šŸ‡ØšŸ‡¦ Monzo in Canada [Discussion]

Currently travelling round Canada and have used my Monzo card everywhere with no problems. The upper limit for contactless transactions is $100.

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Iā€™m in British Columbia at the moment and also had no problems. Used Monzo card at Toronto Airport (contactless) and in Maple Ridge in various stores using both contactless and the traditional way

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Used Monzo at Niagra Falls to purchase tickets without any problem.

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I just got back from Toronto and I used my Monzo card all over the city and at Niagara with no problems. The exchange rate was excellent and I loved the Monzo app updating me with the payment confirmation and the currency conversion. The only thing I would say to watch out for is their ATMā€™s as they all charge about 3CAD. I tried to pay by card rather than taking out cash.

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Hi off to Canada in August, does anyone know if I will be charged to get cash out of atms? Havenā€™t used my card yet@

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Hi Jo, Iā€™ve moved your post here to keep all of the advice about Canada in one place. I hope that makes sense :slight_smile:

This wiki should contain most of the key info for using Monzo in Canada -

& hopefully the posts in this topic fill in any gaps.

If you do have any more questions though, just ask them here :raised_hands:

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I tried a number of banks in BC - National Bank did not charge a fee ! HSBC and Bank of Montreal do charge Ā£2 -Ā£3

Making a list of banks that donā€™t charge in each country would be useful .

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Used from 19th - 28th Aug in Canada, Ontario (Toronto & Niagara falls/Outlet) Area, had no problems with any purchases. Exchange rate was near to market rate which is amazing. $100 CAD contact less payments.

It does :slight_smile:

You have to manually enable Magstripe transactions in app (for 24 hours). Turned off by default for fraud prevention.

Back in August 2016 there wasnā€™t that option :slight_smile:

Oh really? :frowning: Sorry!

Travelling to Niagra, Toronto, Calgary, Jasper, Banff, Kamloops, Whistler and Vancouver so Im happy to see people have used it with no problems.

Monzo is perfect for me, As preload cards usually means locking in a exchange rate for ā€œoneā€ country. Im heading to the US after Canada and the mastercard rates for Monzo are awesome :slight_smile:

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Travelling to ON next week, reading this thread has set my expectations high :smile:

Iā€™m also travelling with the current account preview, so Iā€™ll be sure to report back if it works just as well as the prepaid card does (no reason why it shouldnā€™t!).

Safe travels folks :airplane:

previously mentioned above by @alexbilbie

ā€œWith bars and restaurants there was a mixture of chip+pin payments and magnetic swipe payments which really confuse the Mondo timeline because youā€™ll see an original transaction (pre-tips) the following day; then youā€™ll see a second payment (with-tips) a few days later; then youā€™ll finally see a refund of the first transaction. The Mondo app does have a note about this when you view the original transaction.ā€

  • Current Account - ā€˜Mag stripe ATMs are not currently supportedā€™ - so presumably a problem in some bars and restaurants as well that only have magstripe POS terminals ???

As a slightly older traveller not used to modern concepts such as prepaid cards I decided to try monzo instead of carrying cash, I know a stupid thing to carry cash.
However once I received my card the whole process of setting could not have been simpler.
With that I topped up and headed of to Canada/Alaska still feeling nervous with this strange concept of no hard cash.
Well I must admit how wrong was I to think I would be cashlessā€¦ All the thoughts of not being able to pay for things swiftly left my mind, I loved how I had instant notifications of transactions on my phone, exchange rate was good. I used the 3 options of tap, chip and pin and atm withdrawal ( 3$ fee) but hey not a problem. No declines what so ever, even in Alaska.
Hubby was so impressed he will now apply for a card!!!
Great service guys at monzo.

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Status report from Canada right now:

CA card (v2) working perfectly at any POS machine that takes card (ā€œdebitā€) or contactless (ā€œtapā€), without fail (other than the time that payments went down so I had to use my backup credit card!).

Only thing that hasnā€™t been working for me is Canadian ATMs. They seem to work a little different to our cash machines in that they ask if youā€™d like to withdraw from your chequing (current), savings or credit account. Iā€™ve tried all of those options and none of them seem to work. I havenā€™t tried this with the prepaid card though so Iā€™m not sure if itā€™s just a quirk of the current account system or not! :smile:

I was in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto back in May. I used Monzo throughout the trip and had no issues withdrawing money, paying at bars, pubs, restaurants, supermarkets and tourist attractions. :+1:

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Iā€™ve been trying to find a bank that doesnā€™t charge the $3 dollar fee.

Does anyone know what Canadian banks donā€™t charge the $3 dollar withdraw fee? I feel like there must be one.

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In BC the National Bank did not used to charge a fee