I visited Romania recently for a week and had mixed success with Monzo.
None of the ATMs I tried in various cities/towns seemed to accept my Monzo card.
Every machine said the card was declined
I’d receive a notification on the Monzo app that it had been declined
Every pin/chip machine (POS machines in restaurants/bars) I tried did accept my Monzo card
I contacted support at the time and got the response that sometimes ATMs work off the magnetic stripe rather than the pin/chip so that could well be the reason? I’m not sure. Anywho, I thought I’d share this for anyone going to Romania soon!
I was in Romania over the weekend and used Monzo exclusively for all card payments and cash withdraw. I didn’t have any issues and everything went through. There was only a slight delay in cash withdraws appearing on the app, but apart from that - all good!
You can check exactly which conversion rate you’ll get from Monzo (assuming the rates don’t change), using MasterCard’s online conversion tool. Monzo uses this ‘wholesale’ conversion rate & doesn’t charge any additional fees.
Just looked back on Monzo and I took out 350 RON which was about 68 GBP. Just checked on Google and today that would be about 66 GBP - very little different and of course, no extra fees!
Good to know Monzo works well in Romania. Will be heading there shortly. Had some issues last time but it was due to the payments provider not Monzo itself. (same thing affected Revolut if I recall correctly).
Will definitely use Monzo there. And maybe Starling and Revolut so that I can compare.
Va rog frumos din suflet mia fost furat ghiozdanul cu tot cu card și telefon cum pot să-mi recuperez cardul nu cunosc limba engleza am încercat sa sun dar nu anteleg ce spune