Monzo in Austria 🇦🇹 [Discussion]

[SladdinCJ]

Does anyone have any feedback from using Monzo in Austria? Travelling to Vienna in the next few months and would be keen to hear whether anyone has had any good or bad experiences before relying on it completely.

[Saruccia]

Hi there!
I’ve been in Austria last week for a few days with my monzo, in Salzburg and Bad Mittendorf (in the middle of Austria). I had no problem. Not everywhere worked though. Let’s say 8places out of 10 didn’t give me any problem. But a couple of shops it didn’t worked, so I had to use another card.
I have the beta version.
Hope this is useful. Have a good journey!

[SladdinCJ]

Good to know, thanks for sharing @Saruccia. Will post my own findings soon
to add to this thread.

[tindge]

I’ve just come back from a few days in Vienna, and some skiing in Schladming. Mondo card worked great, both on the public transport, supermarkets, lift pass and withdrawing cash from an ATM. You also get country specific ‘welcome to…’ notifications on arrival, and ‘welcome back’ messages on return, which I thought was a nice touch!

viel Glück! T

[SladdinCJ]

So, I’m just back from Vienna. Monzo works amazingly well in Austria which was incredibly helpful. Saved a lot of money in the process.

One thing I would point out is that there are still quite a few places in Austria which don’t accept card payments so best to get some cash out while you’re there as well to avoid being caught without an ability to pay.

Will be interested in seeing how Monzo stacks up in other parts of the country, for example when skiing.

[stevebowman]

I’ve just got back from 2 weeks in the Tirol region and my card worked everywhere. I was mainly in St Anton and Innsbruck and I used it for:

Cable cars
Public transport - VVT and IVB ticket machines
Spar supermarket
Shell garages
Restaurants inc the mountain restaurants at the cable car stations
Swimming pool in St Anton
Lots of cash points
In car payment for an airport transfer

One interesting thing that I’d never seen before - being asked to enter my PIN (but not insert the card) for a contactless transaction. This happened a few times so maybe is just something we don’t do in the uk at the moment, and it tended to be the larger transactions.

[Avishai]

One interesting thing that I’d never seen before - being asked to enter my PIN (but not insert the card) for a contactless transaction. This happened a few times so maybe is just something we don’t do in the uk at the moment, and it tended to be the larger transactions.

I had it in UK for a transaction of £12. I think there’s some threshold of contactless transactions in some time interval or maybe transaction values, when you haven’t use chip+pin for a bit. It’s a security measure, I had seen it mentioned on some rubbish newspaper article, when they were panicking about “contactless fraud on the rise”. I’m guessing here a bit about ‘why’, but I can definitely confirm it happens in UK as well.

[stevebowman]

I had it in UK for a transaction of £12. I think there’s some threshold of contactless transactions in some time interval or maybe transaction values, when you haven’t use chip+pin for a bit. It’s a security measure, I had seen it mentioned on some rubbish newspaper article, when they were panicking about “contactless fraud on the rise”. I’m guessing here a bit about ‘why’, but I can definitely confirm it happens in UK as well.

Ah interesting! I didn’t realise that. I’ve been asked for a signature for a contactless transaction in the UK bit not the PIN so far. The PIN definitely makes a lot more sense from a security point of view rather than a signature. All interesting stuff

[Borussia]

Hi,

So if I were to take money from an ATM or pay in a shop, should I use chip and pin or disable the function using the app and go magnetic stripe?

it seems I can go chip and pin but just want to double check b:grin:f

[Avishai]

Hi @Borussia
It’s the other way around. Chip+pin are enabled by default and as of right now there’s no way to disable it. Magstripe can be enabled additionally if needed. Contactless is also enabled by default with no option to disable it right now.

In some countries, you need to enable magstripe (chip+pin will still be enabled) and just let the terminal do the dirty work. Most notably, countries that require magstripe for all or majority of payments are US and many countries in Asia.

Users in this thread didn’t mention any need for magstripe in Austria, so you should be generally fine not enabling it - so transactions will be done with chip+pin. BUT, if you get payment rejected, Monzo app will display info about it, so you’ll know better next time . Internet connection on your phone is required to see this notification.

[evangelskies]

I got cash out/ used it in stores without needing to do that. Card acceptance is pretty good in Austria so even small cafes and stores take card!

[Borussia]

Apologies @Avishai, I thought I had it wrong one way or another about the magnetic strip

Ah, I thought since it wasn’t mentioned or had it’s own Wiki page, thought it would be best to double check before flying to the land of Austria

@evangelskies, perfect and thanks for letting me know - that’s me sorted then

[Avishai]

@Borussia That’s definitely not something to apologise for, that’s one of Monzo’s perks - community ! I’m glad I was able to clarify it for you. Enjoy your trip!

[Borussia]

Thanking you for your help @Avishai!

[WillP79]

Currently in Vienna, and surprised by the number of places (even good restaurants) who don’t take cards. Also a lot of cashiers don’t seem to know the £30 limit on contactless.

[max.darby]

Worked for me perfectly in a tiny, tiny town called Feldkirch (on the border of Liechtenstein) for those places that accepted card anyway…