šŸ‡ŖšŸ‡ø Monzo in Spain [Discussion]

Hi I donā€™t plan on using my monzo card to withdraw money whilst in Lanzarote but I do plan on using it to pay for our hotel which is just under Ā£2k. Does anyone know if we can use it for such a high amount and do we get charged? Thank you

I would have thought that as long as itā€™s ok with your hotel and you have the money in the account, itā€™ll be fine.

Word of warning, the only place I found that didnā€™t take card was the entrance to the Volcano (annoyingly!)

Even more annoyinglyā€¦ they accept card when you are top of the Volcanoā€¦ go figureā€¦

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You should be fine! I think the only limit is for Ā£10K+. Then you need to contact customer support so that they can raise the limits for a particular transaction.

Have fun in Lanzarote!

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I had the same problem. Tried cards from Nationwide as well as our travel card and the machine wouldnā€™t accept any.

In the end had to use a normal lane.

Unicaja is also free

So Iā€™ve recently come back from a trip to Barcelona and Ibiza; both equally amazingā€¦!

Being a tech, Monzo & Apple enthusiast, I of course put Apple Pay & Monzo to the full test like in every country and thought Iā€™d write up about my experience. Good & Bad!

Barcelona

Contactless is available everywhere no questionā€¦ everywhere that contactless is available, Apple Pay & Google Pay seems to be accepted above Ā£30 - no silly artificial Ā£30 limit like the UK. Just works. Most stores / restaurants seem to use Sabadell as their terminal provider and I didnā€™t come across anywhere with a ā€˜minimum spendā€™.

I did experience an issue in 2 different Mcdonalds branches; where using Monzo via card or Apple Pay would crash the Self Checkout / terminal when select local currency. Previously wrote about here - Spain Mastercard Contactless EUR conversion
However using a different card / provider (Visa); worked fine.

I didnā€™t need to get cash out at all in Barcelona - (other then the ridiculous cash only city [scam] tax), this meant I could keep track of spending via Monzo app.

Taxiā€™s; all Taxi drivers seemed to accept card without issue. Although, 1 driver huffed at the concept of having to get his card machine out and charged a lovely additional fee for the privilege of doing so.
On the whole, taxiā€™s weā€™re dirt cheap and could be relied upon for the most part (compared with our Black Cabs).

Ibiza

This was a different kettle of fish; whilst like Barcelona contactless was accepted everywhere from small cafeā€™s to fast food and high end restaurants. Most places had a minimum spend via card; making ATMā€™s at times vital.

Taxiā€™s in particular weā€™re sometimes more challenging then Barcelona; as found not all accepted card payments and it was difficult to check this. This resulted in the constant need for cash.

On the subject of ATMā€™s. There weā€™re 2 forms of ATMā€™s; those provided at Bankā€™s where no fee is charged and withdrawals can be made in local currency.
Then those which have ā€˜tourist trapā€™ written all over them; where you are charged a fee for use & a poor exchange rate - with often difficulty to select local currency.

I did however notice that almost all of their ATMā€™s weā€™re contactless. Tap, enter pin and then tap again upon cash withdrawal for authorisation. Some even advertising Apple & Google Pay.
Iā€™d be interested to understand how this works via Apple/Google Pay; due to the individual specific device account number used to protect the identity/not transfer card details to the NFC receiver - I would have assumed this difficult to attribute to a customer.

Due to the higher need of cash; I was therefore withdrawing lots throughout Ibiza. Under the impression that Iā€™d be notified upon going over this limit, I was not concerned - as would switch to my secondary Starling account.
WRONG, unfortunately the notifications which should be issued upon fees being charged seem to be broken. Multiple cash withdrawals, different ATMā€™s. None featuring the ā€˜this includes a 3% feeā€™ in notification. Iā€™ve raised with support, however would be interested if others have had this issue?

