ATM Fees Abroad: Asking the Monzo Community to decide pricing

Revolut started with £500 monthly limit but after few months they decreased it to £200 a month. That thing dont work for people who travel abroad only 1-2 times a year. I got Monzo card because Revoluts limit was not enough and I had a backup. So main reason I got Monzo was no fees. No point for me to keep it. Or other option is to create many Revoluts/Monzos cards for family members and use them as they were yours. Dont go that way Monzo please. Annual limit would be better, something around 12x £200 a year should do.

Agreed- an annual credit may make more sense to this end

My 4th option would be a fluctuating % according to how many times a user actually withdraw money outside UK. Let s say i only use the card on line and once a year i use it to withdraw maybe i should pay less than those who withdraw more frequently. And yes, you guys are great cos of these “fees” don t become normal, stay extraordinary!!!

N26 closed tens of thousands of accounts where customers used ATMs too much

Like many others I think an annual allowance is fairer than the monthly one.

The fee-free international withdrawals was a big draw for me when getting my monzo card so it would be a shame to see this go! I would go back to using Caxton FX when abroad. I like the suggestion of keeping things free for those who are very active monzo users at home - it would be nice to be rewarded in this way - plus surely that is fair given that it’s a minority of people who don’t really use their cards in the UK making up the majority of the ATM costs?

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Not the thin end…

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I completely agree with this.

If you are willing to do £200 a month free then 3%, then why not set a yearly limit which will be better for holidays than a small monthly limit.

Instead of £200 per month then 3%, do something around £1200-£2000 per year then 3% after, This will allow for holiday ATM withdrawals and then a charge if you really are using a lot.

Honestly I’d still prefer the 1.5% fixed, but if that’s not possible, the above is the next best thing.

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While I read the entire blog post and voted, I haven’t read the replies so I’m not responding to anything in particular that has been said, and may indeed be duplicating a comment already out there.

But for me, with the information given, Option 3 seems the fairest to the whole user base. If 13% of people are accounting for 85% of all foreign withdrawal fees, then the higher penalty of 3% will provide a bigger deterrent to them continuing to do so while allowing the majority of users (87%) to continue to get at least some benefit from using the card abroad.

The other options simply provide an immediate financial penalty to people who are not overusing the benefit provided.

In the practical example, @tom is talking about the cost to the cardholder and not the cost to the card provider.

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yes…but it is the cost to the provider that is more important

I think a yearly amount is a more fair option . At the moment for me anyway it is £3000 but I would be happy with £1000 . I recently travelled to Asia I could not use my card very often so had no choice but to use ATMs . I have to say transferring money over when I needed it and then withdrawing the cash without a fee … Other than the ATM fee was great and made my trip so much easier .
Did I see mention that Monzo might be stopping the prepaid card ?

Yes they are closing it down at the end of the year

Doing a bit of number crunching on the figures given:

13% of customers cause 85% of the cost. The average cost per customer is £16/year.

Assume for simplicity there are only 100 customers - it would cost £1,600/year.

13% of customers are incurring £1,360 (85% * £1,600) of the charges.

Therefore the average cost of the “high users” is £104.60 per year.

Monzo could only cover that if the user was in overdraft for 210 days or more each year, ignoring the fact that those regularly overseas are probably more affluent and less likely to use an overdraft in the first place. Assuming a 50:50 EU:non-EU withdrawal split at an average cost of 1.5% the high users are withdrawing an average of £6,973/year!

Alternatively, say Monzo could get 1% interest on the customers’ deposits. They would need over £10k deposited (and foregoing interest they could get elsewhere) to make it viable.

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The prepaid card is being dropped in December…

There’s no way anyone is going to be attracted by a 2% fee on UK withdrawals. That would spell the end of the bank.

There are no plans to charge for UK withdrawals, only withdrawals from EU and outside the EU.

It was a reply to someone else who suggested a 2% fee on UK withdrawals.

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We know that…it was a suggestion made earlier in the thread by a user

My thoughts on the matter may prove to be unpopular but, I think paying a fee per transaction is a lot easier to implement and understand.

I acknowledge the fact that most users might feel betrayed but don’t forget that Monzo also provides an excellent exchange rate that no ATM will match !

Here’s how I see the options :

Option 3 (200£ allowance then 3%/transaction)
Monthly cap seems to be a way of limiting people who don’t use the card in UK (as most people pointed out , you travel
abroad 2-3 times a year) rather than an actual solution.

If you take out 200£ you don’t pay anything, if you take out an extra 200£ you will pay a fee of 6£.
For a total of 400£ you pay a fee of 6£.

Option 2 (1.5% /transaction)
This seems a decent solution with the caveat that it favours one group of users over the other (US withdrawals cost will be supplemented by 0.5% generated from European withdrawals ).

If you take out 400£ you will pay a fee of 6£ , just like option 3.

Option 1 (1%/ transaction in Europe, 2%/transaction in US)
I think this is the fair option even tough withdrawals from US will cost more.
400£ in Europe will incur a fee of 4£.
400£ in USA will incur a fee of 8£.

Incentives and other similar propositions for this tax that is charged by an external source don’t seem helpful to me (cost of implementation and maintenance may be higher than the actual cost of withdrawals).

Monthly/yearly fee could also be considered at a point where other benefits could be offered

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@jtl @alexs @tom I love this option. As a person that travels 2-3 times a year this would suit me. I tend to go to Europe mostly.
In the end it’s always the few who affect the majority but when it’s being offered free then we are all going to be attracted to this.
Option 4 please @tom

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I went for option three but I think the £200 limit is too low. I understand this can’t be rolled into £2400 annual limit, but I think perhaps an annual limit of £600 - £1000 would be fairer for the average person. Whilst yes it is true in MOST Western European countries using POS terminals is viable, so many more people are traveling out of this area and the £200 limit seems restrictive.

I also like some of the ideas around loyalty for users using their card in the UK getting a higher allowance, particularly when the full current account rolls out, meaning fewer people using it purely as a travel card.

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