Monzo blocked my card and left me in Amsterdam with no money

I arrived at Amsterdam schipol airport at 8am yesterday. (Stupidly) I used the first ATM I saw as I came off the plane. I requested 200 which I thought was in Euros. £200 came out in pounds, and I instantly got a notification on my phone to say I’d withdrawn £235.50, so I contacted Monzo chat and told them. It was decided to be passed on to a specialist.
So I’m in Amsterdam, with £200 (which I’ve paid £35.50 for the pleasure of) so instead of paying more to change it up I try to get some more cash out once I’m in the city. Only to find my card has been declined.
Monzo have blocked me from using my card!!! How can you do this when u know I’m here and haven’t managed to get any cash out? I haven’t been able to pay for my hotel and got a rate of 99cent euro to the pound for my £200, which is half spent now so I need to get more money out.
But Monzo have not bothered replying on chat to me.
I can’t believe the terrible customer service, I honestly thought u were such a good bank but the way u have left me in another country, and just blocked my card and ignored my messages is terrible.

1 Like

What kind of ATM are you using and is why is the transaction saying it’s declined in your feed?

ATMs have to be connected to the MasterCard network and I found some in Amsterdam that weren’t

3 Likes

If that’s the case, maybe Monzo should build a map of ATMs that work with Monzo - either from source data or from past successful ATM transactions from their customers.

“Someone withdrew cash at this machine in the last 3 hours” would be comforting to travellers.

…or just look for the MasterCard logo? :eyes:

https://www.mastercard.co.uk/en-gb/consumers/get-support/locate-an-atm.html

4 Likes

The in app help directs you to this link, but both are valid.

https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/consumers/get-support/find-nearest-atm.html

Screenshot

4 Likes

I hope you get this sorted soon.

There is a number on the back of your monzo card

It did have the MasterCard logo and I also tried to use it in a shop and it was declined. I’ll try again today. I haven’t called them because it’s so expensive to use my Mobile out here to call.
Yesterday they replied to my first message straight away, then as soon as she said it would be referred to a specialist I have heard no more. Even though my card is blocked and I can’t get cash out, so I have messaged them a couple of more times.

If you are from the UK on a UK tarrif is it not the same price?

1 Like

You’re in an EU country so it should just be charged at your UK rate since EU roaming charges were banned

2 Likes

Ok thanks for your help I’ll try again soon and if not I will call them

Oh that’s great!

You need to be aware that many places in the Netherlands take neither Visa, MasterCard nor Amex. I encountered lots when I was there in May. Even their main brand supermarket only took Maestro.

Turns out that Maestro don’t charge retailers a transaction fee so the retailers make it the only card they’ll take.

I soon learned to ask when entering a shop which cards they accepted.

3 Likes

I don’t think Monzo will have blocked your card @Sklondon.

As far as I’m aware, when you report a transaction that was either suspicious or problematic, whether you lose your card or it’s damaged, customer support will go as far as freezing the card (and sometimes ordering you a replacement). but you’ll see both of these in the app, with the ability to defrost the card yourself.

If you don’t see that, I imagine it’s merchant acceptability.

1 Like

Hey @Sklondon, hope you get this sorted soon. It must be really distressing being in a foreign country with no access to your money :frowning:

I’ve commented on this before but the practice of passing to a “specialist” followed by radio silence for an indeterminate period of time is shocking. It’s one thing when an account is obviously being used for fraudulent purposes but this is a completely different case. It seems that all too often things are passed over to be investigated rather than a CS agent just dealing with the problem.

1 Like

Given its been passed over to a “specialist” (for some unknown reason) I suspect Monzo have blocked the card. For the OP’s benefit, I hope I’m wrong.

Monzo uses the term “a specialist” when describing any level 2 support function.

I imagine it’s been passed to a payment/card acceptance team to investigate why the ATM dispensed GBP and whether that was expected from that ATM.

1 Like

Let’s try not to presume, it’s best for the OP to contact monzo and wait for the specialist to look into the case.

There isn’t much we can do to do on this public forum.

8 Likes

I know some foreign atms at airports depends cash in different currencies.

I know from personal experience that just because an ATM has the MasterCard logo, doesn’t mean it will accept a Monzo card.

And this is an ATM in a hospital in Scotland.

I’m fully aware of that, I’ve regularly travelling around the world using Monzo, Starling et al but the logo is a good indicator/starting point. Monzo’s own guidance in app details the same.

1 Like