Done some research on this. It looks like most standard travel insurance policies (including those with packaged bank accounts) require you to have a return trip booked, and so might not be the best option.
“One-Way Travel Insurance” (also known as “Backpackers Insurance”) is a thing that exists and might be a better option for you. While the name implies it’s “one-way”, it can cover those who will return home but without any specific return date set (or ticket booked).
I found this which might help.
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Good point, re-checking Nationwide they do include it, but I just had another look at Monzo Max and I cannot see such a requirement anywhere in its T&Cs.
It says a ‘trip’ ends with you being back at home or work, but it doesn’t say anything about having to have the return trip pre-booked in any way (that I can see).
They will probs ask you to prove your return home information before making any assessment.
Page 23 of the T&Cs documents:
Trips must begin and end in the UK with both outward and inbound travel tickets purchased before the trip begins.
Trips with only one way or open tickets are not covered. Trips within the UK are only covered provided that your trip destination is more than 100km from your home and includes at least two overnight stays that is pre-booked for a fee.
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To answer your first point - last year we had a trip around Europe planned, all by rail, including a few sleeper trains and several hotels. Had to cancel for medical reasons, and Nationwide’s insurance covered it all, minus the excess and anything we could get refunded.
The claim process was clearly set up for ‘return flight plus hotel’ type of holidays, so there was a lot of time spent on the phone trying to untangle the many separate part of the booking, but nobody tried to quibble with the claim.
As others have said you’d be best speaking directly to the insurers about whether you’d covered if you left the UK without a return booked.
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Has anyone had any experience of downgrading from Plus to Extra?
Perks just isn’t of benefit to me, and it appears that I get pretty much the same with Extra as I do with Plus for less.
The main changes I’ve been able to identify from the in-app comparisons are:
- better credit scoring information with Extra (notwithstanding the understandable contempt for credit scores!)
- Worse cash withdrawal limits (inc. overseas)
- Lower interest
Can anyone confirm everything else is-as and I’m not going to lose a load of functionality?
Thanks.
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I went a similar route and aside from the card not being as nice as the blue one I get pretty much everything I had with Plus for £3
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Ditto. I get all that I care about for £3
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Remember you don’t need to order a new card.
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You do if you downgrade. They force a coral card on you but you don’t have to activate it.
I’ve been from a regular account to Plus to regular to Extra to regular to Extra and never had a new card. Still rocking ‘Hot Coral’.
You don’t have to order a new card if you upgrade but you are forced to get a new one when you downgrade if you have an exclusive card. So @IanG would have to replace their blue card (but doesn’t have to activate the replacement).
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That explains it then. I’ve never taken a new card when I upgrade 
I’m the same; never got a blue card and still with hot coral.
I wonder if it would give me the option to replace as my current card is somewhat battered and the magstripe is very much looking worse for wear.
You’d be forced to the card your plan is eligible for, not a replacement of hot coral if you’re not Max.
I downgraded from Plus to Extra, at the time (the month after Extra launched) I was given the option to keep my Plus card. Athough I dislike the colour I did keep it as it was not embossed.
Now that Hot Coral has gone non-embossed I’ll probably get around to going back to one of those at some point.
Any Plus benefits such as enhanced interest cease pretty much the second you downgrade, but all others continue uninterrupted.
Note that Monzo charge you until the end of the day you downgrade for your existing package, and from the start of the same day you for your new package.
The argument when I queried this, they stated it was because “you had all the benefits of the higher package that day”, including the better interest. Then later admitted that wasn’t actually true because interest is calculated at the end of the day based on the closing balance and the interest rate in force at that point.
Also I believe that this has been mentioned previously in the thread too - because of the GMT/BST time difference (Monzo UK servers work on GMT all year round), if you downgrade in the hour after midnight your subscription renewal date might not be the one you expect.
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I think this has changed. You pay for the month now.
Yeah I’ve just cancelled to downgrade but I can’t sign up for a lower tier yet until my month ends
Interesting. I wonder if that’s the same for upgrades too?
I had a right old row with them about the double charging on downgrade - not the amount but the principle.
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Joint accounts and categories. It appears that the use of custom categories on joint accounts is limited. Can someone please explain exactly how this works? If both account holders have Extra can they have full functionality? It would help if Monzo were at least clear about the limitations rather than having to hunt around the internet for information. Can the other account holder allocate to custom categories for instance? I think you are just creating disappointment by saying that joint accounts work with Extra.