Hi, I live in NZ but am coming to UK/Europe on holiday end of August. Also am not very tech savvy so need simple explanation! Can I get Monzo card before I leave NZ and load with NZ? If I understand correctly , my would be converted to £ and I would load by transferring $ using a Mastercard?
Thanks, sounds a wonderful service!
Maggie
Signing up for Monzo without an UK address would be a challenge though - you could try a PO box and a VoIP number and see if that goes through.
Assuming the address problem is sorted the top-up will work just fine with any debit card.
Don’t forget there is an identity verification stage that will need to be passed too.
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Thanks for prompt reply. My son lives in Godalming so assume I could use his address?Thanks Maggie
Thanks Tom,What does that involve - would a passport number suffice?Cheers Maggie
It usually involves a picture of the passport, and a short video of yourself.
Yes that should be fine, I can’t remember if a proof of address is required, but if it is you could signup for your VoIP number on that address and use the invoice of that as your proof of address.
Sorry what is a VoIP number, never heard of it!
A phone number you can access over the internet. Monzo only allows signups with an UK mobile so if you’re not in the UK yet and still want to sign up your only option is to get a number from a VoIP provider.
Edit: now that I think of it you could probably just ask your son to get a pay and go SIM card and use that to sign up - would be much easier than setting up VoIP.
You can load a Monzo card with $NZ but bear in mind that your bank will do the conversion to GBP for you so you’ll probably not get a great rate & usually, they charge a fee for the privilege.
When it comes to getting the card before leaving NZ, I love the enthusiasm but I’m not sure that it’s worth the hassle of trying to game Monzo’s verification process, just to get a card slightly quicker.
I’m guessing that you’re going to be here for a while? Otherwise there wouldn’t be much point in getting the card in the first place. In which case, why not wait until you’re here so that you can just go through the signup process as usual? If you take a golden ticket from here, you’ll have the card within a few days of applying.
I’m also concerned that your verification will fail, even if you use a UK number & temporary address to sign up, simply because we haven’t heard about anyone else managing to do this successfully yet. Having said that, if you do have a go, it would be great to hear if you’re successful…
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@Maggs Bear with me, I have an idea 
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Use Transferwise or Azimo to send money to your son’s account. This will give you really good exchange rate in a direction of NZ to GBP - as mentioned, Monzo only gives good exchange rate ‘from’ GBP to other currencies.
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Ask your son to pay out cash from ATM for you.
That seems like most effective way to get money in GBP. It will allow you to get good currency exchange rate (Transferwise&Azimo will be better than any walk-in currency shop) or most likely dreadful exchange rates + high fees when using your NZ card. It doesn’t need to involve Monzo, but as @alexs said, if you manage to open Monzo account, you can transfer money from son’s bank account to your Monzo.
I know that virtual plastic money is probably preferred, but I don’t think there is anything resembling Monzo in NZ! 
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