Monzo is one of the leading challenger banks in the UK, offering a vast range of convenient financial solutions that keep up with the fast-moving fiscal world.
What sets Monzo and most of the other challenger banks is they operate wholly online, providing banking services round the clock, which is vital for businesses operating in multiple countries and different timezones.
This online bank offers two business accounts to its customers. The basic account is Monzo Lite and Monzo Pro, which acts as a single-stop for all your business needs. Although Monzo prides itself in having a simple set of requirements to open a business account with them, it’s not always that a business account is approved by the bank.
The basic requirements to open a business bank account with Monzo are that you must be 18 years or over, a resident taxpayer in the UK and a director of a limited company, or a registered sole trader to open a Monzo business account.
But even if you meet this criterion, there’s still a good chance your request for a business bank account will be rejected by Monzo. If you find yourself in this situation, what should you do?
Why Your Monzo Business Bank Account Might be Rejected by Monzo
There’s no apparent reason why Monzo might reject your business bank account. However, there are some high-risk industries where businesses have a higher chance of their business account applications being rejected. These sectors include the following;
- Auctioneering
- Gambling
- Insurance
- Adult entertainment and services and dating sites
- Estate management and probate services
- Financial services, including currency exchange
- Food stands or trucks
- Used car sales
- Pharmaceuticals
- Telecommunications
- Jewellery and precious stones
- Tattoo parlours and nail salons
- Weapons and defence
- Unlicensed waste removal and trade, including scrap metal
Businesses in this sector often have their business account requests rejected by Monzo. Although Monzo doesn’t give reasons for declining the application, this may be because these businesses are considered high risk because of the high chances of fraudulent chargebacks or because of their sensitivity to national safety.
Some other reasons your business account request might be rejected not by Monzo alone but by other online banks are if you or your business have adverse or poor credit, the company is not registered in the UK, or there are registration issues or if the directors of the company are based overseas.
Each online bank has its set of criteria and guidelines that set out the conditions businesses must meet for their account to be approved.
What to Do If Monzo Rejects Your Business Account Request
Monzo is said to have a straightforward business account process. However, they have stringent and opaque processes. Most businesses that have their accounts rejected never learn why they were rejected and are often locked out of attempting to reopen the account.
Knowing why the account was declined is vital and can help you know what you need to fix, but in most cases, Monzo support becomes non-responsive after delivering the rejection message.
Try the appeals process
Businesses that have had their account rejected have tried going through the appeals process by emailing or contacting customer support and the review department. Still, most have reported little to no help with the appeals process, with those who only get a resounding “No!” without further explanations.
It’s a frustrating experience for businesses that rely on the account to access financial services that are the lifeline of their businesses. While you might be tempted to press on to find out why your application was rejected, those who have tried have not been successful.
Find Alternative Business Accounts
The good news is that Monzo is not the only challenger bank that offers online business accounts with unique features. Most people rejected by Monzo have proceeded to send applications to open business accounts with other online banks using the same documents and information and got approved by those banks.
One such option is Pay iO, a highly rated online challenger bank in the UK offering businesses an extensive range of business account solutions. It has a higher acceptance rate than Monzo.
Why Pay iO Business Accounts?
One of the reasons many businesses try to get a Monzo business account is because of the convenience and flexibility it offers the business. Monzo has numerous features that make it a leading challenger bank in the UK.
Unfortunately, most business owners are not aware that there are other equally competitive challenger banks with more enticing features for their clients and are highly reputable. Pay it is one of those alternatives.
Reputation
One of the reasons why you should consider Pay iO as an excellent alternative to Monzo when opening a business account is its reputation. In the financial world, reputation and trustworthiness are everything and Pay iO is highly rated by its customers across multiple third-party review websites. The bank has garnered thousands of positive reviews to show its convenience and efficiency in delivering excellent experiences to its business customers.
Multiple features
Pay iO offers a wide range of exciting financial features that businesses can take advantage of to make receiving and making payments easy and instant.
From handy features like mobile and web access that allow the business owner to access their account easily on various devices no matter where they are to multi-currency accounts that make it easy for your business to receive and make global payments, Pay iO has everything your business needs to thrive and grow.
The online bank has features tailored for small businesses, like getting payments directly from your customers and allowing business owners to manage transactions and places from one place without locking out multinationals that get handy features like convenient account management and competitive foreign exchange rates that reduce administrative time and effort.
Pay iO has invested equal effort in providing security and safety for businesses through revolutionary features like end-to-end encryption and 2-step factor authentication to ensure your funds and customer data are safe.
Final Thoughts
Clearly, there are alternatives to Monzo Business accounts that can get the job done and offer a comparable, if not better, experience. If you’ve tried opening a business account on Monzo and got declined, you should consider trying the same with Pay iO. Your experience might be different.