Relating to card terminalā€™s & DCC conversion. I found in some locations this to be a little hit and miss. In 1 location; a curry restaurant I was advised ā€˜our other card reader is brokenā€¦ this one doesnā€™t give the option for local currencyā€™. Very convenient. I made clear to the waitress that this is against MasterCardā€™s terms of service & I will be raising. Of course the receipt that followed was ā€˜I accept that I received the choice of currenciesā€¦ā€ etc. Nice money maker for the inter bank & restaurant. Another, was that of a Taxi driver or persisted to sayā€¦ local currency doesnā€™t work, ā€˜Iā€™ll tryā€¦look, look failedā€™.

Long & short; Ibiza is a little flakey when It comes to card. Whilst the infrastructure, like Barcelona is there. The training and or/dodgy money making element is also present.

Quick Summary -

ATMā€™s - Contactless support; some supporting Apple / Google Pay

How does Apple / Google Pay work from a technical point of view?

IMG_3917

Why is the UK so far behind on this?; Barclays is trialing in a very limited form at present.

Monzo Withdrawal limit -

Have others experienced not receiving notification regarding cash withdrawal feeā€™s? Below example -

IMG_4107

DCC Currency Conversion - inability to select local currency

How do we stamp out this shady practise; other then reporting to our banks & Mastercard, leaving poor reviews etc?
Have others refused to pay and walk out?

IMG_4035

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One point if you withdraw cash via Google or apple.pay, do monzo realise itā€™s a cash withdrawal or just see it as a transaction?

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Iā€™m also surprised you didnā€™t get a notification when you reached the ATM limit

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Good point; however I never actually successfully withdraw via Apple / Google Pay. I attempted via a Bank run ATM - however as suspected couldnā€™t authorise.

I wanted to try via the standalone (tourist trap ATMā€™s) which weā€™re explicitly adverting Apple/Google Pay support - however didnā€™t want to be charged. (even though I was in then end anyway by Monzo lol).

I made a total of 4 transactions over the ATM limit; however none of those notification featured the ā€œthis includes a 3% fee of Xā€ even though within the actual transaction the fee is listed.

Would be interested to hear if others have experienced thisā€¦? As was a bit of a sour note to using Monzo abroad, should have used Starling lol!

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The lack of notications about being over the limit is quite unacceptable, anyone else had this? Could be implemented on Android idk.

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Looking forward to giving Monzo a spin in Spain (tongue twister!) on Friday!

The MasterCard rate coupled with this IFTTT applet:

image

ā€¦is going to be pretty exciting!

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Let us know how the applet goes!

I might give it a go on my next trip. My guess is that exchange rate variations might knock it out of kilter a bit.

Monzo card failed contactless in McDonalds in Spain today.

I didnā€™t get a notification about it either (while I was Italy and Greece), but at the time I blamed it on my new android having just come from iOS.

I used this trigger when in Spain last month

It worked perfectly :+1::+1::+1:

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Monzo have apparently fixed the Fee / limit notification element now; it was broken by the looks of it! Obviously unable to test this out, but gotten confirmation it should be working again :)!

What error did you get? Iā€™ve had similar issues with Mcdonalds in Spain. Was it Self checkout?

Yes was self checkout McDonaldā€™s checkout. It froze on me when trying to choose euros.

Yepā€¦ Iā€™ve had exactly the same! It freezes / crashes terminal when the DCC part appears. Interestingly works fine for other cards. Although noted Starling was the same.

Hereā€™s where I raised before - Spain Mastercard Contactless EUR conversion

Just following this up, but this worked really well.

The only slight issue was how it worked with Coin Jar. Because the exchange rate fluctuates, the money which is moved into the coin jar most of the time isnā€™t correct. It might be better to wait until the exchange rate is decided before moving the money?

e.g. I spent 5.95 euros, which was converted into Ā£5.37 (Ā£1 = ā‚¬1.11) but 68p was added into my Coin Jar.

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