International Card Replacement Delivery Fee

I just noticed the below from another thread, thought it deserved it’s own discussion.
How do people feel about Monzo introducing a delivery fee for card replacements abroad?
Personally I understand the need, and as long as it’s a reasonable charge I’d be ok with it.

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Agree - I’d be OK with it if it’s reasonable (i.e. close to the cost of next day delivery for a card). Maybe £20 or less?

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Just looked over to Starling, and they charge a whopping £60 for a card replacement abroad!! And they can’t even give you a named day delivery.

Looking at other banks, I can’t see many of the legacy lot that do charge for this - but then most seem to have 5-10 timings for an abroad replacement.

Depends what the fee and service is I guess - but if they would charge for effectively no better than parity with a Legacy bank, I think that would be a shame.

Consumer prices via Royal Mail or Parcelforce for European delivery -

Range between £7 for Royal Mail, International, 4 days. to £20, £34 or £45 for 5 days, 3 days, 1 day with parcelforce.

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I’d be interested in the figures that have caused this change

Has there been a large increase in cards ordered when people are on holiday or are there a lot of Monzo customers who appear to be permanently resident outside the UK?

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Very anecdotal I admit, but I get the sense from comments here and there across this and other forums that there are plenty. Which is a thing

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Hi all, well spotted! It’s not happening for a while yet, but here’s what’s happening.

We’ve decided to start charging for sending replacement cards abroad. We’ll charge £30 to send cards overseas by airmail, although we’ll waive the charge in extenuating circumstances.

We haven’t charged for this in the past because airmail delivery is only a very small part of our overall delivery costs. But as we’ve grown, this small percentage has become a large annual cost. So we think it’s fair to ask people requesting a new card overseas to cover that cost.

The £30 won’t net us a profit on the replacement card, and we hope it encourages people to avoid ordering a new card unless they really need one. We’ll still send replacement cards to UK addresses for free, so it’s there when you get home.

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I see this stat thrown around a bit, but I know 3 people who’ve ordered a replacement card for abroad, and it’s arrived priority mail within a couple of days free of charge.

I think the fees for oversees replacement cards and statements (both of which look steep on paper), are more designed as a deterrent to abuse, than a penny pinching exercise.

My understanding of Monzo, is that it previously took quite a while for a replacement card to arrive overseas - @cookywook, do you know if the paid for service is now a quicker service?

Why are you charging so much? Airmail costs a few pounds. I understand discouraging it, because it’s more costly, but at £30 you must be making a profit on the abroad replacement or you’re doing something seriously wrong.

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Unless it’s next day delivery to the other side of the world?

It depends I assume on the service type. Sending a small letter, tracked, Via Parcelforce in 3-5 days, is about £20-£40 depending on service.

I guess there’s a different need state of “I’m abroad and have no access to cash and need my card PRONTO” (so a guranteed delivery is probably important) vs “I can wait until I get home” vs “I live in Spain and normal post is fine”.

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Airmail is specifically the post, if they’re using a courier then of course it’ll be a lot more expensive.

We use DHL for tracked and signed delivery.

It’s the same service, and the delivery times will depend on where exactly you are in the world.

For extra context, Airmail accounts for 21% of all our card delivery costs but accounts for only 0.48% of actual card deliveries.

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Ah that makes more sense, I understand the charges now - it isn’t ‘airmail’ though this is courier delivery.

For £30 it’s very reasonable because of the costs of manual processing etc. involved too.

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Ouch, those stats do put it into perspective.

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That’s a shame. I understand it but it’s a shame.
Any chance you’d look at providing one overseas replacement for free during account lifetime?

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but Monzo are offering you courier delivery.

Most legacy banks will happily dispatch you a card within 1-2 weeks via normal airmail and not charge you for it. Monzo, however, are sending it via express courier delivery which has certain guarantees attached to it in ways airmail does not.

Monzo could perhaps offer a standard airmail version and charge around £5 for people who are happy to wait - with this being said though Monzo isn’t really offering an account designed for people living outside of the UK so I see little point in this.

I’ve been fairly vocal about the introduction of charges at Monzo but I think this one is very fair and balanced. Courier delivery costs around £10-20 and you need to factor in the cost that someone at Monzo is having to book in courier delivery (I assume) and arrange collection etc.

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I absolutely agree that this charge is fair, especially given the stats @cookywook posted.

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I agree. Monzo are helping to quickly get you out of the :poop: by offering this. They didn’t lose the card (or have it stolen) - the user did. And if you were overseas needing money (Gpay/Apay would help for a while for small stuff - if you had it) then the card is probably vital.

The other thing to note is we often end up having to send two or more replacement cards because the address the customer has given has turned out to be incorrect or they’ve moved on to another hotel :grimacing:

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Are you flying out yourself and hand delivering them???

Don’t get me wrong, charging for this particular service is totally fine IMO, but if you are not making a profit on that, you need to switch couriers. Or at least have different bands for example mainland Europe and rest of world.