Declined but starling worked

Help
1

Got in trouble today oddly my monzo personal and joint cards were declined. Tried with the magstrip on just in case. Declined still.(overseas)

In the shop I made a quick transfer to my Starling account and used that. Went straight through without issues.

Was planning to use monzo as my main account for a while but first attempt not good.

Sent a query to support.

2

Did you have a question that you wanted any of us to try and help with?

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3

Monzo support kindly replied.
Incompatible pos terminal with the card they said. Hmmm
Used the starling card 100 times there.

What is the difference between starling and monzo? Thought they would be the same.

4

Thereā€™s a few potential reasons why it could have happened but without any more context from monzo itā€™s pretty impossible to say which reason

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5

Maybe once it is declined it wonā€™t work for the same transaction even if I enable the magstripe.
Iā€™ll try again another day.

6

Does anyone know if I have to use chip and pin first like the revolut?
First time I used my personal account monzo card.

Update: just seen this https://monzo.com/help/monzo-card-pin/how-to

Maybe this is why the transaction didnā€™t work. Tried to use the magstripe first.

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7

Happened to me a week ago in Portugal. ATM didnā€™t like my Monzo card, so had to fall back to Starling.

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8

If itā€™s an incompatible POS then nothing will fix it unfortunately. At a guess it sounds like the company supplying the POS havenā€™t updated their records to include Monzo. If it was any other issue COps should have been able to advise on a solution

9

Moral of the story is. Itā€™s always good to have a backup payment method. Especially overseas.

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10

Very true. Canā€™t understand people who rely on just 1 card (especially digital banks) and then complain to the media that they got stranded without money. Always expect system outages and downtime/failed cards etc.
I always carry a full credit card with me also. (and if Iā€™m far from an atm then a bit of cash for emergencies)

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11

Other way around it at a merchant that does not accept Monzo is to use my Curve card. This particular merchant that declined the Monzo accepted my curve card.

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12

Yep. Iā€™ve done that in the past. Usually works seamlessly. It can be a little disconcerting when there is a partial refund, though

13

Not having much luck with my monzo on my overseas trip. Another grocery store declined it.

Starling saved the day again! I had hoped monzo was going to be accepted everywhere like starling has been the last month.

Works fine with contactless but few places here have that.

14

My Monzo card keeps getting declined by Dunnes Stores in Belfast. Happened with the old one and with my new Monzo Plus card when trying to pay via my Apple Watch (amount was below 30Ā£), but works with other merchantsā€¦