Card Quality

The only card which was of good quality for me was my Beta card issued by Wirecard. Every debit card since has lost its tipping and my investor card from IDEMIA is a grainy mix of white and washed out coral. My other Monzo friends take the mickey about how poor it is. Id rather save on the plastic than renew… at least my Apple Pay card looks right :stuck_out_tongue:

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I got a new NatWest one a few weeks ago and it looks like it’s come straight out of an inkjet printer that’s running low on ink. Not even any lumpy numbers on it… in truth I actually nearly flung it out thinking it was a cardboard one trying to sell me a credit card.

Hopefully they’ve improved since I flagged this back in October last year :crossed_fingers:

Sadly not, I ordered a JA new card last month and agree that it is more salmon than hot coral compared to my older sole account card.

If it helps, I got a joint account card last month and it looks better than my personal one and a bright hot coral!

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I guess it’s a supplier issue then.

Every now and then there is a surge of card quality complaints and it is always a “supplier issue” or a “bad batch that they’re trying to get rid of”.

I’ve never understood how things like this get through quality control. Do the manufacturers not image scan cards for alignment, colour, misprints and so on? All this can be done automatically.

Then what about at Monzos end? When they accept a batch of cards are some not checked or do they come to us straight from the manufacturer?

I’ve had quite a few cards over the four (five!?) years of being onboard. The white paint on the numbers always rubs off within days, within months the card is no longer hot coral but a muted pink.

I have a card from Natwest and their numbers are printed on the card, not raised. This could be a good solution to a difficult problem.

There has been discussion on the raised numbers before: Card numbers rub off

TL;DR something to do with the old fashion card scanning things in Japan.

To be clear my comment was referring solely to the apparent change in colour, not the card quality. I assume that different suppliers have slightly different colours.

Either way it all falls under the same umbrella about quality control.

Back on colour though, I don’t see why manufacturers can’t all produce the same colour. I can take my car to any bodyshop and they can match the colour perfectly. All they need is the formula to mix it and something to match against?

Unless it’s a total different kettle of fish when it comes to cards? :man_shrugging:

I haven’t seen a card imprinted be used since the early noughties, but last year I saw them being used twice at two separate places (Once at a local farm shop and once at a restaurant)… they do still exist. You would think in this day and age places would be instead supplied with separate stand alone ‘offline’ chip and pin machines for emergency use… even if only for the to cover their own arses - I’m sure I’ve heard that disputing a non chip and pin transaction these days leaves the merchant liable?

On the original subject, our joint cards arrived on the same day… but had two different suppliers… and the difference is… well… take a look!

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NatWest hasn’t provided embossed cards for a while now… not sure when they stopped.

Got a lumpy card two years ago, non lumpy one about 6 months ago, so guessing they stopped it sometime in between…

That’s not strictly correct: debit cards are no longer embossed but there are new NatWest credit cards that are embossed.

The exact real life tone of Hot Coral cannot be digitally replicated. This is because it is a luminous tone, meaning it reflects more light than it absorbs, which is rare.

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I think the issues a bit over rated. I think issues just show more on a solid coloured card.

As with mine, IDEMIA has been the worst quality. Perhaps someone from Monzo could look into why this manufacturer is struggling to meet the standards of other manufacturers?

I’ve just received a new card (Monzo-instigated) and, similar to the above, was really surprised by the difference in colour of my new card.

My previous card (ICA 17704 TAG SYSTEMS) is a vibrant hot coral. My new card (IDEMIA 9 1689074A) can’t be described as anything other than salmon pink.

Quite surprised by the disparity between suppliers here.

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