Monzo in the USA - 2

Monzo Chat Travelling with Monzo
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I have just returned from a 3 week trip to America and thought I would let you all know how the monzo card worked as it’s a popular destination.

I used the card on numerous occasions in restaurants, bars, shops and had no issues at all. contactless/swipe/chip and pin. America are catching up and a lot of places now have chip and pin, or “the chip” as they call it.

It was maybe used one too many times at Dunkin donuts :speak_no_evil:There was no problems with my card not having a name on it.

As promised by the monzo team I received the MasterCard exchange rate each time. It’s a shame the rate wasn’t great but that can’t be helped.

Nyc subway -

the card will not work in the machines, believe it’s a mag stripe issue. They do however take the fee from your card (quickly resolved by in app support) :+1:t2:and the grumpy guy at the station counter wouldn’t take a card payment so had to use cash.

Restaurants -

As I think has been mentioned before using a card in the USA is a bit different. They charge your card for the bill and then after you add the tip it’s run again for the total value. The original transaction is then refunded a few days later. In order to keep my mondo balance at it’s best I paid tips in cash which avoided the 2 charges.

ATMs

I tried the majority of the big banks for cash withdrawals. Citibank, td, Bank of America, Wells Fargo etc etc. All wish to charge a withdrawal fee of between $3 and $5. Nothing mondo can do about this and all Americans pay this fee unless they withdraw from their own bank or have an upgraded account.

petrol stations.

I used the card at a brand called Stewart’s which accepted the card for pay at the pump. Another couple i tried didn’t, it’s no problem I just went in and paid with the card and they authorise the pump for that amount. They then run a 2nd payment with the actual amount if less and refund the original in a day or so. A bit like the restaurant.

All in all the card worked great, not one complaint. Even left it in a restaurant one night :flushed::flushed: simple solution I froze the card till I picked it up the next day.

Hope this is of some help to you all.

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See original ‘Monzo in the US’ post for comments about Travel in America and post further comments there to avoid two separate threads on USA

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Thanks for letting us know, I’m off to the US soon and imagined the mag stripe issue would be a concern, it’s nice to know they are going “chip”!

Thanks
Dylan

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Mag strip is fine in the shops etc it’s only the ATMs and ticket machines that seem to be a problem :+1:t2::+1:t2: