I noticed when I put my Monzo card in a USB card reader and analysed it with cardpeek that it doesn’t have a LINK (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LINK_(UK)) application on it like my NatWest cards do, only the Mastercard application. Is Monzo not directly connected to LINK like other UK banks? (I see Monzo isn’t on the list of members at https://www.link.co.uk/membership/members/) Is there any benefit to Monzo to being in or out of that system? This is entirely technical curiousity, obviously it doesn’t cause me any issues given any proper ATM supports Mastercard 
1 Like
Monzo isn’t a member of the link network which is why this is missing. You won’t be able to use any ATMs which don’t use the MasterCard network so always refer to
https://www.mastercard.co.uk/en-gb/consumers/get-support/locate-an-atm.html
For reference link members are: https://www.link.co.uk/membership/members/
3 Likes
I see. Does Monzo plan to join the network at some point? Is there any advantage beyond broader ATM coverage?
I don’t believe there are any plans given the cost of membership and Monzo are also keen to limit ATM usage given the cost of it on them.
2 Likes
There mostly hasn’t been much demand for it! These days, the subset of ATMs which accept LINK but not Mastercard is pretty small.
Oh, and apart from ATM access, the Post Office can offer LINK users the same services an ATM does, over the counter.
7 Likes
Does Monzo support post office counter services now then? It’s never worked for me…
Ah, I just realised I worded that poorly; I meant to say that the Post Office can offer such services with LINK cards, not that they currently do with Monzo cards - in response to:
8 Likes
LINK is a relic of the past. No need to waste time with it.
2 Likes
What makes you say that? What’s wrong with national card networks?
1 Like
What’s the point? It’s one extra thing to implement & maintain (& debug when it inevitably breaks down), and since you have to support Mastercard anyway why bother with the national one?
I would understand rolling your own thing if Mastercard was somehow bad or unreliable, but so far it’s been pretty flawless; most failures we’ve seen previously have been at merchant’s acquirers.
For one thing, it provides a backup option for when Mastercard fails!
If you want to protect against Mastercard failure, implementing Visa support would be better as it would continue working at point-of-sale payments too. If Mastercard fails and you have LINK support this still means customers would be super confused and would have to seek out a LINK-supporting ATM (and not Mastercard/Visa-only ones).
Overall I just don’t think it’s worth dealing with LINK for the unlikely event of Mastercard failure, not to mention supporting an ancient & irrelevant system by putting money into it (being a member of LINK isn’t free obviously otherwise Monzo would already do it).
Wait, are there ATMs in the UK that don’t support LINK?!
Never ever seen one that doesn’t have a LINK logo on.
1 Like
As well as cash 
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed 180 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.