🇲🇦 Monzo in Morocco 2

Monzo Chat Travelling with Monzo
1

If any one has used a Monzo card travelling around Morocco- (more specifically Marrakech) then it would be great to hear your tips/ do’s and don’ts.

Thanks in advance!

2

Yes they have :slight_smile:

although the first post hasn’t been added to the main Travelling with Monzo topic yet cc @Naji @Zainab

3

Hi there
I’m travelling in Marrakech this week. How was your experience using Monzo there?
Thank you in advance :slight_smile:

4

No issues. Most restaurants take card, but you always need cash as you need to tip for everything! A lot of sites I visited were cash only entry but only about 50p equivalent.

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5

Thanks Toby. How about ATM’s? do they work because i read that Monzo has been rejected in few ATM’s in Morocco.
Thanks again!!!

6

Was fine for me, although a few tried to charge a fee for withdrawing with an international card. I kept decline till I found one which didn’t. Think the French banks didn’t but the Moroccan banks did if I remember correctly

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7

Some 2022 updates:

The only free cash machine I found was Albarid Bank (or Barid Bank). It’s the post office bank, so it’s found at all post offices (yellow sign, called Al Barid!)

Albarid bank - free
Society general - 35mad
Africa bank - 35mad
Itjawaha bank - 35mad

Some other things:
Train stations - card doesn’t work in ticket machines but contactless works at the desk
Villages - many villages have no atm, and places don’t accept card. Western Union is your friend in emergencies

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8

I wonder if it might work is you enable magstripe (perhaps the ticket machine is trying to read the magstripe, which Monzo normally blocks)?

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I did think that. I activated magstripe but still no luck. Same thing happened with Halifax, so it might be a foreign cards situation.

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10

Ah, interesting!

I just asked because it was the first thing I would have tried, and does sometimes do the trick. It sounds more like LINK-only ATMs in the UK, where Mastercard just isn’t accepted, so you are probably right that it’s a general foreign cards issue.

Out of interest, did you try a Visa card (I’m assuming when you say Halifax, you mean Halifax Clarity Mastercard)?

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11

Yes, Halifax Clarity. So both cards I tried were Mastercard.

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12

Thanks for the reply.

We now need someone out there to test with a Visa card (Revolut, Dozens or Nationwide Member Credit would be good candidates) to see if it’s a Mastercard acceptance issue or a “local cards only” issue!

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13

That would be great.

I tested at two different stations (so it wasn’t an individual machine issue).

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14

I’m going next week so I’ll test this if i remember!

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