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Monzo in Japan [Discussion]
The Halifax Clarity card is great for foreign travel, but it’s worth remembering that there is no interest free period for cash withdrawals.
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It applies to most Visa and MasterCard cards. It’s getting better, but lots of Japanese ATMs don’t take Visa and Mastercard. 7-Eleven does and I believe the Post Office also does, so there’s two good options.
On a side note, I really don’t see why this fee has some people so upset. It’s targeted at a very high value to hit a small number of abusers. There are few situations where I can imagine needing to withdraw that much cash when travelling abroad. It depends on the country, but generally you might need some cash for public transit and maybe occasional snacks. If even that, some countries you can go to completely cash-free.
Japan is one of the worst, obviously, but even there you can use your card to pay your lodging. Still, £200/month won’t get you far in Japan. But that’s a rare exception. For the average Briton travelling to Europe, the US, Canada, Australia, etc this is just a non-issue.
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It is because it is not a fair system with a 1 or 2% across the whole transaction but a system where some will just withdraw their £200 free and incur Monzo charges while not contributing themselves, while those who need to withdraw more are being penalised by having to pay over the odds to subsidise all those £200 free withdrawals.
Also some people will be using that £200 allocation for just one person but for others it may be for a whole family of parents and kids hence not go as far.
How is it unfair? It gives occasional users a perk and asks those who abuse it to pay up.
Just to mention this, the hotel in Turkey wanted to charge 5% to pay by card (any card) so withdrawing cash for the hotel was much cheaper
It is unfair because some pay over the odds to subsidise those just using their free £200 allowance.
A fair system would seek to recoup Monzos costs equitably such as the 1% Europe and 2% Rest of World proposal which they actually said was closest to the costs the bank incurr.
That’s your opinion, not necessarily fact. Others could argue that they will still continue to enjoy free ATM withdrawals on their travels (in the spirit that Monzo originally intended) and not be penalised by soon having to subsidise those travellers who require larger amounts of cash. Anyway, such travellers will no doubt find a cheaper way to withdraw cash, and Monzo gets to cap it’s losses to a manageable level. IMO that’s an excellent compromise to the issue at hand.
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Didn’t think I would stir up a whole debate but it doesn’t bother me that much it still better than using my Barclays or any other bank as most still charge thlse hidden fees like virgin who take off like ¥10 in exchange rate which is a lot if you take large amounts off
Or just stay in a hotel that doesn’t pull games like that, if they’ll do that, what else will they do?
The fact it cost Monzo about 1% for use in Europe and about 2% elsewhere is not an opinion but was stated by Monzo.
Continuing to get free withdrawals all be it £200 means that Monzo is continuing to incurr charges for these transactions despite seeking a scheme of charges to cover their costs. Which means other customers are paying for your free withdrawal.
While the fees were introduced to penalise those touring for months abroad withdrawing thousands using expensive ATM every few days in remote places the regular customer who perhaps goes to Europe with their family for 3 weeks is incurring Monzo about 1% but having to pay 3% to subsidise all those £200 free withdrawals. That is not fair.
While I can not change Monzo’s decision the only fair charging scheme would have been to have fees reflecting the difference in costs between European and Rest of World, and have people pay for how much they use rather than cross subsidise a number of free withdrawals.
That is reality not opinion.
Additional comments have been merged into this closed thread. This topic has been discussed at length with all opinions, for and against, considered. If you strongly feel there is more to add to this conversation, please me know.
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