Closing a Monzo, Starling or Revolut Account After a Death

An app-only bank account is different to deal with after a death for one plain reason: there is no branch to walk into, no passbook in a drawer, and often nothing at all arrives by post. To close your dad's Monzo account, or a Starling or Revolut account, you do not use the app, because you cannot get past the login. You use a dedicated bereavement team, reached through a form or an email address on the provider's website, and a specialist takes the case over from ordinary customer support.

That team will freeze the account, stop cards and payments, and in time release the balance to whoever is entitled to deal with the estate. What they need from you is proof: that the person has died, that you are who you say you are, and that you have the authority to act. Because everything is online, the hardest part is often the first step, which is simply working out that the account existed at all.

This page sets out how the bereavement teams at the digital banks work, what they will accept instead of a branch visit, and the traps that catch families when the only trace of an account is an app icon on a phone nobody can unlock.

The short answer: a form on the website, not the app

With a traditional bank you can take a death certificate into a branch and a member of staff will start the process at the counter. A digital bank has no counter. Instead, every one of the app-based providers runs a bereavement route on its website, usually a form to fill in or a dedicated email address, sometimes a phone line that puts you through to a specialist team rather than the general helpline.

You cannot do any of this inside the app. The app is locked behind the person's login, and even if you know the passcode, using their login to operate the account is not the same as being recognised as the person entitled to deal with it, and can cause problems of its own. The bereavement route exists precisely so that the family does not have to get into the app: it is a way of dealing with the bank from the outside, on paper and by email, once the login is no longer available.

Once you make contact, the account is flagged and moved to the specialist team. From that point ordinary automated messages should stop, cards are blocked, and you deal with named people who handle bereavement cases all day. The tone of these teams is generally patient; what they cannot do is skip the proof they are required to collect.

First, find the account: the clues when nothing comes by post

The whole difficulty of a digital account is that it may leave no paper trail. There is no monthly statement through the letterbox, no cheque book, no branch letter, nothing that announces the account exists. Families frequently only discover a Monzo or Revolut account weeks later, by accident, and sometimes never find out how much was in it until they go looking.

So treat finding the account as a task in its own right. The clues are usually these: a bank card in the wallet with the provider's name on it, an app icon on the phone or tablet, text messages or emails confirming payments or logins, and, most usefully, transactions on other accounts. A transfer out of a high street current account into "Monzo" or "Starling", a salary or pension that was split across accounts, or a direct debit set up in the app all point to money sitting somewhere online.

Because so much of the evidence lives on the person's phone, getting into that phone matters, and it is often locked too. That is a separate battle with its own rules, which we cover in the guide to reaching the photos and accounts on a locked iPhone and iCloud after the owner dies. The same detective work turns up other online-only holdings people forget about, from an old betting balance to a savings pot, and we look at one of those in claiming money sitting in a betting account after a death.

Do not log into the app or keep the card working

When a family finds the login details, the temptation is obvious: get in, see the balance, move the money somewhere safe, cancel the subscriptions. It is understandable and it is a mistake. The moment a bank is told of a death it freezes the account, and until then the account is meant to be left alone. Continuing to use the card, or logging in to make payments, is not a neutral act, even when the intention is entirely honest, and it can complicate the estate later.

The card is the sharpest version of this. A contactless debit card in a wallet still works for a while after death, and using it, even to pay for the funeral or the person's own bills, creates payments the estate then has to explain. We set out why this matters, and what to do instead, in whether you are allowed to keep using your dad's bank card after he died. The safe course with an app-only account is the same as with any other: report the death through the proper route, let the account freeze, and pay legitimate costs through the estate once it is being administered.

How Monzo, Starling and Revolut bereavement teams work

The mechanics are broadly similar across the digital banks, with each running its own version. You notify them through the bereavement route, and they ask for documents to open the case. What they need is essentially threefold: proof the person has died, proof of who you are, and proof that you are entitled to act on the account or the estate.

Proof of death is the death certificate, or in some cases an interim certificate from a coroner where the full certificate is delayed. Proof of identity is your own ID. Proof of entitlement is where it varies: for a small balance many providers will accept that you are the next of kin or the person arranging things, while for a larger balance they will want to see the formal authority to deal with the estate, which means a grant of probate in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, or confirmation in Scotland.

