Hey all, has anybody had any experience of using Monzo in Georgia (country, not state…)? Is it as seamless and easy as it is everywhere else?
If MasterCard works then Monzo will work no problems.
Amazing, thanks!
I was in Tbilisi last year (widespread card acceptance) and Svaneti (one ATM in Mestia, no card acceptance elsewhere). Admittedly I did take out more over the three weeks than the new monthly fee-free limit is, so I would be looking at using a Starling card instead now. The only place I had a problem was that it wasn’t accepted on geocell’s website, so I couldn’t top up my SIM without paying the cash fee at a top-up machine. That said, my standard Visa debit wasn’t accepted either, so I suspect it only worked with Georgian cards.
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Hi there
Just back from Georgia with my Monzo card. Fabulous place to visit.
Where it was possible to pay by card, Monzo was accepted without issues and the ATMs all have an English option so it was very easy to take out money. Georgian cities also have automatic ticket machines which will take card payments.
However, we traveled extensively off the main tourist route and many guest houses 
and cafés/restaurants 
and museums refused any card payments, meaning we had to rely on withdrawing enough cash. Up in the mountains there were no banks, let alone ATMs, and there were limited ATMs in the coastal villages, too. Public transport by taxi 
or minibus 
or coach 
is all paid in cash, but you can book your train tickets on-line 
, which I did with Monzo (who sent a security code to my mobile before the payment was authorized overseas). Great 
️.
Apologies to Monzo for withdrawing so much cash…it wasn’t for lack of trying to pay by card! 
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That’s a really great experience you’ve had here. Glad you enjoyed it!
I work at Bank of Georgia and we were just discussing how easy it was for the foreigners to access the features most of the Georgians are already used to - paying with cards without any issues and that is why I was browsing through the Monzo and decided to take a look at its forums.
By any chance, have you heard about the Tourist Card while you were here?
We have just introduced it this year, it is specially designed for tourists - works like a pre-paid card and you can use it for both at the stores and the public transportation in Tbilisi.
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Hi We travelled mostly by marshrutka and didn’t see anyone using the Tourist cards. In Tbilisi we could not use the metro without a 100 card…not sure if this is your Tourist card…but it works like a London Oyster card - prepaid swipe card to gain entry to metro and cable cars. We mostly paid the top-up for each journey at the ticket window as we were only there for a few days and spent less than 10 lari on the card (so it was a bit annoying for us but would be brilliant if staying for much longer periods). In cities, card payments were much easier than in the countryside, where the fees for taking a card payment put off many of the guesthouses and restaurants from accepting any card payments. There were lot of complaints about booking fees, too, for things like booking.com, so it was easier to travel with cash.
Thanks for your reply.
Yeah, the one you are talking about I believe is Metromoney - designed to be only used in public transportation such as metro/bus/marshrutka/cable cars.
Meanwhile, you can use Tourist Card for in-store payments too - just like a normal Visa.
You were most likely guided towards the Metromoney by the locals as they are more familiar with the name, compared to the Tourist Card.
Thanks again for the interesting insight!
P.S If anyone has questions about Georgia - I would be glad to help you out. 
I was just in Dunkin Donuts on Freedom Square and the lady in front had a Monzo card. I was only in there to buy coffee to break a GEL100 note though. FYI I’m flying back to London tomorrow but thinking about opening a bank account in Georgia because of the high interest rates compared to UK but obviously will do a lot of research first!
Just adding to this… I’m in Tbilisi at the moment and haven’t had any trouble paying by card. The only minor issue is that I’ve had to pay for the hotel in cash, which I wasn’t expecting, so I’ve already gone over the free ATM limit. I’ve got curve with me though so will switch to that and hope I don’t go over theirs too! Other than that, no problems. I’ve not been to a restaurant that doesn’t take card (yet). It’s probably a good idea to get down small denomination currency out anyway to pay for thing like the metro and toilets. Pretty sure that tourists paying for toilets makes up about 2% of Georgia’s GDP…