šŸ‡¹šŸ‡· Monzo in Turkey

OK so after some investigation I have visited the following ATMā€™s in Turkey and attempted to withdraw 100 Turkish Lira, the results vary from free from charge to as much as 15% (for my 100 tl amount) ;

HSBC - Free from charge
HalkBank - Free from charge
QNB Finansbank - Free from charge
ING - Free from charge
TEB - 2% fee
YapiKredi - 3% fee
Garanti - 3.5% fee
ISBank - 3.75 TL fee
Ziraatbank - 4% fee
Akbank - 7.99% fee
VakifBank - 10 TL fee
DenizBank - Fee Unspecified

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Donā€™t worry folks, hope is not lost, your boy Vitali here was walking around at 4am checking each and every ATM he could find! Seems thereā€™s still plenty of 0% ATMs available for TRY, but couldnā€™t find a 0% for EUR or USD so keep that in mind, I personally needed EUR for my hostel as they charge in EUR and the exchange rate they use for TRY has a 10% markup to keep the owners happy lol.

Iā€™ve used @mbladenā€™s list at first but QNB is no longer free, YapiKredi is 5% instead of 3% now, and then as I needed EURs I kept checking and thought might as well do my own list as I started to confuse myself which ATMs I checked and which I didnā€™t. :joy:

HSBC - 0%
PttBank - 0%
ING - 0%
KuveytTurk - 0%
Alternatif Bank - 0%
Fibabanka - 0%
Ziraat Bankasi - 0%
Halkbank BANK24 - 0%
alBaraka - 0%
odeabank - 0%
Sekerbank - 0% for TRY, EUR, USD
DenizBank - 2.5% for TRY, EUR, USD
VakifBank - 10TRY for under 330TRY, 3% above that
Turkiye Bankasi - 4.5% for TRY, EUR, USD
Garanti BBVA - 4.99% for TRY, USD
YapiKredi - 5% for TRY, EUR, USD
TEB - 5% for TRY, EUR, USD
Akbank - 5.99% for TRY, EUR
QNB Finansbank - 5USD
*if I havenā€™t specified for which currency means the ATM I tried only offered TRY

Regarding HSBC:
Strangely but if I try to withdraw EUR from HSBC, it tells me that I can only withdraw TRY with my card. Iā€™ve tried my British cards, German cards, Estonian cards. Wow, seems that euros are only for locals? :joy:

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Good work, @vitali

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Awesome thank you. Iā€™m off to Turkey next week (fingers crossed!) so thatā€™s super helpful :hot_coral_heart:

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Has anyone had trouble paying online using the card?

Iā€™m in desperate need of starbucks and trying to order on an online delivery app (yemeksepti) but everytime Iā€™m sent to approve the payment I get redirected back to the app and it says there has been an error? Tried several cards that all worked when being tapped but not through any online order?

Turkey is a bit of a mixbag, I ended up using my Monzo card everywhere but when it failed all my other cards failed too (HSBC + Amex). There is also a high markup at places and they prefer you to give them Euros in cash etc (due to the current econonmic set up). 90% of the time my Monzo worked but in the end iā€™ve had to take cash out to use at certain places. Had to painfully also pay HSBC ridiculous charges on top of the Turkey charges when i was trying to take cash out. Try to use monzo as much as possible to reduce battering from both sides. When you can get some cash out so you can pay for coffee etc if the card doesnā€™t work

hello i have monzo account. I want to load money in Turkish lira or pounds in Turkey. Is this possible

Hi Onursan & welcome :wave:

Monzo is a Sterling/Pound/GBP account only, so you canā€™t load other currencies directly to it (unless someone sends you money using another international currency exchange/send service like ā€˜Wiseā€™, which would allow them to send a local currency amount to you, which would arrive as a GBP amount which you then send to your Monzo account)

But even if you are in Turkey (or anywhere with online access) you can transfer GBP funds from another GBP account to Monzo via bank transfer to load additional funds to the Monzo account. You could then use the Monzo card/app to pay for things in Turkey in Turkish Lira and Monzo will pay in Lira and deduct the GBP equivalent from the Monzo account.

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Heading to Istanbul at the weekend

Are cards widely used/ accepted?

Iā€™m also reading Euros are often preferred over Lira

Any advice about an E-sim to avoid roaming charges would also be helpful. Looking at Lyca 15gb for Ā£15 for 30 days

Thanks

Turkey isnā€™t generally classed within EU roaming so Iā€™d check each network separately.

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Yeah mine isnā€™t so require an Esim to avoid excess charges

O2 doesnā€™t include Turkey on their list.

As Turkey falls into weird rules itā€™s probably better to order one locally or check Amazon for Turkey esim.

Yeah this is what Iā€™ve been doing, Lyca seem to have a good deal

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Lyca Uk doesnā€™t include roaming in Turkey.

Probably something like this, or move your current sim to esim and grab a local payg sim when you get to Turkey.

They have a plan which includes Turkey

My apologies, I only looked at the UK.

Seems a fair deal!

Small caveat. Only 5GB can be used in Turkey. The Ā£35 bundle allowed up to 15gb.

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Ah good spot, thanks. will keep searching :+1:

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Worth having a look on ispreview forums too, sure thatā€™s where Iā€™d seen airolo.

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Also, when in Istanbul, always pay lira. In my experience, anyone offering you to pay in euros will be giving you a really bad rate for doing so (in 2019 when I went, most places were doing lira to euro conversions as about 7-7.5 lira per euro, when the going rate was over 8, thus making stuff about 20% more expensive to pay in euros)

Hi all, travelling to Turkey at the weekend, please could someone in the know give me the lowdown on using my Monzo card abroad for purchases and cash withdrawal? The info at the start of the thread is helpful but also quite old now so wondering if it has changed at all.

I have a standard Monzo card, I havenā€™t paid for premium or anything.

Thanks!