banking.
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Taking to social media, one person said: "Please is anyone else experiencing issues with Monzo bank?"
A second posted: "Monzo, what is going on? No issues for years and now all of a sudden no can call you, access money or do any form of banking."
And a third said: "You are broken Monzo. Online payment keeps declining. A quick search on X and there are many others with issues this morning."
In a statement on X, Monzo posted: "We're sorry to hear you're having trouble, we know it's not ideal.
"We're aware of this issue, and rest assured we're currently working hard to find a solution. Thanks for bearing with us in the meantime."
Fix for Monzo
In an update from Monzo shortly before 2pm, the bank confirmed to LADbible the incident had been resolved.
A spokesperson said: "We’ve already moved all our customers back to our normal systems meaning they can use the app as normal. Because of a technical issue, for a short period of time earlier today we couldn’t process some card payments and outbound bank transfers.
"So to allow customers to continue making payments as usual, we moved to our backup systems that can process 99.9 percent of payments. Customers could make bank transfers, card payments and ATM withdrawals as normal, see their balances and transactions, freeze their cards, move money between accounts and Pots and contact us if they needed to."
Monzo was founded back in 2015, described as a 'challenger bank' to the mainstream players such as HSBC and Barclays.
As of June this year, Monzo had more than 9.3 million customers across the UK with an annual net profit of £15.3 million.
This was up on a loss of £116.3 million the previous year.
Monzo compensation rights
Monzo, like any other bank, doesn't have to automatically pay out any compensation for its service not being available for a temporary period of time.
That's different to how telecom companies work, such as when your broadband fails. But those who have suffered costs during the outage could get their cash back.
For example, if you are charged a late payment fee for a bill bouncing due to the outage, you should be within your rights to approach Monzo and get this cash back.
And if this is a credit agreement, it is worth contacting the credit broker to explain the situation so there is no mark against your file.
If you can't get the strike removed from your credit score, keep a record of it for any future credit agreements you might have to take out such as a mortgage.
Ultimately, if the situation leaves you unhappy you can complain to the free Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), which will get back to you within 15 days of raising your issue.
Topics: Money, UK News, Technology
Tom Earnshaw