And some shops wonāt even take Maestro ā they only take cards on a local payment network (canāt remember the name). I was in one cafe that only took those cards, not even cash. Cut short the āargumentā I was having with my friend about who should treat who.
There are some great parts of Amsterdam away from tourist areas, but thatās where youāre most likely not going to be able to use a MasterCard, so need to take .
In Feb 2017 Transferwise advised in their blog that some āsmall shops may charge a fee of anywhere from 2-6%ā if you use bank cards.
And while German supermarket chains like Aldi and Lidl may accept credit cards they also claimed that the local Dutch supermarkets do not accept them at all.
It was displayed on the machine - tried contactless first - error - then chip/pin - error - had to use my alternative bank card to get tickets (fine with contactless)
I tried using Monzo at the Schiphol train ticket machines but they charge you an additional fee and it didnāt go through for me either. I wrote in the wiki about this. Decided to just get cash out and pay at the counter, since they only seem to take Maestro, the rest are marked as credit cards even though they are debit. Iāve used monzo at other stations/metro and it worked fine
One of the biggest danger areas at the moment for being ripped off by Dynamic Currency Conversion is in the Netherlands.
Dutch consumer organisation Consumentenbond urges visitors to take extra care. āLet me warn those that are being offered to pay by card and the shop owner says: āWould you like me to give you the exchange rate of what it will be in poundsā - donāt do itā, says Sandra de Jong, who speaks for the group.
Iāve used Monzo successfully at the Amsterdam Arena (which is cashless). The card worked great at the beer stall and also with the āMajor Tomā guys who wander the crowd pouring drinks (water, beer, etc) and only take cards.
Hi, I will be moving to the Netherlands next week and Iām planning to use my monzo card until I open a dutch bank account.
Am I correct in thinking I can top up my monzo card while Iām abroad without any non-sterling or international transfer fees?
Also, I am getting some student loans and grants paid into my UK account while Iām abroad but it costs Ā£4 to transfer them to a dutch account + non-sterling fee.
If I transfer the money from my UK account to my monzo account while Iām abroad, then from there to my dutch account will I avoid this transfer fee and just have the Ā£ -> ā¬ conversion once?
Topping up from UK legacy bank to Monzo prepaid will be free. That can be done directly in the app using legacy bankās debit card, or by sending bank transfer from legacy UK bank to Monzo account and quoting 9-digit user code. This is done online, so you just need internet connection, doesnāt matter where you are.
Topping up from UK legacy bank to Monzo Current Account will be free. Top ups from legacy UK bank via bank transfer works right now, but top-ups by card are not supported yet.
Using Monzo prepaid or debit card (from Current Account) in Netherlands will be:
** free for purchases in shops/restaurants/etc (and Monzo rate)
** free for now to withdraw from ATM (with Monzo rate), but some ATM fees are planned. Please see @alexsā summary here.
You canāt send money from Prepaid Monzo card to any other bank, UK or Dutch. You can only spend it.
Youāll be able to send money from debit card (current account) to Dutch bank eventually, but itās not available now. We donāt know any details or fees for now. In the future, Monzo Current Account might be integrated with Transferwise at some point in the future, then it would be using Transferwiseās rate. Fees are quite low, so Transferwise should be cheaper than sending money from UK Legacy bank to Dutch account.
It seems like only problem left to solve is expensive international transfers from legacy UK bank to Dutch bank, as this is something that Monzo Prepaid wonāt support it, and Monzo Current Account doesnāt support it yet.
Key word: Transferwise!
You canāt use Monzo prepaid card for send money via Transferwise, and thereās no option for bank transfer from Prepaid Monzo, so that avenue is out. BUT!
You can use your legacyās bank debit card, or Monzo debit card (current account) to use Transferwise like normal human being . Monzo integration will allow you to do this faster/nicer, but nothing is stopping you from using Transferwise as proxy service, you could transfer from UK legacy bank or debit Monzo (current account) to Dutch account even right now. Youād need to register on Transferwise, verify with photo id, and just send the money.
There are few other options to Transferwise, like Azimo, but it would probably make sense to go with Transferwise, as most likely thatās what Monzo will support in the future.
Good luck, Louise And yeah, if you are looking for Dutch bank, bunq was discussed many times on Monzo community with positive reviews. Also, N26 also works in Netherlands.