šŸ‡µšŸ‡­ Monzo in the Philippines [Discussion]

yes, the few days before that I used the card and got cash in Hong Kong too. ATM in HKG was ok, apart from one night at HSBC.

Ok so you were a verified user :thumbsup:

Just to be clear though, unless you ask the Customer Ops team to enable Magstripe withdrawals, theyā€™re only enabled for 24 hours. So were they definitely enabled by the time you got to the Philippines?

I hope it doesnā€™t seem like Iā€™m being pedantic - itā€™s just that itā€™s important to get this right for other Monzo users.

Yes, I had enabled it the night before. and in the end, money was debited to the account so it must have read the info somehow! By the way, it was only 3200 PHP / Ā£49.50! not 500 so it was a small transaction.

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This fills me with dread as Iā€™m heading out there next week. Last year I had the ironically named Supercard from travelex and this happened 4 or 5 times at different bank atmā€™s. Regular declined transactions are not the end of the world but when money disappears from your account for several days itā€™s so infuriating.

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Hi Carl, yes thatā€™s so annoying. It has happened to me a couple of times. :frowning:
Although I was a bit lucky, this was before Monzo had the manual toggle setting in the app so I had to use my nationwide card - the transaction went through but no cash came out. I phoned nationwide and they confirmed the reversal happened automatically. The other time, I had to phone First Direct and it took about 2-3 days before I got my money back.
My suggestion to you is, if you can avoid it - donā€™t use machines in malls or standalone ones. If you can, try to go to ones inside a bank branch or those in vestibules. This way if anything goes wrong, the bank branch staff can hopefully assist.

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I have the Supercard too. My advice in anycase is to bring a pile of cash. Believe me in some places, small villages or off the beaten track places you will not find a bank or the bank will not be working or there will be a power cut. If you travel around as I did, always carry cash. Itā€™not expensive and having 6,000-10,000 pesos with you wonā€™t harm. Also you will not be able to pay by card as you are used to(excursion on a boat or rooms/ some shops bars asked me a minimum of 500-1000 pesos purchase plus a %!) . It really depends what kind of trip you are facing and the places you are visiting. However, i heard here that Metrobank is fine and in anycase download the Nearby Mastercard approved ATM app as advised by the Monzo Crew. Any question just ask

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Iā€™m still in the Philippines so.I thought Iā€™d try using a machine that was in a mall (Century City Mall, Makati).

I put the card in, entered the PIN, asked for cash and then ā€¦ nothing happened. I wasnā€™t sure what was happening because there was nothing on the screen (except for a bank message about a service it was offering). I waited for at least 60 seconds (it felt much longer) before pressing the cancel button. Still nothing happened.

Eventually after about a further 60 seconds I had my card returned. No cash, no messageā€¦nothing.

I didnā€™t have any money debited from my card.

So, as others have suggested, Iā€™d stick to using machines at banks which (as Iā€™d previously posted) have worked fine.

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This is a minor issue (as far as Iā€™m concerned) but Iā€™d be interested to know why it happens.

I have used two locations for ATM withdrawals. The address of the ATM is correct on the transaction in the Monzo app. However, the location on the map that is included in the transaction is miles from where the ATM was.

In the first case, the location on the map of the transaction in the app. was 125 miles from the actual ATM.

In the second case, it was 12 miles.

As I said, this is not an issue as far as Iā€™m concerned but does anybody know why it happens? Is it the same for others who have used their cards in the Philippines? Is there the same issue when using the card in other countries? In the UK the map is always correct (well, it is for me).

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Today Iā€™ve used my card to make a small purchase in SM Mall as a test to see if it works. It did, but the location on the map is wrong by 79km even though the address is correct.

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Oh dear :grimacing: could you please let the support team know via the in-app chat so that they can take a look at that?

When you message them there, the transaction details feed through to them so they can see exactly which merchantā€™s details youā€™re looking at.

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Iā€™m on Android so canā€™t do it directly from the exact transaction but Iā€™ll tell them anyway.

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Informed and already updated. :wink:

Went to Philippines in April and Monzo worked very well with BPI, where there are no charges, but, both me and my girlfriend had issues with RCBC. We tried getting PHP 10000 (Ā£164.45) in different days, and different locations, and the RCBC machines gave us the card back, no money, but still debited the money from our accounts. In El Nido, because we really needed cash to pay for the hotel and thereā€™s only 2 banks, RCBC and BPI, and BPI was out of cash at the time, I tried using my NatWest card and it worked fine (N.B. between fees and exchange rate I was charged almost Ā£10 more than when using Monzo)

In the meantime we have obviously complaint to Monzo (great customer support btw), and had to fill in a form. We are now waiting to get an answer, and hopefully our money, back from RCBC (Max 45 days of waiting time).

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Hi There! I am in Puerto Galere, Oriental Mindoro Island, Philippines. this is a lovely little port town with beutiful beaches and islands. The thing is this is a very little town. I had no problem using Monzo card in Manila (Pasig, Mandaluyong,) and no problem in Tagaytay either. But in this town there is only one bank the PNB bank. This bank is not recognising Monzo card although its showing master card. when i put in my card asks for pin and then i can select withdrawal but at the end after accepting the 200peso atm charge it comes back only with a message of: Sorry we cannot withdraw money please try to use your own banks atm. :S There is no message inside the monzo app that it have been an unsuccessful attempt of withdrawal. (in manila it gave me message if my magstripe have not been enabled) So my magstripe is on but still no message why is it declined. Can you pleas help? The nearest bigger town with more banks and ATMs is Calapan 50km away :smiley: I have only 120 peso left XD (ps. keep in mind guys always have some back up cash hidden somewhere) as I am planing to traveling for a few months you can imagine how much would be if i would need to use my HSBC card or credit card :S In Manila tho the exchange even after the 200peso charge still much better than the currency exchange in london (66.7 vs 61.5)

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is it something to do with your withdrawal limits being reached ? check on the app - ā€œcardā€ - ā€œsettingsā€ - ā€œspending and top up limitsā€

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hi there i havent used the card for nothing else today so i cannot be the limit. and also my monthly limits are well below the limitations. I will try tomorrow morning again before Im heading to Calapan. will let you know

Hi there, glad youā€™re enjoying Puerto galera.
Iā€™m not too familiar with PNB bank but some Philippine ATMs have a P10,000 limit per withdrawal transaction. However if you try to withdraw more than that it just declines it without notice. Each machine and/or bank have different rules even though there is interconnectivity (use your own bankā€™s ATM). If it does work and you need more money, you will have to pay the P200 transaction fee for every transaction. Hope the above works

I was in the Philippines last January (pre-me having Monzo) and found almost nowhere took cards. Large supermarkets and upscale shopping, nowhere else. Even places like Jollibee that are major Filipino chains were cash-only (and Jollibee takes cards in the US - in fact theyā€™re one of the few chains in the US to have EMV contactless and chip and PIN all working properly).

Is this situation improving? Iā€™m hoping to go back next year.

Everything was incredibly cheap, so the Ā£200 ATM limit was plenty, but at 200 PHP per withdrawal, ATM withdrawal is painful (I was using an American bank that paid the fee for me, but Iā€™m planning to close my American accounts)!

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Hi

In the philippines for holiday made one transaction all Good here :philippines: Philippines

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NIce one hope your having a good time out there remember to turn magstripe on for the atms :sunglasses:

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