I know quite a bit of people in France who would be interested in a Monzo card (the FinTech scene there is pretty much nonexistent currently so no local alternatives), so I wonder, would it be acceptable if I told them to get a PO box in the UK and a VoIP number to be able to open a :mondo: account and receive their card?
Personally I don’t see the problem as this is not that different from my case (French national living in the UK) except instead of actually living here they merely open a PO box to get the card.
Anyone at :mondo: can share their thoughts on this?
Any UK bank I know will only judge residency on a real physical address, and even if they will accept a PO Box for a correspondence address they still need a proper address to verify and approve an applicant.
If you just have a PO Box you won’t have any credit file, electoral register, etc and so they will not be able to electronically verify you as being resident in UK , and if they manually verify you then producing a utility bill or a DVLA or DVLNI driving license etc could be a problem as many will not issue those documents with a street address.
As for other FinTechs Monese are going to expand to 19 other countries (incl Rep France) and Fidor plan to open in France in about 6 months time.
Revolut is also available in France. I believe that Revolut is closer product to Monzo and without monthly fee like Monese. While Monese might be a better overall product, Revolut might be better for people who look for good currency exchanges with low fees. Revolut fees are tad higher than Monzo’s, but quite bearable. If this was a world where Monzo doesn’t exist, I’d be probably quite happy with Revolut.
@anon23935806 I’d recommend Revolut to your friends, as a temporary measure until Monzo is officially available in other countries.