I Am Now Called Monzo Everywhere

It gets funny when it happens in Asia too. I have a friend who writes ā€œSee IDā€ on the back of his bank cards. In Taiwan, where they check the signature panel, he was made to sign those exact words everywhere he used it.

I always tell Starbucks my name is something that’s not my name all the time.
Last time I was Hiroyuki
I’ll try monzo next time I go, which is not often due to the price and how few there are in the UK.

If we’re going to be pedantic, I’d suggest it’s not, as you state, ā€œI am now called Monzo, Everywhereā€, but ā€œI am now called Monzo, everywhere.ā€

I’m sure someone can find fault with my correction, though.

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I’d go with ā€œI am now called Monzo everywhere.ā€

ā€œI am now called Monzo, Everywhereā€ reads like you are talking to someone called Everywhere, and you’re telling them you are now called Monzo.

ā€œI am now called Monzo Everywhereā€ reads like your first name is Monzo, and your second name is Everywhere.

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I tried to use my monzo card at a bogeda last week and they asked for my ID. they ended up refusing my card b/c my legal name was not monzo :sweat_smile:

(and yes i’m aware they’re not supposed to ask for ID on card purchases)

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It’s against mastercard rules, you can report them for that if you wish.

https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/consumers/get-support/report-problem-shopping.html

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Luckily us from the UK doesn’t have that issue :joy::joy:

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I’m kind of surprised by this. In the UK does it mean we’re sharing our name when we use any debit card or is it just a US thing? Very interesting.

Technically, it could, and I know that on a Pizza Express receipt it has a load of extra information, including the name field. I don’t think it’s as commonly used in the UK though, and I know that the field contains generic text when used with contactless.

I’ve only ever seen my actual name once, when I used a very old Triton ATM in an amusement arcade in Morecambe… it had my name in the corner. Was pretty creepy (and it didn’t support my Monzo card, despite it being read).

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Most likely it was still using magstripe, had a old Triton ATM in a shop near me they recently disappeared after it stopped being free. (I refused to use it along with alot of people after this)
It never used to take my monzo card without turning mag stripe on. (It also did that name thing)

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So in the US restaurants (some?) will call orders by people names instead of using numbers, which is interesting because if I’m not mistaken people in the US order their stuff based on numbers while here in Portugal it’s the opposite, one orders a ā€œbig Macā€, not a number 5 or whatever number it is and the order is given a number (it would probably be considered a violation of privacy to shout and display people’s names to everyone else there).

Places like McDonald have actually removed the numbers from menu items, I suppose because no one used them and when you had a tourist doing so, the cashier would have to look to see what they were talking about :wink:

i’ve found that in the US maybe 2/3rds of the time the name on the card will show up on the bottom of a receipt. (i’ve only really started paying attention to this once people started calling me monzo haha)

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another interesting thing that happened recently was that i won a free coffee from dunkin - but they still for my card anyways! i haded it over assuming it was for paying sales tax, but turns out they wanted to copy my name from the card instead of asking me for it, and they still couldn’t get the name right :no_mouth:

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:joy: What’s wrong with asking people…? Also, why would there be sales tax on something free :thinking:

Prize winnings are (sometimes? often? always?) taxed in America, I understand. I first found out about that when Oprah gave away a loaf of cars (you get a car! and you get a car! everybody gets a car!) and some people complained that they couldn’t accept the car because they couldn’t afford the gift tax on it.

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I’m more confused why Monzo left the name field blank on magstripes, even if the cards are prepaid.

It should be expected that terminals, especially legacy ones, would expect that data to exist and that terminals might crash if that data doesn’t exist. After all, the track 1 specification expects a name of 2-26 chars.

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I have absolutely no idea how the US team managed to get that through either.

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Does anyone here with a Mag stripe reader have a Bank of America temp card? The one they give you in branch? I’d be curious what the name field shows.

Same for green dot cards.

Yeah, I’m aware of that (which is bloody ridiculous and borderline unfair in my opinion - I imagine it’s also why US game shows have much higher prize amounts, in addition to the simple reason that they have higher budgets due to more people), but surely if you win something as simple as a coffee then it’s just a basic zero-fee… I’ve never heard of an in-store freebie being charged sales tax.

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You report these items when you file your taxes in April.

All US citizens must self-assess annually regardless of where they live.