I travel a lot with my card. In fact I use it abroad probably 99% of the time. It would be great if on the iOS widget or sneak peak of you could show your balance in GBP along with an estimated amount in another predefined currency. This way I don’t need to flip between widgets, mondo, currency converter and calculator!
It would be very cool if the Monzo widget (& the app), displayed the converted card balance & spent today in your local currency while you were abroad.
Failing that, since your use case is a bit of an edge case, a developer might need to get this set up. I’d hope that by the time the Monzo API is ready, MasterCard will have made their conversion rate available via their APIs which would make it straightforward to build an widget using Zapier / Workflow.
I’m always on the fence about doing that. As balances get bigger we could be in a situation where we tell you that your balance is 1,000€, then you buy a one-grand laptop and two days later (when the transaction settles) the exchange rate has changed a bit and it actually was 1,020€, so now your balance is -20€. It feels somehow “wrong” if you know what I mean 
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Good point, maybe if the FX rate was also displayed for the user’s reference, that would be ok? But then they have to remember it & obviously there’s limited space for the widget 
Is that not the case already though? if you buy something in a different currency in the app it states the exchange rate and a message that it will settle in a couple of days. This could result in a negative balance.
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Yes, the result is the same, but at least Monzo didn’t tell you that “you had” a particular amount on foreign currency in your balance. It’s subtle but I think it stands up, particularly as we move to current accounts where typically the amounts will be higher than on the prepaid.
However, what I do think we will build at some point is a foreign currency calculator. A place where you can type an amount and see how many GBP would that amount be.
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Personally, I’m all for this approach. I think that would be the way to go.
As per my original comment could it not display “Estimated” balance in local currency to get around this.
The calculator would certainly be a help within the app. I’m not sure the calculator would save much time. Today for example I knew I had a low balance (which I often do) but was going to buy a bottle of coke at the station in Melbourne. I flicked over to the widget and could see my balance and as I know roughly the exchange rate I knew I was likley to have just enough - it would just have been awesome if it showed how much I could spend without being declined.
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Hi wondered whether it would be possible to add a feature where you could choose a currency and it uses the latest conversion rate when you were last on 4G or WiFi and either display your sterling balance and the equivalent foreign currency next to it on toggle between the two on the app?
If there’s already a feature, I’ve not found it…
Thx Colin
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Hi Colin, I’ve moved your post here, as there’s been some discussion about this feature earlier in this topic too. I hope that helps 
You’re right that this feature isn’t in the app already & Hugo (Monzo’s Head of Design) has explained why, earlier in this thread.
It’d be good to hear your thoughts on this discussion!
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I still think it helpful to have an indicative amount displayed. Just providing a calculator is a waste of time, there are calculators and apps that can convert currencies for us. What is ten times better is having your balance displayed as a rough estimate in another currency.
After almost another 8 months of using the card in the real worldI still think this would be a really useful feature! 
Agree the calculator is pointless!
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Why not just display the available account balance with a [local currency estimate] via a button (flag?) next to the balance figure?
You can pop some advice that its just an estimate if someone presses the button.
With my product manager hat on - here’s a user story for you:
I’m a tourist about to buy an expensive single item in Thai Bhat and I need to know whether my GBP balance is (likely) to be enough to cover it. Because no one likes having their card declined - or to have to manually do the same sum using the calc on their phone, it would be really useful if I could check the approximate balance in local currency which I have available on my Monzo card.
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