Sure. I’m generalising a bit but I would say that infrequent travellers are typically on holiday for more than a few days as opposed to frequent travellers who are typically on business or pleasure for a shorter period of time. Someone who is only away for a few days is less likely to need more than £200 than say a family away on their annual 2 week summer vacation. The current model means that a regular traveller can effectively withdraw up to £2400 free whereas if I need to withdraw say £800 during a 2 week family holiday (which is quite feasible for a family), then I would need to pay fees. So somewhere in the business model the costs associated to the free withdrawals must be borne by someone else and I just don’t see how that is fair.
I have no problem paying for a service but I object to subsidising other people using the same service because of an unfair pricing structure. The most fair and transparent model is surely one where people pay for what they use, regardless of whether it’s £50 or £5000 withdrawn.
Metro bank. No account fees and fees transaction in EU. Including ATM
Yeah, this is the worst of all worlds. £200 is a tiny amount of cash. Especially if you’re visiting countries that are predominantly a cash based economy and need to use ATMs on the regular.
3% is a ridiculously high fee for these transactions. The fairest would’ve been 1.5% for all ATMs as option 2. Hell, I would’ve been happy with option 1 as someone who makes semi regular trips to the east.
This now looks like a profit making excercise for monzo and I’m now seriously considering moving to a competitor who’ll offer me a better deal.
I guess some people who are using Monzo as money transfer will have to look for another option 
I didn’t vote for this option myself but I’m not too bothered. I was on holiday in the states a few weeks back and found I rarely used an atm whilst there.
More importantly than that, Monzo as a service is worth sticking around for. 
If that’s all you want then stay with MetroBank…
Clearly the Monzo app is not unique enough for you compared to Metro 
3% fees for using an ATM. Cry me a river. How often does anyone actually use an ATM abroad?
If it’s makes Monzo sustainable it’s well worth it, look at the functionality of the app currently - it’s way beyond every other mainstream bank’s app - and that’s before Open Banking kicks in and the aggregation/marketplace functionality can be properly introduced.
I don’t think people will stay with monzo because of app… I’m not choosing bank because of app…
I beg to differ
I bet if Monzo gave you a free sandwich maker you’d stay 
nobody is being forced to stay with Monzo , if it doesnt suit you change to something that does, as some people have said there are a few other options - I don’t tend to spend a lot of time abroad withdrawing cash, so really its all a bit academic to me and Monzo are being very transparent what it will cost me if I do need cash. Other providers, for the time being will offer a better deal on cash , whether the product is as good is another conversation 
and also I’m not buying a car because it has nice radio fitted…
Exactly this, plus the removal of all the technical debt that other banks have to deal with that’ll allow Monzo to innovate faster.
I know that.
That’s why I’ve just opened a Starling account and will be getting my salary paid in there.
Competition is a great thing and I’ll go wherever I get the best deal. Sadly, that isn’t monzo anymore.
Double like this!
How on earth did people survive before Monzo’s beta? I guess they planned ahead and changed enough cash before their trip.
There’s no such thing as a free ride. It was never going to last!
Do you really think Starling will keep fee free foreign ATM withdrawals once they have enough users for it to start costing them?
Sounds like brexit…
Then I’ll change to a bank that has a lower ATM transaction rate. It doesn’t bother me at all.
Current Account switching service is great.
Genuinely I’m struggling to see why this is such a big deal. This is £30 on £1000 withdrawal. It’s peanuts.
Only £24 if it’s the first withdrawal of the month
In our original blog, we explained that 13% of customers account for more than 85% of our total ATM costs in any given month. That 13% of customers are likely frequent travellers that withdraw plenty of cash abroad, and therefore generate a large proportion of the costs. We agree that this isn’t fair!
A £200 30-day limit still means that people who travel abroad from time-to-time will be able to withdraw some cash for free, then beyond that everyone will pay 3% on the cash they use 