On a Greek island this summer… the smattering of restaurants in the town didn’t take cards, buses and taxis didn’t take cards… the typical corner shop didn’t want a card for a few quids worth of groceries… £200 would last 3 days at best. I think the option selected was the best on offer, but with a higher free cap… but it is what it is.
maybe the best option will be to have 3 or 4 cards for a ‘cash’ option and use the Monzo for card payments… everything is workable
but to be honest… £1k of spending money if all taken as cash will only cost £30
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Greek law was changed this year - restaurants must accept cards. They generally pretend that they either don’t have a card machine or it’s broken, but the law is there and you can simply say you don’t have cash.
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Hey @anon50039658, all is fair.
But i felt betrayed by the dishonesty of showing your customer only one side of the situation, and making them believe they were choosing the best option ever.
I’m a Monzo great supporter because its friendly to its customers and doesnt treat us like other banks, but this move has got me to start thinking you are starting to think like a bank, deceiving the bad parts under fake “User choice for best option”.
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that’s news to me… but great info… cheers 
I don’t believe I said you couldn’t do that? Cash is not convenient, I don’t know how much I need to take with me if I’m in a country that “may” not accept it everywhere. Should I take £200 or £800 with me? I’ll get a better feel for it when I’ve arrived. It’s easier for me to visit an ATM and withdraw the relevant cash when I’m there.
I’m personally fine with the £200 and 3% fee, it could be better but it’s not a show stopper for me using Monzo. However, I can at least understand other people’s concerns regarding this decision.
I’m also interested (curious really) to see the outcome of users who voted vs the number of Monzo users at the time? As this was a community decision, what proportion of the community actually voted?
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Hi there,
A couple of questions I asked in the original thread I think is still un answered (there were thousands of replies - so understandably).
- How is this free £200 going to work? When you withdraw from an ATM in a foreign currency, it’s usually picking an amount in the local currency, with no real correlation to how many £ that is going to be. How are we as users meant to know what £200 is when we are withdrawing, especially if withdrawing from the prepaid account where we’re only allowed one free withdrawal - want to make the most of it - but we won’t know how!
- What happens if we tried to withdraw let’s say £300, would the entire amount be subject to the 3%, or the first £200 free and the last £100 subject to the 3%?
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So a bank that promotes itself as being fair and transparent to all users has introduced a pricing model whereby the infrequent traveller subsidises the regular traveller. How is that fair? Why not just charge everyone for what they use.
I’d really bought into the Monzo ethos and have been doing all of my card spending in the UK and abroad through Monzo, but no more. I’m off to find a bank who, rather than just talk about fairness like Monzo, actually demonstrate fairness in actions.
Absolutely disgraceful.
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I would be interested to know that too @anon50039658 … if you withdraw £300 in one transaction: is the first £200 fee free and the rest with 3% fee?
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Look you all have two choices here:
A) Stay with Monzo and support them
B) Leave Monzo in huff crying coz you fell for the MSE hype or wherever it is you came from.
I don’t care either way.
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Yes — which as you rightly point out, will have the potential to cause confusion! I have faith that @hugo and the rest of our amazing Design team will make it super clear to you 
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If you are not going to be competitive to another bank why people should stay with you? After changes you will be average. At the moment you are nothing special or unique that people need to stay with monzo.
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Great first post, can you point me to a legacy bank that does what Monzo currently does?
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Also, is the £200 limit fluid or are we allowed only one transaction. I.e. If in same holiday same week we make two £100 withdrawals, would one be subjected to 3% charge or will they both fall within the allowance?
Weird thing to say about a bank still in Beta.
I don’t feel there is anything average about Monzo at all. I’m excited to see where they can go.
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Provided you’re on the current account, they’ll both fall within the allowance On the prepaid card, it’ll only be one transaction (because of some implementation issues with third parties). But we’ll have offered you a current account by then!
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While I appreciate Monzo had to do something about the foreign ATM fees, and this option did receive the most votes by a long way, I feel like most voters in the comments actually preferred a slight variation.
It seemed that most people would have rather had an annual limit, even if it was only £600 (for example).
I’d love to know why a yearly limit wasn’t put forward?
Thanks in advance!
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you cant please all the people all the time
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As Tristan has mentioned earlier the decision was one in favour of a sustainable approach to building a bank!
We have so much more to offer and so many opportunities to explore as we pursue a goal to become a financial control centre for your life. Just as the fee free travel was a huge draw for many of our customers, we’re committed to delivering functionality and services which hope will offer the same value in the future.
Partnerships and marketplace banking is one particularly exciting area where we believe we can pass on some considerable savings - take a look at this blog post for more details 
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Why does it have to be a legacy bank if we’re moving forward. 3% plus 50p a day overdraft makes me think. I’ve applied for a tandem credit card for the sake of 0.5% cashback over the clarity card. People chop and change over small things.
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Personally, this is what I would have said as @Pipefish said an average person can pay most things with card abroad or home. And the card transactions are going to be free so I am little confused at outrage some people are showing. If you know you are going to need more than £200 cash there are other options (some brilliant FinTech competitors out there)
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