Activating Monzo card without using debit card?

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1

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if it is possible to top up the first £25 on the Monzo card without using another card (and using PayPal or something similar instead). I had some worries about my Android phone’s security recently, and while I am very keen to get my Monzo card, I would rather not put my main card details into the app at the moment.

Thanks!

2

Correct me if i’m wrong but if it’s your phone that your concerned about would you not be worried about entering your paypal credentials on there also?

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3

Not particularly, considering that I use PayPal for small sums, and my actual bank account for literally everything else. I know I’m probably being overly cautious but hey.

4

However there isn’t currently a way to top-up your monzo card via paypal and I don’t believe there ever will due to the high fees from paypal…

I also find it really hard to understand why you are troubled by entering your card details on your phone but not your paypal… If anything someone gaining access to your paypal would be worse for you than them gaining access to your card details.

Any fraudulent card transactions via your paypal account are going to be harder to dispute with your current bank as you have provided your card details to paypal. If your card details were compromised and used somewhere you have never made a purchase before it’s more likely to throw up fraud warnings for your bank and it will be easier to dispute said payments if god forbid that did happen.

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5

Alright, all I needed to know was that you can’t use PayPal. Do you happen to know if you can top up Monzo using a non-UK debit card? That would also work better for me than using my UK card.

6

I don’t see why that wouldn’t work, although you are likely to incur FX fees from the card issuer if topping up from a non sterling account.

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7

You might also consider how you intend to continue to top up your Monzo card. Topping up using a non-sterling account could be costly in the long run, so setting up a regular Direct Debit from your UK account may be your best option if you prefer not using a card.

8

Yes you can. It worked when topping up my account that way.

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9

Yep just to confirm, you should be fine to top up using a foreign debit card, although I would discourage you from topping up using the method regularly as topping up in non-sterling can prove costly with additional charges.