My wife and I have been visiting family in Peru. Last year we used our Monzo cards ok without issues. This year all the payments fail to process correctly. Monzo have advised that it is not them or MasterCard so I would say that if anyone is planning on a trip to South America in particular Peru then take currency with you and do not use your Monzo card. It is simply not reliable enough to work. You will get a bulk some of payments at a later date. Sorry Monzo but it is true to say this is a failure.
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In what way? Didn’t work at all, or app didn’t update?
The card works but from Monzo to the vendor the payments do not process through MasterCard. The payments fail at first and Monzo have advised you will be charge for it at a later date when it has chance to process. It fails as you will end up with a different exchange rate at a later date.
To answer the question directly. We did not have this problem last year with Monzo so this appears to be new from this year. Basically do not rely on your Monzo card in South America
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Monzo use the MasterCard exchange rate. If the wholesale currency exchange rate varies from pre authorisation date to settlement date then yes you will pay more or sometimes less.
If the transaction fails then I’m not sure I understand?
Or do you mean it appears to have failed but then you find it appears as a transaction on settlement?
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We’ve had the same issues on 2 Monzo cards here in Peru with transactions being refunded then taking the money out weeks later. Since the transactions have come out nowhere is accepting our cards, and an error message is showing when we insert them. Has anyone else had this issue? Monzo have not assisted us with sorting it, so we are currently stuck in Peru with no access to our money!!
Do you have any other cards like Clarity or Starling?
What have chat said so far?
What is the error message? ATM or card payment? Is the transaction showing in your monzo feed? Do the shops you are trying it in accept MasterCard?
We’ve just returned from Peru. No issues with using the Monzo card in shops, restaurants or hotels. However very difficult to withdraw cash. We tried to use our cards, sometimes at up to 3 different ATMs the same day, usually without success. Only worked a couple of times. We did notice that occasionally the attempted transaction would appear on the app, and then be immediately reinstated. The ATM message usually said that the transaction type was not available. It would seem to be an issue between Monzo and the ATM provider. Other bank debit cards worked ok. If you go to Peru definitely take $US in cash and alternative cards to obtain cash. Monzo card payments work fine.
Has anyone been to Peru more recently and used Monzo? I’m heading there next week.