Wasnāt me for that oneā¦ I added a bunch of stuff about how payments work, but not Metrocard. Iāve only been to NYC once and it was years ago. I have heard some others on here say it works, but some say it doesnātā¦ report back 
There may have been a difference between the prepaid Monzo card and the debit card (which before the official launch had various chip versions which again may have reacted differently) so please clarify which card type you are using. That may help any answers. Conflicting comments about it working or not may be a result of the different users having the different Monzo cards.
Oops sorry amended that
You are right thank you.
Clarification: my prepaid card didnāt work months ago.
Does the debit card now work to buy a metrocard?
Hopefully those that said their cards did work can clarify if they had the non-prepaid card
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Having just returned from NY I solely used my Monzo card and didnāt actually take out any money. I just paid for a few items for my friends and they gave me the equivalent in dollars.
I will say using my monzo was easy and it did work on the MTA to get a metro card etc.
Get used to signing for pretty much all of your transactions even the big ones.
Having recently switched over to having my monzo as a debit card may have helped my experience but I wasnāt once asked for ID (other than when purchasing alcohol).
Contactless was very hit and miss in the shops and even if the contactless would work on my card they would still require a signature. Although there seemed to be no limit to the amount that could be authorised for a contactless transaction.
Hopefully these updates help.
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What did you use for a ZIP code?
Really? Thatās shocking, in Montana almost everywhere has chip. A fair number have PIN support disabled on their terminals (mostly restaurants), but in those cases they usually ask for nothing, not a signature.
The United States has no contactless-specific CVM waiver, so unlike here where no cardholder verification can be used under Ā£30, in the US it follows the CVM processing rules always. Now, most US shops do not support online PIN, so itāll go to signature. Also, worth noting, contactless magstripe mode (which will always go to signature) is very common. There are signature waivers available for small (depends on merchant category, but sub-$25 to $100) purchases, but many merchants donāt take advantage of them.
Definitely, but itād be helpful to have a list of places contactless failed at.
I just typed in random numbers and pressed enter sometimes I had to do it a few times but it always approved the transaction.
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Well, that lines up with my theory that the Mastercard advice of entering the digits from your postcode followed by zeroes to reach five digits possibly works no better than chance alone. 
@RichardR, do you have any insight into if this is actually any more likely to authorise than random chance is?
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I know that even when payments are taken over the phone a postcode isnāt needed for the transaction to be approved on other cards so as their isnāt a way to skip it this is another method of bypassing it and I personally donāt feel it makes the card any less safe.
Oh, I never said it didā¦ Iām just interested in how to maximise card acceptance when I travel so knowing what works and doesnāt helps with that!
What about the contactless failures? Iād love to have a list to cross-reference with my experiences (which I havenāt posted since theyāre non-Monzo and quite outdated now, but Iāll post a huge update next time I visit the US).
Angie was the Monzo cars that you used on the MTA a debit or a prepaid? Thanks
Pay at the US pump with a card has never worked for me with any card. āEnter zip codeā has always failed
(I tried the alternative fixes without success). I just gave up in the end.
A few times I have used a card to prepay a fixed amount at the counter, then filled up to a lesser amount (say prepaid $25 and used $20). When I asked for the refund they said it would automatically refund the card, in each case that never happened. So I have learned the simplest way is to prepay cash and get a cash refund if necessary.
I understand from friends here that In the US when you buy fuel with a card, say $25 (a tankful btw) they raise a pending charge against the card of a higher value $75-$100 until the actual value transaction is processed.
On a different note I am having great fun using the Monzo contactless card at POS, When I tap the terminal I regularly get āOh my God how did you do thatā? It seems the terminals are set up for contactless payment but the local cards are not set up for contactless so the sales assistants have never seen it before.
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Any particular reason to use cash instead of paying inside with your card, out of curiosity? Pay at the pump in the US is flaky, at bestā¦ Then again, that seems to be a theme in many countries.
Well, thereās my question answered Iāve never had this happen, itās always worked right when Iāve done it (not Monzo). That said, I usually ask them to just turn on the pump instead of prepaying. Some stations wonāt do this though, it mostly depends how paranoid of drive-offs the owner is (it seems to me unlikely someone who has shown their face and whose number plate is on camera would drive offā¦)
It depends on the station. Iāve seen everything from $1 to $150ā¦
There are a few cards with contactless (HSBC, Capital One [some cards], American Express by request only [heard rumours the need to request may be changing], Citi Costco Visa), but even then most people havenāt used them. Even if the card has contactless, it may not work at all shops, for example when the Citi Costco Visa first came out, it didnāt support contactless magstripe mode, which is widely used in shops in the US.
Regardless of all the reasons, yes, the reactions are always fun to watch When I lived in the US, my contactless HSBC card was great because of that!
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It was a debit card. I just tried a random combination of numbers. If I remember correctly on occasion it didnāt accept it but you can try until it does
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I used 10002 - a valid Manhattan zip - successfully again in the last few hours. Penn station to JFK airport/Jamaica with no issues.
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Iāve been out here in California for nearly 6 weeks now and I havenāt needed to withdraw cash at all.
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Quick question then!
When I went to Florida back in 2015 I used a Revolut card. Anytime we paid a bill at a restaurant they take our card, swipe it, and come back with a receipt. Iād then add on a tip to the receipt, sign it and leave. Then maybe 10 minutes or less later the transaction would be reprocessed with the tip! Frustratingly this meant that the first transaction would sit for 5-10 days and then fall off.
Has this changed much with the introduction of Chip & Pin? How have you worked around this issue, if at all.
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The MTA eTix app is a great way to buy tickets in advance on your phone and saves faffing about at the station.
In my experience most restaurants in the US have PIN support disabled so chip and signature is used. Sadly, tip adjustment is still allowed in the US market so the overall process (including the opportunity for fraud this presents) is unchanged, they just dip instead of swipe to be sure the card isnāt counterfeit.
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