Magic Money Wand

a little country flag beside the username would save fierce confusion or even a flag at the side of the profile picture or letters like IE, UK or USA

Not much point with segregation. We’re all here because of our interest with Monzo, so let the Monzo (and slightly-linked) discussions continue!

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Agreed. Date order rather than reverse date order would also be logical.

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Minimum of 10% interest. :joy::joy::joy:

I had to use Monzo for my solicitor when purchasing a house.

Their first question was ā€˜why you buying so much pot?’

They should really do away with adding pot movements to statements.

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For Ireland:

  • Connected Accounts so I can see all of my financial data in one place
  • Additional currency accounts (for example I travel to the UK relatively regularly, and have friends who visit from the UK, so it would be nice to have a sterling account so I can transact there without having to worry about exchange fees and rates)
  • Ability to open accounts for under 6s (with appropriate parental controls), and in particular svaings accounts for them
  • Access to ETF investing (ideally also for child accounts so that I could invest on my child’s behalf to set them up with a nest egg when they come of age)
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Monzo doesn’t charge any fees for conversion or transactional fees, as it happens instantly at the near real time Mastercard rate.

Some banks (in the UK and here) charge for receiving ā€œforeignā€ currencies, and if I need to transact with someone who has that fee, using a € to Ā£ transaction, I need to take that into account for the transaction (which I don’t for a Ā£ to Ā£ transaction). [or at least this was the case when I lived in the UK]

I also need to worry about foreign exchange rates when transacting in Ā£ with a € account, but with a Ā£ account, I can choose to transfer money from € to Ā£ at a time that is convenient to me (or indeed just keep Ā£ that I receive) instead.

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Welcome back! :sweat_smile:

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Thanks :slight_smile:

When I moved from the UK to Ireland I had to close my Monzo account (since ye didn’t have Irish or € accounts), glad to have rejoined now that you do!

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Welcome back!

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Is that not usually because, if you can’t hold foreign currencies (which most high street banks either don’t, or do if you’re willing to pay extra) just convert straight to your home currency. So for example if you receive € into a Ā£ account where the receiving bank your bank only supports holding Ā£ that € amount is auto converted.

It’s not that they charge per say to hold/receive the currency more they charges to do the instant conversion behind the scenes.

The FX Monzo in the UK handle by using the Mastercard rate with no mark up, I would assume unless stated otherwise the same MasterCard rate is used on the Irish side as well which I certainly prefer over more vague rates like cough Revolut Rate which is far from transparent

Yes, but for example, one of Monzo’s competitors here in Ireland (Revolut) does allow you to hold Ā£ accounts directly, which means I sidestep all of the foreign exchange risk of converting to and from Ā£. For example, in the last 10 years (and I’ve been transferring funds between € and Ā£ for longer than that) the GBP to EUR midmarket exchange rate has varied from 1.3282 to 1.06078, a 25% difference in foreign exchange risk that I am exposed to if I transact € to Ā£ or vice versa regularly. I currently, sidestep that using a competitor, but I don’t particularly want to continue using that particular competitor.

Looking into it, during that time, the fee landscape has changed (when I first moved over to the UK I was charged Ā£10 for the privilege of receiving a payment from €, every single time I received it, and sometimes that could be 5-10% of the total transfer because I was a student), but I fully expect it could change again in the future.

A foreign currency account sidesteps both of these risks.

To look at it another way the purchasing power of Ā£ in the UK is linked to local effects in the UK and similarly the purchasing power of € in Ireland is linked to local effects, the exchange rate between these two currencies is linked to relative performance of both currencies, as well as investor sentiment based on potential political ramifications, which is not something I particularly want to be exposed to on the regular.

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Was a way to sidestep, I believe Revolut have since changed their systems around GBP Account ↔EUR Account transfers, and those transfers now effectively fall under international transfers. So yes while they still let you hold a GBP balance and that does reduce some FX exposure, it’s no longer exactly cost‑free. Revolut also don’t use the mid‑market rate, so you end up paying more in FX, and it’s hard to know exactly how much because their rate isn’t very transparent (my original point). Where as with Monzo you’re at least getting the Mastercard FX rate, with no extra FX markup on top.

No, it is still a way to sidestep forced FX transactions. If I go and meet a relative or a friend in the UK (either NI or elsewhere), I can use my Ā£ account to pay for things and split bills etc with the people I am with easily (either paying them or they pay me), and there is no FX involvement. it’s a Ā£-Ā£ transaction.

Similarly, with my € account, I can do €-€ transactions.

I can do all of the above without any fees on Revolut.

The only time I need to do a FX transaction (which I haven’t needed to do in a while due to my current setup) is when I choose to transfer money between my own accounts, and doing that I have various ways to do that.

I would like to no longer need to use Revolut to fulfill this purpose if Monzo offered Ā£ accounts to Irish customers (and depending on this setup, given they have entities in both Ā£ and € jurisdictions now, Monzo could facilitate this using their existing banking infrastructure in the two currencies [here I am speculating based on what I know about financial structuring within groups]).

Until Monzo offer this, I will continue to be tied to Revolut. This is not necessarily something I wish to be.

Anyway, I’ve said my piece on this particular request (which is more common here due to the existence of Northern Ireland and cross border familial and friend connections and travel than it would have been in the UK). So I’m gonna leave it at that.

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