Getting your money back if you fall victim to APP fraud
From 7 October 2024, the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) is bringing in new reimbursement rules across the industry, to help make sure banks and other payment firms in the UK treat victims of authorised push payment fraud (or APP fraud) consistently.
What is authorised push payment fraud (or APP fraud)?
APP fraud happens when fraudsters trick you into sending them money from your bank account. It includes purchase scams, where you pay by bank transfer for something like gig tickets but they never arrive. It also includes investment scams, where fraudsters trick you into making fake investments by promising incredible returns. Or impersonation scams, where fraudsters pretend to be HMRC, your bank or another organisation you trust.
The way banks reimburse victims of APP fraud is changing, here’s what Monzo’s doing
If you bank with Monzo and have an eligible APP fraud claim, the new rules mean:
We’ll reimburse you within 5 business days, or for more complex cases this could take up to 35 business days.
We’ll reimburse you up to a maximum of £85,000.
If we reimburse you, we may not pay the first £100 of your claim. For example, for an eligible claim of £500 you'd get back £400. We’ll decide whether to apply an excess by reviewing your personal circumstances, including whether they affect your ability to protect yourself while making a payment.
We’ll be updating our Terms and Conditions to reflect these changes.
What is and isn’t covered by these new rules?
These rules apply if you have a Monzo:
Personal account (including joint accounts)
Business account where the business has annual turnover or balance sheet under €2 Million (approximately £1.7 Million) and fewer than 10 employees
The new rules also apply to charity accounts, which Monzo doesn’t currently offer.
The rules cover:
Bank transfers you made on or after 7 October 2024
Bank transfers you made with Faster Payments (FPS) or Clearing House Automated Payments (CHAPS) in the UK. This includes transfers between Monzo accounts.
Some things aren’t covered, like:
Card transactions you made online or in person
Payments you made by cash or cheque
Payments you made to international accounts (or wallets), credit unions, municipal banks and national savings banks
Payments you made to an account you control
Claims you’ve misrepresented or falsified
Claims where you’ve been grossly negligent
Fraud you reported more than 13 months after the final payment to the fraudster
Civil disputes, like if you’ve paid someone and aren’t happy with the product or service
Unlawful payments for goods or services, like if the payment was for an illegal item
Transactions you made before 7 October 2024 aren’t covered by the new rules, but you should still report fraud and we’ll investigate and assess whether we’ll reimburse you.
Unauthorised fraud (like when someone steals your card) isn’t covered by the new rules, but there are other regulations that apply. You should still report it and we’ll do everything we can to help get your money back.
How to protect yourself
At Monzo, we work hard to keep you safe and prevent fraud before it happens, with fraud warnings and industry-first security features like our tools to protect you from impersonation scams.
You also have a responsibility to keep your money safe, find out more about how to protect yourself from APP fraud.
Always report fraud as soon as you realise it’s happened, to us and the police. You should follow our advice or warnings, which might include alerts about potential fraud or how to check if a payment’s genuine. And you'll need to help us investigate your claim by sharing relevant information when we ask for it.
We'll always consider your personal circumstances and how they apply under the new rules, but if you don't carry out these steps it could impact whether we reimburse you. Whenever you report fraud we'll consider each claim on a case by case basis.
Learn how to report fraud.
How to get more support
We know being the victim of fraud can be stressful and hard to talk about. You can find more support from:
As always, if you’re unhappy with your result or any parts of the process, you can raise a complaint with us. If you are unhappy with the outcome, you can take your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).
