Hi @Shauqat, Iām afraid that answer still remains the same. If you have any concerns that hotel might not accept prepaid card type, you have to ask them directly. We (users) or Monzo has no knowledge and no way to figure out what particular hotel/shop/restaurant accepts. Sometimes thereās a clear remark that prepaid card is not accepted, but more often we donāt know. The only source of information is merchant directly.
Thereās small chance that some other Monzo users has been in this hotel, but that would be quite lucky shot!
Thank you @Avishai for your reply, the reason I was asking the question was the hope that one of the users may have already used it or tried to use it at the Burj
We have just left the UAE as visited the east coast, Dubai and Abu dhabi. Monzo worked fine at all locations, even for ATM withdrawals at the Emirates NBD machine at Yas Mall. There was a 3GBP difference between the withdrawal and the xe currency rate at the time. I forgot about the MasterCard app.
Just arrived in Muscat. Will see what happens, due to the weak pound, itās expensive as 1 OMR = 2 GBP, may have to use card rather than cash, unless am at the souk. Will update you as and when I can.
Surely this should be your default? What do you see as the advantage to withdrawing cash then paying with it, as opposed to just paying by card at the POS?
That is indeed true, if it was up to me, i would go cashless.
However, regardless if you are in the UK, Dubai Abu Dhabi or Oman, cash is also required in some places.
Taxi drivers in Abu Dhabi donāt always accept card and in Oman you still need to pay in cash for taxis. Dubai taxi drivers accept card payments.
So whilst itās recommended to go cashless and monzo is good for that it doesnāt always work in every scenario, In the omani souk you can haggle better with cash than with card as another example.
I was in Dubai last week, and the Monzo card worked flawlessā¦I withdrew cash from a small atm at a metro station, paid the entry fee to go into a private beach club, and paid a bar bill, also used it in a few shops, no problem at allā¦
As an update monzo works fine in Abu Dhabiā¦ in some circumstances you can even pay for a taxi using your card. The exchange rate was 1 GBP = 5 dirhams in November. The FX rate at the malls was around 4.78 ā¦ the MasterCard spot rate would have been a few points higher.
Muscat on the other hand - cash is generally king. Just be mindful that the exchange rate in November was 1 OMR = 2GBP or there-abouts . Making Oman quite expensive if your home currency is GBP ā¦ Taxis are cash only ā¦ there was no problem in using the monzo (beta) card in any location. But those were mainly in the malls and at the airport. If you have a monzo current account linked card there shouldnāt be any problems.
As for a visit to an ATM in muscat we didnāt use use one to test. Going by experience use a bank of Oman machine for a better FX rate. We did use an ATM in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi both of which was Emirates NBD without problems.
We was in the region (Dubai; Abu Dhabi & muscat) in November if that helps using the beta card.
