🇮🇩 Monzo in Indonesia [Discussion]

I went to Indonesia recently and it worked for all payments at hotels and restaurants!

It’s not supported at every ATM though – I just tried one after the next until it worked. I’d recommend getting cash out of ATMs at airports to save the hassle :slight_smile:

Could we add one for Indonesia? Worked well at some ATMs e.g BCA, CIMB, Mandiri. Didn’t work on BRI, HSBC was going to charge me for the transaction so I aborted. I surprisingly found it easier to use my Monzo card than I did my HSBC Visa debit for cash withdrawals.

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Travel tips and advice on using Monzo abroad from our high-flying community!

I’ve moved Claire’s topic here, she’s planning a trip to Bali & looking for tips :raised_hands:

In bali and lombok is working without no problems in most of the atm machines, hotels and restaurants no problem at all, enjoy the trip and don’t worry about the money…

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That’s good to know. I’m off to Bali at the end of May and this is very reassuring!

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Don’t forget to enable magstripe ATMs in your settings before using an ATM. I’m currently in Bali and tried a good 20 minutes to withdraw cash before I checked my app and noticed why all transactions were rejected. Wish I’d have read this first :tired_face:

I only used my card once to pay at a restaurant but have seen MasterCard signs and card machines in a lot of places.

Edit: After two weeks in Bali I used my card several times at ATMs, restaurants, hotels and shops. Lots of places accept cards and only I had one hotel charge me 3% extra for card payment. Worked every time except once when my card didn’t seem to work on one card machine but worked on another one. I also tried using my card with the Bluebird Taxi app but the app wouldn’t accept the card. Although, I don’t think that was to do with Monzo as my other card wasn’t accepted either.

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Hello, I’m in Bali now, have been in Kuta Lombok also. So far ATMs working are bank BNI, Mandiri, and the cluster bank ATMs that have a huge list of bank providers logos above the machine. Branch of ATM that consistently does not work is BRI- which is quite a common atm unfortunately. Because of needing to enable mag strip- watch out for that, need to switch on and current monzo settings only switch on for 24 hours. If you’re here for anything longer than a few weeks- highly recommend buying local SIM card- I bought XL- think it was 150,000 for 8gb on LTE/4G. This works across all across indo and coverage is pretty good, guy told me that the data rolls over to the next month till used.

Strongly recommend you find cash points that dispense 50,000 notes- much much easier to deal with. Also- Commonweath atm says on splash screen that they stick a 20,000 fee on top so I never used them. MasterCard ATM finder app is absolutely useless- do not bother. Booking flights with Lion Air took me 7 hours till I found tiket2 which was then possible, didn’t use monzo which might work, did use hsbc visa. Lion air are notorious for being useless with foreign cards, recommend tiket2 if you fail at first attempt- don’t keep trying, it’ll send you quickly mad. Also recommend Pura Tirta Empul, water temple if you’re into that kind of thing- get there early- 8am is good.

Will x

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Hi all

We are travelling to Jakarta from 29th July to 2nd august then off to Bali. We just wanted to know more about the MONZO CARD as I’m looking to get one and was wondering how much to load onto it? Is it quick to top up via a smart phone application? Also was it easy to withdraw over there or are there certain ATMs from which we can withdraw cash?

Thank you

Hi @sukh_bal1985, I’ve no idea what your holiday budget is so can’t tell you how much to load on the card, but topping up via the app is instant so long as you have an internet connection so no worries there.

Look up through this thread and you will find useful info on ATM withdrawals. When you return please post back with your own experience using Monzo out there :grinning:

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Is it easy to find this megstripe setting in the app? i’ve applied for my card and will get it this thursday 6th July. Did you find good wifi there so you can use the app to top it up? Did you use your card or band transfer?

Any fee for using withdrawing your cash? e.g. ATM fee as i know the card doesnt charge you anything, which is awesome,

Yes, easy to find the setting in the app (there aren’t that many options).
I used mobile internet most of the time while over there, so not too sure about WiFi but I seem to remember that most restaurants & cafes have WiFi.
Don’t remember seeing any ATMs that charge for withdrawals so assume that most don’t charge.

Just back from Bali - stayed in Sanur, Ubud, Amed & Gili islands - wifi great everywhere pretty much every cafe and restaurant has free wifi. A lot of cash points in Sanur wouldn’t accept the card and one that worked charged 3% - found one attached to a bank that didn’t charge. I enabled magsrripe every morning in the hotel - it is was still enabled I turned it off then on then back on to resetanother 24 hours. Every one of our hotels charged 3% fee and a lot of shops and restaurants did too - but quite frankly the place is so cheap 3% is pennies. Exchange rates were better than the exchange kiosks.select Credit or Credit Card when it asks you what account. I transferred money in from my bank account as and when I needed it rather thank load up before. Magstripe enabling daily is a bit of a pain - and had to rely on another card a couple of times and if the issues they had this morning occurred again you’d need another card handy.

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Just to summerise
Best place to withdraw currency is the airport and “far ATMs working are bank BNI, Mandiri, and the cluster bank ATMs that have a huge list of bank providers logos above the machine.”

My question is, are these the ATM that you do not have to enable Mag strip for? The other one you listed, is the mag strip enabling one. What’s the main difference between them. Do they work/look slightly differently?

I wouldn’t say the best place to withdraw money is the airport because what are you going to do- spend your holiday at the airport? Carry round all your money and withdraw it all at once? You’ll hit your maximum withdrawal limit most likely and do not expect that the airport ATMs will be more safe.

You need mag stripe enabled for all cash machines. The ones that don’t work, don’t work and deny money mag safe or not- in my experience on my card. Make absolute sure to man handle, check readers, cameras, really investigate all cash machines first before you use them for devices that might be trying to somehow copy your card, always completely cover your hand when inserting PIN. This is not a joke, people are getting their cards copied and accounts emptied all the time- even from major ATMs that look 100% legit. Safest are usually the actual bank ATMs. The 24hr magstrip with on off with monzo seems to be an excellent extra security feature because if someone did somehow get your details- you can choose when the card works. Basically I switch mine on- withdraw money- switch it off- but I do have a mobile phone with local sim and data so that’s not as easy if you don’t have that.

I’d just say- don’t worry, but be careful and cautious and if you are staying longer than a few weeks if get a local SIM card. There are plenty of cash machines all over just be careful to check they don’t have any extra devices on them to skim your data.

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I will be travelling to Indonesia for 8 days and this post has been very very useful, specially when it comes to the mag stripe, i probably would have gone crazy thinking my card doesn’t work. I’ll make sure I post any other tips!

Where in Sanur did you withdraw money from? Or were all the ATMs charging you 3%. I’ll be in the area and it would be very useful to know.

Hope you had a good time!

Most of the ATMs denied me money in Sanur - the atms attached to the bank worked and without a fee but was quite a trek from our home stay. Had to rely on a friends cash - but I didn’t have any issues anywhere else in Bali.

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In Gili Air a lot of atms don’t work, have found one that does Cimb niaga atm, it’s on the main strip, if you’re facing the harbour, turn left and you will get to it in a few minutes

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