Monese warning

[ncracy]

A week ago I would've laughed at the statement "Monese is a scam", but now I'm not so sure.

As their paying customer for more than a year I've had a number of transfers settled without a glitch. Up until last week when they "lost" my 2k euro payment and went undercover.

On 20th May I transfered funds from my Transferwise account to my Monese account. Used a template which I successfully used previously, so no errors on my side for sure, expected the transfer to arrive within hours (SEPA zone, business as usual).
Funds left Transferwise and never appeared on Monese. Contacted Monese support on Monday the 25th, provided transfer receipt from Transferwise and asked to check what is going on.
Have been waiting for two days already. So far no reply from Monese apart from auto-generated email acknowledging they received my inquiry.

Needless to say that I am not going to be their customer anymore even if they somehow managed to get the funds credited right now. The trust is already lost. I used to pay 15euro monthly for the premium service. Why would they alienate a paying customer?
The most reasonable answer I can think of is gross negligence, but there is another plausible one: they are desperate and have to dip into customers' funds. Their silence is especially worrying.
Shortly I'll start ringing all other bells like contacting PPS, leaving appropriate feedback on Trustpilot and finally getting to Ombudsmen if needed.

So guys, beware, even better EMIs are morphing into s**t nowadays.

 

[NicolasMaduro]

Your 2.000 EUR is obviously somewhere, and unless you sent them to a wrong account, then obviously
you will get them sooner of later.

You gave them 1,5 day to track your money, seems like the issue is rather with you and your lack of patience.

Monese is not a scam.

 

[ncracy]

I've just got the funds credited. Not quite clear what was the issue, as the support hasn't replied.

 

[AMD]

second thread within a week, what does it mean they are a scam?

 

[ncracy]

Unlikely scam. More likely, some financial/organisational issues.
There are some warning signs, like: increasingly losing money (ref. their financial statements 2018 and 2017, lost 12.4m and 7-ish m respectively) and publicly admitting they need additional funds to continue to operate like this; failure to care about their customers; having some basic IT issues (how come SEPA transfer takes a week to credit?).

This issue triggered a review of my relationship with EU-based financial services. I decided that EU with its idiotic regulations and bureaucracy is a scam and should be avoided when possible
It turns out there is almost always a better alternative somewhere in Asia. It is difficult to replace Transferwise at the moment, but I'll figure something out hopefully.

 

[JohnLocke]

This issue triggered a review of my relationship with EU-based financial services. I decided that EU with its idiotic regulations and bureaucracy is a scam and should be avoided when possible

So you say the EU is a SCAM

 

[Martin Everson]

lol...regulation is only going to get worse for EMI's in EU. There will be a lot of mergers and some going out of business.

Like I said in other threads there is no money in basic low margin EMI business. They are all operating at a loss to win business. However some EMI's like Revolut have diversified into more of an investment platform with stock trading, gold, crypto, insurance purchase etc. The writing is on the wall for a lot of those more basic EMI's.

 

[ncracy]

Agreed. Uncertain times ahead. Even Russian oligarch-backed Revolut is a bit suspicious to me.
Looks like EU is committing a financial suicide so better to diversify and get some popcorn

 

[reesek]

euro will move to blockchain

 

[Martin Everson]

Yes you really want some money outside EU before the mouse trap snaps closed. But back to Monese I don't know what there future looks like. I think their market is like Romanians and other foreigners working in UK.

 

[lonizzita]

I've just got the funds credited. Not quite clear what was the issue, as the support hasn't replied.

after how long did you receive the money?

I've been waiting for a month and they don't reply via email and chat

did you use the civic mediator?

 

[ncracy]

after how long did you receive the money?

I've been waiting for a month and they don't reply via email and chat

did you use the civic mediator?

It took them one week to credit my incoming transfer from Transferwise within SEPA zone (usually takes up to 6 hours).
Seems like it was accounting issue on their side, but they never replied, so not sure.
I didn't use any mediators (never heard of them in fact), just emailed their support. Presumably, they saw the ticket and reconciled something manually.

Your issue seems different - you got the funds frozen, getting them back can easily take several months as far as I know.
Luckily, I already escaped and closed my account. Well, they didn't reply to my closing ticket either, so it is again unclear if it is closed or not... In a week I'll just uninstall the app.

 

[isyet]

The new EU finance rules do not only force EMIs. It also forces banks. However, there are important points that we should pay attention to:

• Avoiding transfer between 2 EMI.
• Not transferring between EMI and our personal account.
• Transferring the money in EMI to the bank account of our company in a short time.

 

[JohnLocke]

The new EU finance rules do not only force EMIs. It also forces banks. However, there are important points that we should pay attention to:

• Avoiding transfer between 2 EMI.
• Not transferring between EMI and our personal account.
• Transferring the money in EMI to the bank account of our company in a short time.

This requires an explanation in order for the average joe to understand why