šŸ‡©šŸ‡Ŗ Monzo in Germany [Discussion]

Have found the Monzo card is really only useful for cash withdrawals; Berlin establishments really donā€™t take cards as a norm. This is totally unlike Warsaw where I didnā€™t handle cash once in three weeks

I used Monzo three times in Hamburg; Hamburg Airport S Bahn station, on the return journey at Hamburg Hbf (Central Station) and also at the McDonalds above the check-in area at Hamburg Airport. No issues. It seems that a lot of big stores around Hamburg shopping areas accept visa/mastercard so would imagine it would work.

As I arrived in Hamburg Hbf station, and then walking towards the main shopping street and my hotel, I spotted an ATM with a large queue of local people near a large electronics store. So I decided to use that (successfully) later on when it was less busy to withdraw euros. I believe it was owned by one of the free public savings banks in the area (sparkasse), it was marked ā€˜internationalā€™ if I recall although - as they say - safety in numbers.

There were some debit card EC-Karte card signs around town, so stores that ONLY accept EC might be an issue although iā€™m not sure I went anywhere it was the only card accepted. The main shopping street in Hamburg has some very big names most would recognise.

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Most restaurants are cash only, at least in the former East Germany.

In some shops when using contactless it asks for a PIN to confirm, which slightly odd.

Saturn, which used to only accept German Issued EC Cards, now accept foreign debit cards too.

As for getting cash, euronet ATMā€™s donā€™t like foreign bank cards.

My card, worked fine at ATMā€™s and everywhere I tried in Munich a fortnight ago.

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Quick note, monzo seemed to work everywhere but ā€˜Pennysā€™ a supermarket chain. But then that store didnā€™t seem to take visa or any other British card we had either!

Iā€™m off to Nuremberg at the weekend and will be first time Iā€™ve used the Monzo card.

Has anyone used their cars in Nuremberg before, do most places accept it?

Iā€™m planning on taking a few Euros with me to start with then just withdrawing cash from ATM once Iā€™m there. Are all ATMs free to use or do some charge? I know there are no charges from Monzo. And I need to select ā€˜without conversionā€™ or ā€˜local currencyā€™ when withdrawing cash.

Cash machines in Germany are usually fee free. And if they do charge you I believe they must display the charge before the transaction is complete.

as others have noted, card acceptance is somewhat patchy in Germany. Even some bigger supermarket chains do not accept Visa or MasterCards, so look out for those.

Card acceptance at supermarkets in Munich were pretty good, I tried it at three different chains and were all accepted. My friend had no such luck in Berlin for some reason, he was rejected twice I think

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Yeah, itā€™s really weird over there. I remember there were a few years when Aldi and Lidl would only accept cash in Germany. Even when they finally reinstated card payments they would only accept ā€œec cardsā€ - no Visa or MasterCard (I think they accept them now, but Iā€™m not too sure).

When I was in Germany last year I went to a very large Edeka (which is one of Germanyā€™s largest supermarket chains) in a fairly large city, and they would not accept Master or Visa cards (although Edeka is usually run on a franchise model, so plenty of other Edekas will accept those card). In general card payments are in my experience at least frowned upon for payments under 5-10 EUR, and often refused altogether. All of this just goes to show: Your experience will differ widely, but Germans are in general very much a cash loving people.

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I thought I would have to rely on cash my whole trip there, but I was pleasantly surprised! Small cafĆ©s and bakeries took card too and there wasnā€™t that whole confusion with visa/mastercard being regarded as ā€œcreditā€ even though you may be using prepaid/debit cards that I got in Amsterdam. I used card for all my payments (mostly chip & pin).

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Iā€™ve found the card to mostly work ok. As others have said, far fewer places accept card payment than in the UK so you will need cash.
Main issue Iā€™ve had is that the cash machines at Sparkasse do not accept the card. Thankfully there was a Deutsche Bank next door and it worked fine there.

Iā€™m off to Berlin this week. Was hoping to use Monzo for transactions. (but not for withdrawing cash)

Well, I withdrew cash at an ATM overseas for first time ever. ATM offered to do the conversion ā‚¬200 costing Ā£199. I declined conversion and itā€™s come through from Monzo at Ā£177ish. So that is good.

I had success in a coffee shop paying with Monzo Contactless. Other places were cash only.

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No problem paying with Monzo Current Account card on EasyJet.

Random chap next to me paid with Monzo Prepaid Beta. No issues.

Surely the prepaid cards will not work on board an aeroplane? Iā€™m pretty sure it shouldnā€™t allow offline transactions.

Iā€™m not sure what to say. You appear to be saying Iā€™m incorrect in what I said despite seeing it work. :neutral_face:

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Itā€™s explained here:

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I have flown regularly and noticed they changed card readers on my RyanAir flight. With a regular bank card the old ones would take up to a week to appear on a legacy bank account instead of just a few days but the new readers mean transactions appear the next few days instead of a week. i have a MƦstro card that never worked on board before but now does. It is highly possible the Monzo card does too.

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This is mildly amusing:

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Iā€™m just shocked that a prepaid card would work for an offline transaction that could likely be in the hundreds of pounds.

I wasnā€™t saying you were wrong! :slight_smile:

Even more shocked that my CA Monzo was repeatedly refused on Ryanair and I didnā€™t even try my PP card! The CA card worked fine on easyJet though.

Strange!