Mastercard emergency cash advance

[urban]

I see that Mastercard can get you emergency cash within 2 hours anywhere in the world. Does this apply with my Monzo card?

And how do they issue emergency cash?

I’m looking at this as a backup method for travel (I used to carry travellers’ cheques):
https://www.mastercard.co.uk/en-gb/consumers/get-support/global-services.html

[anon44204028]

The main benefits page (of which this is a sub page off it) states “benefits on your card varies by card type and by card issuer. Please refer to your issuing financial institution for complete coverage terms and conditions or call the Mastercard Assistance Center at 0800-96-4767 for details on your benefits” so it may not be available on the Monzo card. Many of the benefits are only for MasterCard World and MasterCard World Elite card types.

[urban]

That’s interesting. Can someone from Monzo confirm whether we can use the Mastercard emergency cash advance service?

(I called that Mastercard phone number and they told me to check with Monzo).

[garete (Gareth)]

Emergency Cash Advance

Is it something you’d pay ~£7 per month for? It looks like it’s a premium feature for bunq https://together.bunq.com/topic/worldwide-mastercard A close idea proposed is a hot-spare card, which might be a cheaper alternative as there’s no arrangement to get replacement cash or card to you.

From what I read, it’s a wire transfer. More likely offered by credit cards that can recoup the costs.

[urban]

The word from Monzo is that they don’t offer this service, but it’s something they might look into.

From my point of view, as an emergency option if I’m travelling and all of my cards/cash gets stolen, it would be great if Monzo could Western Union some money over to me (even if I pay all the costs - I’m not asking for anything for free).

I used to carry travellers cheques for this purpose (Amex guaranteed to Western Union money to you if you lose the cheques). But travellers cheques acceptance is so limited these days that they’re a bit of a liability.

[garete (Gareth)]

if Monzo could Western Union some money over to me

You could probably do this yourself (it costs a fiver)
It appears W.U. accept bank transfer, so you could log in on a phone and transfer some funds. Then collect it using the code and some ID.

https://www.westernunion.com/gb/en/faq-send-money.html

[urban]

Amazing

[urban]

I just checked with Western Union and it’s totally fine to send from your UK bank account to yourself when you’re abroad.

So in an emergency I could potentially just use the WU app and then collect the cash a few minutes later.

(Sending cash is a fiver - sending by bank transfer is about 10% - but still, if it’s an emergency)

Thanks for the advice