Will be in New York later this spring and was wondering, when using OMNY to pay for the Subway I’ll be using my Monzo card and I’m wondering if it will give me the option to select local currency to avoid the merchant’s conversion rate?
You won’t have the option for anything, it’ll automatically be in dollars. As will everywhere else in NYC.
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Okay good to know, it was just I read somewhere I need to select local currency when using my card
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Some merchants will let you, but these tend to be more obscure places, like say a street food vendor in Vietnam, something like that.
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I don’t think it’s necessarily just obscure places that ask, I was given the option for which currency to use in a Walgreens. But it will default to USD if not given the option so you should be fine either way.
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Hi @stevegee78 & welcome 
You shouldn’t need the OMNY account. Just tap your physical Monzo card (or Apple/Google Pay phone via NFC) on the Subway terminals to gain entry & it’ll charge you the fare (in USD) and let you through the barrier.
Just in case you use the AirTrain between JFK and the Jamaica subway stop and/or vice-versa, use the far right-hand barrier to enter. It’s not very clearly signposted, but that is (or was, back in October) the only barrier which accepts contactless cards in addition to the physical MTA cards.
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It’s good to know that you don’t have to purchase MetroCards for the AirTrain any more!!
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From Penn Station to Jamaica was $2.90 (settled at £2.39) and then the Airtrain to JFK was $8.25 (settled at £6.84) - less than a tenner to get from Manhattan to JFK mid-afternoon. Cheap as chips and less time taken considering the alternatives.
Back to LA in a couple of weeks, but that brings entirely different transportation challenges.
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So we fly to JFK and then picking up a car and will be driving to DC and taking 8 days to drive back via Philly and the Jersey Coast. We’ve actually arranged to drop the car back at Newark Airport as we are staying in Jersey City for our last 3 days, so will be getting the PATH in to Manhattan each day before flying back home from JFK - so will be taking the subway and AirTrain when we leave - it will be the 4th time in NYC, so fairly comfortable with the subway system, just not been since OMNY has arrived.
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I did Washington, Philly and New York 2 years ago and it was absolutely brilliant. Even found an old ‘mafia’ bar in backstreet Philly, amazed at the photos on the bar room walls and chatted to the owner who was not too disimilar to Tony Soprano 
Incidentally, Monzo worked perfectly giving you the US dollars immediately spent and GBP when settled at end of day …… perfect. My only worry on the entire 12 day trip was my partner putting her hand in my coat pocket and nearly finding the ring box the penultimate day which would have spoiled my proposal in the Plaza hotel!
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Yes we can’t wait… only 82 days to go… we’ll have three teenagers in tow, so no bar visits for us 