Monzo Updates App So Customers Can See Contacts Using Bank

Banking firm Monzo announced Monday (Nov. 14) it rolled out an update to the Monzo iOS app to enhance the speed and ease of making payments.

In a press release, Monzo said that, once users enable payments in the new Contacts tab on the app, they can instantly see which friends already have Monzo and invite those who don’t to join and get a Monzo card. Friends don’t show up as being on Monzo until they enable payments, noted the company. With more than 70,000 people using Monzo cards, the company said it’s more likely than before that customers know someone that uses Monzo, but they didn’t have a way to find out. That is until Monday when the updated app was rolled out.

With the new app, customers are also “subtly” notified within Contacts when a contact joins Monzo and enables payments. Monzo said the feature is kept private. Any personally identifiable information about contacts isn’t sent to the company’s servers until a customer sends money. The payment feature is coming to Android devices “very soon,” Monzo said in the press release.

The company also enhanced security, enabling ATM users to be more protected when they withdraw money. “In the U.K., almost all ATMs use chip-and-PIN to validate your identity when you try to withdraw money. However, that’s not always the case elsewhere around the globe, and in many countries, ATMs use the magnetic stripe on the back of your card to dispense cash,” said the company in the release. “Up to now, we’ve disabled magstripe ATM withdrawals to protect against the increased fraud risk that these ATMs bring, but from today, it is now possible to temporarily turn on magstripe ATM withdrawals for 24 hours. You can access the setting from your Profile or from a transaction that’s been declined by a magstripe ATM.”