šŸ‡ØšŸ‡³ Monzo in China

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Whatā€™s your app version? China blocks Google Play, so it might be that your app is outdated and couldnā€™t update. Iā€™m not sure if ios has any blocks in China.

Monzo needs to enforce update by blocking the app sometimes - when thereā€™s an important bugfix, or specific feature needs to be pushed out. Please see what Tristan said:

Prepaid:
Current Version for Android is 1.13.1.
IOS version is 1.9.17.

Iā€™m not sure about CA, I have CA Preview and thereā€™s no version on it. :thinking: And I canā€™t access testflight, since I parted ways with an iphone I borrowed for testing. :wink:
CA:
Android 2.0.0-alpha3
IOS: v2.0.0 (322)

You can contact support via help@monzo.com and explain the problem. If this is a case of the outdated app, maybe they can help out with it. If itā€™s not it, then Monzo is the only one that can help anyway! :smiley:

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my CA beta shows version info as 2.0.0-alpha 3
like you I ditched iPhone so canā€™t help with that ver no

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Current iOS CA preview is V2.0.0 (322)

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Get yourself a VPN and it should be good to go. I doubt Monzo can do anything against a shitty government thatā€™s feels so insecure it needs to block anything they donā€™t like, including foreign servers as they can contain ā€œforbiddenā€ content.

For an iOS VPN with a one month free trial, use encrypt.me (formerly Cloak) ā€¦Iā€™ve been using this for a couple of years and itā€™s very good.

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salty

/20characters/

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Totally agree with this recommendation for Encrypt.me. Iā€™ve been using for nearly two years now as well with excellent service. In fact Iā€™ve just updated to family package!

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I spent several weeks in China in April-May, and had no such problem using the app (iOS). I used my UK Vodafone SIM card, so assume this is because the services were all routed via the UK. When using hotel wifi, I used ExpressVPN to make it look like I was in the UK.

I did experience trouble withdrawing cash from some ATMs, but the majority were fine (the only one I can remember definitely working is ABC bank).

I just had my Monzo CA card declined at the Starbucks in the Guangzhou airport international transit area. The staff said ā€˜No Mastercardā€™, and sure enough my First Direct Visa debit card was accepted. Most cheap places around Guangzhou are cash/chinese cards only, so it seems the best bet is to use Monzo to withdraw 200gbp equivalent from one of the airport cash machines and then put the card away somewhere safe.

Hi,
just a short note to share my experience last week (February 2018) in China.
To make it short: if travelling to China leave your Monzo at home, bring cash and exchange it on any bank.

I have tried, and being declined, to pay using my Monzo on:

  • hotel
  • Starbucks
  • Pacific coffee shop
  • big supermarket (sorry forgot the name)
  • bar

Basically they only take UniPay cards.
So you end going to take cash to an ATMā€¦but most of them only work with UniPay cards, not Mastercard. Of course you need to enable the stripe on the appā€¦that only lasts for 24 hs.
A complete pain.

To make a long story short: next time I will take cash and exchange on a Bank and that is it.

If you have a friend that has a Chinese bank account, the best idea would be to ask him to help setup wechat and use it to pay. Everybody takes wechat to pay.

Hope is helpful!

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Or just open your own chinese bank account - the market over there is much less regulated and as such all you need to open a bank account is a passport really, they might ask for address as a contact point but would rarely ask to prove that you actually live there. Some banks are more foreigner friendly (e.g. have English forms, websites, apps etc.) than others buy you can find that pretty quickly with a simple online search. Then with an UnionPay card you would have unlocked all of China including AliPay & WeixinPay :slight_smile:

Btw I did not have problems with my (not-Monzo-issued) Mastercard across various Starbucks in Shanghai a few years ago, not sure if that has changed. Seven Elevens also had resonable acceptance, and most ATM located near their bankā€™s entrance seem to have worked for me. The odd think was ATMs asking me if I want to access my checking or credit account even though I was inserting a (Halifax Clarity) credit card. Never bothered to figure out what is the difference since Iā€™d just select credit anyway.

Banks are required to verify identity and when this canā€™t be done face to face in a branch it is done by presenting ID thru a video link or posting certified copies of ID. Banks would be failing in their compliance obligations if they did not check an applicantā€™s identity.

Regardless of that, the UK system is very hostile to foreigners that have just moved and cannot present 3 months of bills under their own name and NIN (except for Monzo, but then again they are going to have challenging time if they want to deposit some cash into it), whereas passport only requirement in China makes things easy for even people on short trip open one should they want one.

My comment was in regards of - it is pretty easy and simple, might end up being more convenient than using friendsā€™ account for the chap above. Definitely not as discussion starter on how different countries handle bank account openings.

Not sure how recent your experience was but my friend recently opened a TSB account online and it necessitated either sending original ID to their central banking or going into your nearest branch and getting the originals photocopued by them, certified by their staff, and forwarded by them to central banking.

I find this discussion interesting, because I noticed a shift:

A few years ago I applied for a raft of bank accounts (including TSB, for which @anon44204028ā€™s friend had to provide ID) and none of them required me to go to branch or send in any ID documents: All was online.

Over the last few months I applied for a few more bank accounts (including NatWest for which @TTJJ didnā€™t have to provide ID) and all required me to go to branch or send certified copies of ID. I was told this was standard procedure when I queried based on past experience.

Have regulations been tightened? Have implementations changed? At first I thought it was a difference between banks, and pure coincidence, but following this discussion there seems to be more to it. Does someone know?

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https://www.ft.com/content/539e39b8-851b-11e8-a29d-73e3d454535d

Very interesting article about AliPay & WeChat Pay in China. It aligns perfectly with my experience in China from last week where even using cash is starting to get hard and the preferred payment methods are the aforementioned mobile wallets.

It looks like it could be a great opportunity for fintech challengers like Monzo to build links with them and aid tourists tremendouslyā€¦ Does anyone know what kind of effort is involved in that?

Itā€™s not possible as to use Alipay you need a Chinese bank account for ID verification.

Interesting discussion. Having lived in Chongqing for 3 years, cash is dead as a payment system. Everybody uses or has access to wechatpay/alipay.
As a lowai, you should be able to get away with paying in cash if you plead ignorance.
Contactless card payments are also a bit UK-centric tbh. However Monzo cards will work at all atms displaying the mastercard symbol, so you can get some lovely bits of paper with pix of Mao on them in different colours.
As is said above, setting up wechat pay requires a Chinese SIM and ID number (passport number) and probably a working visa. This is not really an option for tourists.
If Monzo could figure out how to work with wechat in order to top up the wechat wallet function/monzo account, it would be great for people like me and the 000s of Chinese students in the UK

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I have set up WeChat and added monzo card on there. Anyone had experience using monzo on WeChat pay? I hope it works well and isnā€™t declinedā€¦ I know WeChat pay is really popular there.