Currency convertor tool in the app

Monzo could have some handy currency convertor. I know it all can be done with just phone’s calculator, but Monzo could simplify the process and improve it.

Reasoning:

  • sometimes you are facing decision whether to pay in USD/EUR/else or pay in local currency. It happens that USD/EUR prices are rounded up so much that paying with local currency is a lot cheaper. Converter can help me make a better decision. It’s not uncommon for USD prices are simply a lot higher, not just rounded up (shady!)
  • sometimes you are clueless and you can’t calculate on the fly how much is actually 20,000KHR, and whether coffee would cost you $4 or an arm&leg.

While making card payments, Monzo shows all the fancy stuff and exchange rate, but sometimes you just want to look up the price.

Currency convertor should work online and offline. When monzo is online, then show mastercard exchange rate. Offline, when no internet connection - allow user to set exchange rate (show latest recorded exchange rate as suggestion).
Convertor should offer any currency to any currency, not just back to GBP.

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Would be nice to have the option when traveling to show your current balance in the local currency.

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Like and agree with the two posts above :+1:

Just want to add that I would love to see a Monzo travel widget which can be placed on the home screen (You can definitely do on Android). Widget could have exchange rate on where you are (or one you can manually set if you are located in the UK) and maybe some small advice as per the welcome message you get when landing abroad.

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I am not too sure about this though. I think if Monzo are to supply an exchange calculator tool, they should purely stick to their exchange rates to avoid confusion! There are other apps or calculators to use for whoever wants to speculate on exchange rate.

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@bhonobo Nah, there’s nothing speculative in my eyes. User might not have internet connection, so offline mode is just to give a rough idea. Even with online connection, rates/conversions from tool should not be treated as final - I’m not sure how mastercard rate fluctuates, but Monzo should not be responsible in any way if it does change.

With proper UX no one will make assuption that “Monzo said X, but rate was different”.

I absolutely love idea about home screen widget.:heart_eyes:

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It does seem solvable but Hugo’s not comfortable with the idea right now which is why we don’t have this feature already -

I understand that concern but surely if the currency fluctuates to the extent where you end up paying £866.85 (€1,020 today) instead £849.85 (€1,000 today), a £17 difference. It still feels “wrong” if you are so heavily relying on first number shown at moment of transaction. A balance shown will still need to be understood with the same caution with which we allow that first shown amount in transaction feed. If anything my feeling would be that the transaction feed amount seems “more wrong” as traditionally feeds and statements are kind of final, whereas the balance quoted before a transaction is just that, a piece of information before the fact.

Knowing what balance equivalent is at that moment, would be a great help in preventing a repeat of the bellow scenario where I miscalculated how much I needed to top-up.

I understand this scenario would be less likely when we are dealing with current accounts as surely all your money would be here anyway and there is no need to calculate top-ups. I still believe it gives us a better feeling of being in control of your money if you can put the amount of a purchase in perspective to your overall balance.

Maybe it would be better to hide it behind the main screen balance. By pressing on the balance (or another option on the menu somewhere) and selecting “what is my balance in local currency?” you could then put warnings about currency fluctuation beside your balance equivalent in foreign currency and/or converter tool.

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I’m in the UK and at the planning stages for a trip abroad :airplane: , and spending a lot of time trawling through websites and comparing prices in quite a few different currencies. On websites such as Booking.com, prices are given in GBP. However, to compare quotes on less international websites, I’m forever looking up exchange rates for HKD , CNY, INR, EUR, NPR, etc - to help me make decisions before I buy.

Monzo offers the best exchange rates :thumbsup:, which are notified to customers when they arrive in a foreign country. However, sometimes it would be useful to be able to look up approximate exchange rates before leaving the UK. This would also be a fantastic way for :mondo: to allow its customers to compare rates to the extortionate ones offered at the airport by Travellex, which would reenforce the benefit of using :monzo:.

Any thoughts?

I wholeheartedly agree on convertor in app, but in the meantime mastercard’s currency conversion tool is decent replacement I guess. :slight_smile:

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Thank you for replying, @Avishai. I’ll take a look

Taken from an interview with Tom Blomfield on The Memo. Speaking in regard to the current accounts:

We will have TransferWise (foreign money exchange) plugged in. That’s the first step towards the marketplace where we bring in new services.

Not quite what @Avishai was asking for in the original post, but close enough perhaps. I’m looking forward to other services that will be incorporated in the future, but this is a great start!

My other bank has a built in currency converter but it’s rubbish as you can’t use it when you’re logged in for some reason :eyes:

Oanda offers a basic, but useful, currency conversion app. When you launch it on a network, it downloads the current rates, but can then be used offline if necessary.

I should say that their website currency converter is also very good.

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Monzo could calculate the price of paying in the local currency or in pounds and then suggest the cheaper option. Is this something ​that’s possible?

For me the challenge is more how to easily compare different quotes in different currencies. Of course I can look up the exchange rates online, but that customer journey is a little disjointed

This Oanda seems not too bad, but ideally, in-app currency conversion would be done solely based on mastercard rate, as this is what Monzo uses. XE apparently has it, but it’s too ugly and crowdy, so I didn’t even bother to install it. :wink:

How about a live currency converter??? I use my monzo for travel and it would be nice to know how much I’d be charged before I buy!!!
I think most use monzo for travelling

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The issue here is that the rate changes between when you authorise the transaction and when it settles a few days later. Sometimes that might be in your favour, other times not. We do state what the exchange rate is in a travel feed item when you first arrive in a new country :grinning:

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If you want to know what you’ll be charged before you buy, consent to DCC :rofl:. Just kidding, of course. That’s always been the ‘advantage’ used to sell DCC. It’s technically true, but the rate is never* (*exception - the day the Swiss Franc massively increased in value overnight, DCC the prior day would have worked out in some peoples’ favour) in your favour.

Unfortunately, this is the nature of how the major global payment schemes work. Transactions aren’t actually settled at the same instant they’re authorised, Monzo just makes it look that way by showing authorisations as settled transactions. It’s a great idea, but doesn’t work as nicely when the final value of the transaction changes from the authorisation.

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But it would be good to at least have a rough estimate (could also be done by showing the balance in approx. local currency). After all, the item that appears in the feed immediately after purchase could also change, but Monzo still shows it as it is ‘close enough’. :wink:

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