Monzo is introducing a new feature that allows customers to cancel a bank transfer within seconds of realising they’ve made a mistake.
The ‘undo payments’ tool gives users a window of 10 to 60 seconds to halt a transaction if they spot an error, such as sending the wrong amount or to the wrong recipient. The online bank says the feature offers a “comfort blanket”, turning “a moment of panic into relief”.
The tool could also prove crucial in preventing fraud, allowing customers to quickly react if they suddenly have second thoughts about the recipient.
Andy Sacre, Head of Payments at Monzo said: “We know it’s important to be able to send money quickly and easily – but we also know that mistakes can happen, whether that’s sending the wrong amount to someone or paying the wrong person.
“In another industry-first, we’re bringing the best of banking and technology together to solve that problem for our customers, with this simple yet powerful feature that ensures they can send money with Monzo more confidently and safely than ever before.”
Monzo customers can configure the timer, choosing between 10 seconds, 15 seconds (which is the default setting), 30 seconds, and 60 seconds.
The timer will appear on the payment confirmation screen with an option to undo the payment.
Someone can tap the “undo payment” button from there, or from the home screen or payment detail screen, before the timer runs out, the bank said.
If the button is tapped, the payment will not leave the sender’s account, and the potential recipient will be unaware that the money was nearly sent to them, Monzo added.
Research from the mobile bank found that people in the UK lose around £825 million annually due to online payment errors, which inspired the new feature. In over two-thirds of these cases, people say the mistake was caused by a typing error, such as adding an extra zero by accident.
The feature will start to be rolled out to Monzo customers from Wednesday.
