This is a wiki crowdsourced by the Monzo Community to help you travel with Monzo.
Just like Wikipedia, anyone can edit it to help out others. If you have any tips or feedback for visiting South Korea with Monzo, please feel free to edit this guide. You can also add a comment t or question below ā someone will then incorporate your comment into the main text below and then delete your comment. To create your own āMonzo in ā¦ā guide if one doesnāt already exist, just copy this template into a new post and write away!
The current account card is not currently working with a number of merchants in South Korea. Weāre working hard on fixing this but have no definitive timeline for the moment.
ATMs
Most ATMs provide the ability to select a language.
ATMs are generally located inside of branches.
When using the machines, selecting āChecking Accountā is advised.
The majority of ATMs utilise magstripe so be sure to enable it every 24 hours!
ATMs in convenience stores donāt work with Monzo even when marked āglobalā. You need to use a bank. If there is a row of them look for the one with the different writing over the top. This will be the global card reading machine
Payment and withdrawal limits
All Monzo cards have some payment and withdrawal limits. To check yours before you leave, tap āAccountā under the picture of your card and then āSpending and card limitsā.
Crowdsourced merchant data
Data can be patchy due to mapping restrictions in the country against foreign data use/exporting.
Miscellaneous
To edit this guide, just tap the pencil icon below. Alternatively, add a reply with your comments and someone from the community will incorporate your suggestions into the guide and then delete your comment.
Hi, I got back from Korea yestersay having spent 10 days there. I wanted to give an overview of my use of Monzo in Korea for any fellow travellers.
The card worked in the following;
Kimbab Records (indie record shop in Hondae)
Burger King
Olive Young (cosmetics chain)
Paris Baguette (bakery chain)
It didnāt work in the following;
Uniqlo (global clothing store) in Myeongdeong
Daiso
HomePlus (Korean wide supermarket)
A skin clinic/pharmacy whose name I forget.
There just seems to be an issue with foreign MasterCards in general in SK. Both my UK and Canadian MasterCards were unreliable in SK but my Visa cards worked fine.
Unfortunately Monzo does not work in South Korea, Iāve tried in several shops like Starbucks, Uniqlo, 7Eleven and the transaction was always declined. My debit card from a UK high street bank works perfectly - I hope Monzo will solve this issue soon, otherwise they are not really a reliable card when travelling outside Europe.
Just wondering if anyone had any recent updates on how monzo works in South Korea? I have created an account very recently, but have read that the card has issues in South Korea. Iām wondering if anyone knows how many of these issues have been solved. I donāt really need to use it for withdrawing money, just to make small payments day to day. Iād appreciate any feedback!
I was there 2 months ago. My card didnāt work in Daiso, Artbox and Kyoto bookstore but was fine everywhere else, apart from one random time when it didnāt work in a CU convenience store that I visited pretty much daily LOL.
I withdrew money at Woori and KEB bank and both were fine.
I was recently in South Korea, and noticed that it didnāt work in any of the stores or hotels that I tried to use it in.
A couple of things I noticed that was really disappointing:
It seems that Monzo know it doesnāt work properly in South Korea. Why canāt Monzo send a notification to tell customers when they try to use it (and it doesnāt work) that there are issues in how it works in South Korea.
I contacted the customer service when it didnāt work, and they first told me that the problem was with the terminal. Then when I explained other cards worked, and that my card didnāt work on other South Korean terminals, the advisor told me my card is probably faulty. Why is the customer service advisor unaware of the correct information?
If Monzo is aware of the problems with card transactions then that would be annoying.
Iām currently in Seoul and having to carry enough cash to match any card purchase is very frustratingā¦ especially when Iāve hit my ATM free withdrawal limit.
After a trip to Korea we found that there are still issues with many merchants declining transactions for no apparent reason.
Sometimes this was due to user error (which is quite frequent as there are several other different NFC/IC card standards in use which you or the merchant may try to use accidentally), there does seem to be something strange going on with chip-and-nothing transactions.
