This problem has been bugging me for the past few weeks and I’m wondering if anyone else has this issue or if I misses a trick.
I’ve been to Morocco, Bulgaria and now I’m in Spain and found in all of these I can use the card in store and to pay in machines like train stations but I cannot use them in ATMs
I looked online for locations that had worked with other members, tried different amounts to see if it was a limit problem and yes obviously used it o LG where MasterCard was accepted.
Anyone else has had similar issues? Honestly this feature is half the reason I wanted Monzo so I’m gutted it hasn’t worked at all.
There is a trick that solves this problem in some instances -
Have you tried enabling Magstripe withdrawals from your Profile settings? If you’re on Android, you can contact Monzo’s support team to ask them to enable this feature for you.
Here’s an explanation of the issue -
Magstripe ATM withdrawal support
In the UK, almost all ATMs use chip and PIN to validate your identity when you try to withdraw money. However, that’s not always the case elsewhere around the globe and in many countries, ATMs use the magnetic stripe on the back of your card to dispense cash. Up to now, we’ve disabled magstripe ATM withdrawals to protect against the increased fraud risk that these ATMs bring but from today, it is now possible to temporarily turn on magstripe ATM withdrawals for 24 hours. You can access the setting from your Profile or from a transaction that’s been declined by a magstripe ATM.
Just to mention, there are limits on the amount that you can withdraw from ATMs which you can keep an eye on in your Profile Setting on iOS. They’re also listed here. Plus, you lose all that detailed transaction data, of course
That sounds like something that would be useful to be prompted to enable if the App sees that you are in certain countries - “it looks like you are in Spain, do you want to enable magstripe ATM withdrawal for this trip?”
I may have missed this notification to Monzo users that if they are not verified they will not be able to use their card to withdraw from foreign ATMs - surely this is quite important to let users know they will face restrictions in usage if they haven’t gone through ID verification while they are abroad - not wait until they are abroad and facing these problems ?