Send documents the way each provider asks, and keep copies of everything. Ask two questions explicitly at the outset: what their threshold is for releasing a balance without a grant, and how they will pay the money out, since a digital bank cannot hand you cash across a counter and will usually transfer the balance to a nominated account once satisfied. Dealing with the account also means stopping the direct debits and recurring payments running through it, so ask for a list of what was set up if you cannot see it yourself.

Releasing the money without probate

People often assume probate is always needed to get money out of a bank. It is not. Every bank, digital or otherwise, sets its own limit below which it will release a balance to the family on the paperwork alone, and above which it insists on a grant of probate or confirmation. There is no figure set in law, and the limits differ widely from one provider to another, so a balance that one bank hands over without fuss will be held by another until a grant is produced.

Digital banks behave the same way. A modest balance in a Monzo or Starling account will usually be paid to the personal representative once the bereavement team has the death certificate and proof of entitlement, without waiting for probate. A larger balance triggers the demand for a grant. Because the thresholds are provider-specific and change over time, the only reliable move is to ask each firm directly what its own limit is. We keep a wider explanation of how these limits work, and why the government does not publish them, in the guide to every UK bank's bereavement limit before probate is needed.

Where several accounts each sit below their provider's limit, it can be possible to release all of them without a grant, because each firm applies its threshold to the balance it holds rather than to the estate as a whole. That does not settle whether a grant is needed for other reasons, such as property or inheritance tax, so it is worth taking the whole estate into account rather than looking at each account in isolation.

Not every app is a bank: e-money and what protects the balance

One thing that genuinely differs between these providers is what protects the money. Monzo and Starling are fully authorised UK banks, so eligible balances are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme up to its limit, exactly as they would be at a high street bank. Some app-based providers, historically including Revolut in the UK, have operated as electronic money institutions rather than banks, where customer money is safeguarded in separate accounts rather than covered by the FSCS.

For the family this matters in two ways. It affects whether the balance is protected by the compensation scheme if the firm itself were ever to fail, and it can affect how a balance is released, because an e-money firm's processes are not identical to a bank's. It is worth checking which kind of firm you are dealing with rather than assuming every app with a card is a bank. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme explains which firms and products it covers, and a firm's own website states whether it is a bank or an e-money institution.

Dealing with a digital account is only ever one item on a long list, and closing it does not stop the wider job of notifying everyone else. You can register a death once and have it passed to several government departments through the Tell Us Once service, and we bring the rest of the accounts and contracts together in the bereavement admin, assets and contracts guide. Where money reaching the family quickly matters, it is also worth understanding what your own family would be able to access without a login or a grant; if that is on your mind you can get life insurance quotes and have an FCA-authorised broker explain how a policy would pay out, bearing in mind that cost and acceptance depend on your health and the insurer's underwriting.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

The way a digital bank is contacted is the same across the UK, but the authority it asks for above its release limit is not. In Scotland the process that gives an executor power over the money is called confirmation, obtained through the sheriff court, rather than a grant of probate, and a small estates route can make it simpler where the total is modest. We set out how the banks apply their limits before confirmation is granted in the guide to bank admin after a death in Scotland and what differs.

In Northern Ireland the grant process has its own forms and its own probate office, and the time it takes can differ from England and Wales. None of this changes how you reach the bereavement team or what freezes the account; it changes only the document a provider will insist on before it releases a larger balance, and how you go about obtaining it.

Frequently asked questions

How do I notify an app-only bank that someone has died?

Each has a bereavement form or email address on its website, because you cannot do it through the app without the login. Send the death certificate, your identification and evidence that you are entitled to act. A specialist team then takes the case over from normal customer support, freezes the account, stops the cards and, in time, releases the balance to whoever is dealing with the estate.

How do I even find out that a digital account existed?

Look for card transactions and transfers on other statements, direct debits set up in the app, and confirmation emails in the inbox. A debit card in the wallet, an app icon on the phone or a payment text are often the only clues, because nothing at all arrives by post. Getting into a locked phone is frequently part of the same search, since so much of the evidence lives there.

Can these banks release money without probate?

Often yes for smaller balances. Digital banks set their own release thresholds, exactly as high street banks do, and will usually pay a modest balance to the personal representative on the paperwork alone. Larger balances need a grant of probate, or confirmation if the death was in Scotland. Ask each provider what its own limit is, because there is no figure set in law and they differ widely.