Generally, when given the option, chip-and-signature seems to work OK. We didnāt once get a chip-and-PIN transaction that I remember (despite the hardware being available in many merchants). We did manage to successfully do a contactless transaction to two, but as we werenāt making any transactions with PIN entry we quickly reached our PIN entry limit and contactless was disabled.
Towards the end of our trip, we just had to take out cash to guaruntee that we would be able to pay for things - not a great experience and meant we couldnāt benefit from Mastercard protection on larger purchases.
I am currently in South Korea and had a nightmare with Monzo.
For context: I am a long, long time customer, and pay for Monzo Premium as I travel abroad frequently with work. I have just come from Japan, where I had zero issues.
At some point early on in my South Korea trip, I had transactions declined for no particular reason. I contacted support, and they were extremely unhelpful.
From what I can gather, it seems that what has happened is that PIN verification is required for further transactions, but since South Korea is largely signature verification - the transactions are being auto-declined. Monzo has no way in place to accommodate this.
I would have expected that signatures would be fine (like any other bank Iāve used), orā¦ in-app verification (I have SIM data). However. Even if the current setup is a regulatory requirement, Monzoās customer support provided zero assistance. For days now they have just kept sending me the same predefined responses about how I must have forgotten my PIN, and how to get a reminder. It is pathetic.
From forum posts here, I have discovered that sending money in-app to a contact can initiate a PIN verification, which then over-rides the requirement for a fixed period - but Monzo have failed to acknowledge this, or give any help. They blamed the merchant (laughably suggesting I speak to the retailer), or told me consistently that my query was being āescalatedā, with no change in their response.
TL;DR - Monzo is not reliable in South Korea. I am incredibly frustrated at their poor response and almost total lack of support.
2 Likes
Anarchist
(Press āHelpā search āContact usā or email help@monzo.com or call 0800 802 1281)
13
Random declines definitely are still happening. I was in a Uniqlo branch and tried to pay with my Monzo card and it got declined twice, so I paid with cash instead. I seem to remember a similar issue on previous trips to Korea too, for example in 2019. I didnāt try paying hotel bills with my Monzo card; I used my Zopa credit card instead which worked generally fine although with signature rather than PIN.
ATM withdrawals work much more reliably though and had no issues with Monzo. I had Magstripe turned on but not sure if it was actually needed or not. Ultimately I decided to just tolerate the extra fees (the 3% charged by Monzo above the free allowance) just to have peace of mind because of the random declines when doing card transactions.
Many automated machines wonāt accept foreign cards, e.g. at railway stations there are lots of ticket machines that say ādomestic card onlyā. I tried one anyway and it started asking for details like the first and third character of a password (??) and then I gave up, so I assume this is some kind of domestic card security authorisation.
Thereās a VISA card marketed to foreign tourists, I think itās called Namane or similar. Apparently it has a domestic card functionality on it but you can only charge it with cash at (a limited number) of machines e.g. at Seoul station so having to do that might just be a bit annoying.
Get yourself a T-money card, you can pick one up at a station, 7-11 or at the airport. Itās not quite on the same usefulness scales as HK Octopus or Japan Pasmo/Suica but it makes public transport a lot easier. I know some Korean but it made life a lot easier on rural buses etc especially if youāre not quite sure how to say where youāre going. The above mentioned Namane(?) card apparently has a dual purse functionality so you can use it for T-money too so I guess it could be useful if you donāt already have a transportation card.
Korea is an absolutely wonderful place to visit. Just make sure you carry cash!
You can top up with an international MasterCard (see here) but thereās a fee (if you look at the tutorial video provided itās 3.3%). You also still have to get the card at one of the machines in Seoul.
I know it would be a hassle, but can you reset the PIN request timer by using an ATM? You might need to get a balance to force it to contact Monzo, but wouldnāt need to withdraw any cash.
