šŸ‡§šŸ‡¬ Monzo in Bulgaria

I tried it after enabling magstripe withdrawls and Iā€™m afraid it still didnā€™t work with the ATMs and POS of certain banks (as identified above). I generally used FIBank to withdraw money and used cash.

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There is a fitbank ATM in Borovets where I am going so I should be fine to go to that one and withdraw!

To echo these comments, I just got back from Bansko and had about a 50% success rate on my Monzo card. Even with the same POS machine it would fail, fail again, and then suddenly accept it on the third try.

I even had a Bulgarian vendor tell me ā€œWe donā€™t take Monzoā€ :disappointed:

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Thatā€™s not too bad, because Bulgarian vendor KNEW Monzo in the first place. :smiley: Thatā€™s definitely not something Iā€™d expect to hear outside of UK.

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Heading this way today! Itā€™s like lucky dip

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Spent 5 days here, worked at the ATM in Sofia airport and worked at multiple ATMs in borrovets. Hotel also accepted monzo.

Impressed, another country that this works well at

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Just got back. I just hunted down a Fitbank ATM and got cash out. Worked great!

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The interesting thing is the inconsistency that mattdell talked about. I believe I noticed it too - in some stores and restaurants on different occasions rather than multiple tries in one go - but will test properly in the next few weeks and update you with my experience.

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Just returned from Bansko and can confirm the experiences above. What surprised me though is that my Revolut card usually worked at the same terminals that Monzo was declined. I would have expected that both of them donā€™t work as they use the same card payment processor GPS?

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Just got back from Sofia, can confirm only real success was with Fibank ATMs. Couldnā€™t get it to work with any other ATMs. Thankfully Fibank are all over and it worked there, every time.

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Hi, Can anyone confirm if it works at Dsk ATM, that has tried them recently? Some people are reporting it only working at FiBank?

Thank youā€¦

Hi it definitely works with dsk and postbank and fibank. Also fibank cash machines allow maximum of 400 euro at a time around 800 lev

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Ah thatā€™s great, thanks! :+1:t2:

I was in Sofia at the end of April and couldnā€™t get any ATMs to work ā€“ FiBank, DSK, Post, etc., with and without magstripe enabled in the setting. Disappointingā€¦

I just came back from Varna on Sunday. I have used only postbank atms in varna, dobrich, and shumen cities, monzo gave me even better fx rate as the market was 2.30 for gbp postbank gave me 2.32 and 2.31 rates for monzo cardā€¦ Iā€™m happy to use monzo card in Bulgaria and I will definitely use it there again

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Hi All,

I have successfully used Monzo at DSK ATM in Sunny Beach :blush::+1:t2:

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Hi all, just to confirm I used ATM of United Bulgarian Bank (UBB or ŠžŠ‘Š‘) and it worked fine :sunglasses::money_mouth_face:

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Postbank worked fine for me in Varna but I couldnā€™t get any other bank to work (tried about 4 others). Every ATM that failed all had a similar/identical UI, donā€™t know if thatā€™s relevant. Postbank looked like a totally septate system and worked every time.

As reported previously FiBank has been a success and did not impose a usage fee either, no success with ccb (something Co-operative Bank) or UniCredit

Most retailers that I tried also failed i.e. Lidl, Kaufland although Billa worked using contactless (failed on Chip/pin).

Happy restaraunt went through no bother on Chip & Pin

Was able to use FiBank ATMs and I think Postbank. Didnā€™t work in any shops except Costa at the airport!

Honestly youā€™re better off with Revolut in Bulgaria which my friends were using hassle-free.

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