So my wife offers her new Monzo for payment in a restaurant in Italy they take the card away which we are very unhappy about. They come back and say All is paid. She gets receipt. This is a worry they say some cards letvus do this.
My wife talks to a Monzo rep who says all debit cards can suffer from this if you don’t want to use Monzo then close it down and we will return the money in your account .
What kind of solution is that Monzo???
She wants to keep her Monzo. And she wants to know why Monzo authorised payment with no authorisation from her??
Card holder not present is possible on all debit cards is it not?
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This isn’t a Monzo vulnerability. All banks support this. If your card ever gets used fraudulently like this you can dispute the transaction and get it refunded (which is super quick on Monzo, not so much for other banks).
It’s up to the merchant to choose which “CVM” (cardholder verification method) to ask for, if any. It controls how much leverage they’ve got against chargebacks. A proper PIN-authenticated transaction can’t be disputed for fraud, so that’s why most merchants do it because they want to keep their money. However, nothing prevents a merchant from not using any CVM, at the expense of loosing money in case the transaction is ever disputed. Looks like this restaurant chose the latter option.
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Is it possible it went through as a contactless payment?
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Not this one 99 euros
Ok get this. So if we disputed they would have no evidence that we approved payment?
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But could they now use the card take more payments?
Short answer is yes. If they took the card away they could have taken all possible information to make future payments.
If in doubt, freeze the card while you are not using it. And when back in the UK get it stopped and replaced.
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It was somewhat the same in Canada. My butt clenched everytime I had to hand over my card to pay and they just walked off out of view. This was a Halifax credit card.
This is so inconvenient and frustrating for a new Monzo card holder.
You would have experienced the same whatever bank card you chose to use. If you see any transactions you did not make appear in your notifications you can simply freeze your card and inform Monzo who will likely instantly refund you.
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I have noticed that in some countries I’ve travelled in there is a much greater degree of trust and taking your card away from you is much more common.
To be honest I wouldn’t worry unnecessarily at this point. If they are reputable, there won’t be any problems.
If you do have suspicions then freeze your card until you want to use it again.
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Ok
Yup. I think it’s always amplified abroad as in the UK we rarely let others physically handle our cards.
Having said that, I had to pay my first gym fee by handing over all my card details recently, too.
Enjoy your holiday! 
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I feel the authorisation was given when your wife handed her card over. She might not have wanted to give it then but it was implied by the restaurant that your wife gave them permission to charge it by surrendering it for a table. Probably an Italian restaurant custom.
As has been pointed out, it would have happened with any other bank card. If you dispute the charge, conduct a chargeback. However, you may get in bother for non payment of your meals.
This is actually where Monzo is super helpful. You can see immediately if there’s been any transactions and contact support straight away. Or freeze the card until you want to use it. None of this is possible with your common or garden debit card.
That said, it’s a bit crap it’s happened as a new card holder, but there’s nothing more than Monzo can do, I’m afraid 
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Ta!
Thanks for all your help.
I think the Monzo person shouldn’t have said well we can give you all your money back and close your card as if was not helpful but we now know what to do.
CVM isn’t truly up to the merchant. It’s a mix of the merchant terminal configuration, the card’s CVM list, local rules, etc.
That said, this is neither shocking nor unusual. And it’s not a Monzo thing. Monzo’s CVM list is set to prefer PIN (offline for contact, online for contactless).
The biggest worry with this is that it can be used to force DCC. Be ready to request Monzo chargeback any unauthorised charges. Including DCC. But Monzo CS is way better than most banks.
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