You should be fine! I think the only limit is for Ā£10K+. Then you need to contact customer support so that they can raise the limits for a particular transaction.
Have fun in Lanzarote!
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I had the same problem. Tried cards from Nationwide as well as our travel card and the machine wouldnāt accept any.
In the end had to use a normal lane.
Unicaja is also free
So Iāve recently come back from a trip to Barcelona and Ibiza; both equally amazingā¦!
Being a tech, Monzo & Apple enthusiast, I of course put Apple Pay & Monzo to the full test like in every country and thought Iād write up about my experience. Good & Bad!
Barcelona
Contactless is available everywhere no questionā¦ everywhere that contactless is available, Apple Pay & Google Pay seems to be accepted above Ā£30 - no silly artificial Ā£30 limit like the UK. Just works. Most stores / restaurants seem to use Sabadell as their terminal provider and I didnāt come across anywhere with a āminimum spendā.
I did experience an issue in 2 different Mcdonalds branches; where using Monzo via card or Apple Pay would crash the Self Checkout / terminal when select local currency. Previously wrote about here - Spain Mastercard Contactless EUR conversion
However using a different card / provider (Visa); worked fine.
I didnāt need to get cash out at all in Barcelona - (other then the ridiculous cash only city [scam] tax), this meant I could keep track of spending via Monzo app.
Taxiās; all Taxi drivers seemed to accept card without issue. Although, 1 driver huffed at the concept of having to get his card machine out and charged a lovely additional fee for the privilege of doing so.
On the whole, taxiās weāre dirt cheap and could be relied upon for the most part (compared with our Black Cabs).
Ibiza
This was a different kettle of fish; whilst like Barcelona contactless was accepted everywhere from small cafeās to fast food and high end restaurants. Most places had a minimum spend via card; making ATMās at times vital.
Taxiās in particular weāre sometimes more challenging then Barcelona; as found not all accepted card payments and it was difficult to check this. This resulted in the constant need for cash.
On the subject of ATMās. There weāre 2 forms of ATMās; those provided at Bankās where no fee is charged and withdrawals can be made in local currency.
Then those which have ātourist trapā written all over them; where you are charged a fee for use & a poor exchange rate - with often difficulty to select local currency.
I did however notice that almost all of their ATMās weāre contactless. Tap, enter pin and then tap again upon cash withdrawal for authorisation. Some even advertising Apple & Google Pay.
Iād be interested to understand how this works via Apple/Google Pay; due to the individual specific device account number used to protect the identity/not transfer card details to the NFC receiver - I would have assumed this difficult to attribute to a customer.
Due to the higher need of cash; I was therefore withdrawing lots throughout Ibiza. Under the impression that Iād be notified upon going over this limit, I was not concerned - as would switch to my secondary Starling account.
WRONG, unfortunately the notifications which should be issued upon fees being charged seem to be broken. Multiple cash withdrawals, different ATMās. None featuring the āthis includes a 3% feeā in notification. Iāve raised with support, however would be interested if others have had this issue?
Relating to card terminalās & DCC conversion. I found in some locations this to be a little hit and miss. In 1 location; a curry restaurant I was advised āour other card reader is brokenā¦ this one doesnāt give the option for local currencyā. Very convenient. I made clear to the waitress that this is against MasterCardās terms of service & I will be raising. Of course the receipt that followed was āI accept that I received the choice of currenciesā¦ā etc. Nice money maker for the inter bank & restaurant. Another, was that of a Taxi driver or persisted to sayā¦ local currency doesnāt work, āIāll tryā¦look, look failedā.
Long & short; Ibiza is a little flakey when It comes to card. Whilst the infrastructure, like Barcelona is there. The training and or/dodgy money making element is also present.
Quick Summary -
ATMās - Contactless support; some supporting Apple / Google Pay
How does Apple / Google Pay work from a technical point of view?
Why is the UK so far behind on this?; Barclays is trialing in a very limited form at present.
Monzo Withdrawal limit -
Have others experienced not receiving notification regarding cash withdrawal feeās? Below example -
DCC Currency Conversion - inability to select local currency
How do we stamp out this shady practise; other then reporting to our banks & Mastercard, leaving poor reviews etc?
Have others refused to pay and walk out?
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One point if you withdraw cash via Google or apple.pay, do monzo realise itās a cash withdrawal or just see it as a transaction?
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Iām also surprised you didnāt get a notification when you reached the ATM limit
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Good point; however I never actually successfully withdraw via Apple / Google Pay. I attempted via a Bank run ATM - however as suspected couldnāt authorise.
I wanted to try via the standalone (tourist trap ATMās) which weāre explicitly adverting Apple/Google Pay support - however didnāt want to be charged. (even though I was in then end anyway by Monzo lol).
I made a total of 4 transactions over the ATM limit; however none of those notification featured the āthis includes a 3% fee of Xā even though within the actual transaction the fee is listed.
Would be interested to hear if others have experienced thisā¦? As was a bit of a sour note to using Monzo abroad, should have used Starling lol!
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The lack of notications about being over the limit is quite unacceptable, anyone else had this? Could be implemented on Android idk.
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Looking forward to giving Monzo a spin in Spain (tongue twister!) on Friday!
The MasterCard rate coupled with this IFTTT applet:
ā¦is going to be pretty exciting!
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Let us know how the applet goes!
I might give it a go on my next trip. My guess is that exchange rate variations might knock it out of kilter a bit.
Monzo card failed contactless in McDonalds in Spain today.
I didnāt get a notification about it either (while I was Italy and Greece), but at the time I blamed it on my new android having just come from iOS.
I used this trigger when in Spain last month
It worked perfectly 
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Monzo have apparently fixed the Fee / limit notification element now; it was broken by the looks of it! Obviously unable to test this out, but gotten confirmation it should be working again :)!
What error did you get? Iāve had similar issues with Mcdonalds in Spain. Was it Self checkout?
Yes was self checkout McDonaldās checkout. It froze on me when trying to choose euros.
Yepā¦ Iāve had exactly the same! It freezes / crashes terminal when the DCC part appears. Interestingly works fine for other cards. Although noted Starling was the same.
Hereās where I raised before - Spain Mastercard Contactless EUR conversion
Just following this up, but this worked really well.
The only slight issue was how it worked with Coin Jar. Because the exchange rate fluctuates, the money which is moved into the coin jar most of the time isnāt correct. It might be better to wait until the exchange rate is decided before moving the money?
e.g. I spent 5.95 euros, which was converted into Ā£5.37 (Ā£1 = ā¬1.11) but 68p was added into my Coin Jar.
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Every single place I used my Monzo card in Barcelona (mostly with Apple Pay), I was forced into DCC. Luckily I caught it every time, and asked to pay in euros. But because the option comes after the contactless moment, the card reader is literally not in my hands.
Just beware.
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Great reminder!
I always try to hold the card reader even if the merchant is holding it, and wait until the transaction is approved. They are breaking the rules if they choose DCC for you.