Pre-loading my card

Monzo Chat Travelling with Monzo
1

Just seen MSE video…
Martin Lewis explained all the options around buying foreign currency. That included using a specialist credit card to pre-load the currency ahead of the trip. Effectively buying the currency before you travel.
This may be a daft question but, is that an option for my card, or is it as I believe, that I’ll buy my euros once I arrive from an ATM?

2

No you don’t buy foreign money in advance and pre-load your card.

You withdraw foreign money from an ATM when abroad, and Monzo will automatically apply the favourable MasterCard exchange rate with no fees on top.

If however the ATM has Dynamic Currency Conversion. Say no to decline DDC and ensure you are charged in the local currency so Monzo apply their rate, if you say yes to accept DDC and are charged in £ that bank or ATM operator are likely to charge a less favourable conversion rate.

3

Thanks Richard
Will the DDC option be obvious?
I’ve never heard of it before.

4

Many machines do not have it, but if they do it will be obvious as they will ask you a question. On larger banks the Yes and No or Accept and Decline options will usually be equally prominent but on some smaller independent machines the option to select DDC may be in huge letters and the option to decline in small letters to try and encourage you to use it as it is a source of revenue for them

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5

Thanks again Richard, very valuable advice as usual.

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6

Surely this is the wrong way around. You want the ATM to charge the native EUR amount to your card so that Monzo gives you the Mastercard rate when converting it to GBP.
If you ask the ATM to charge you in GBP then you get the bank’s rubbish rate (and in some cases a fee as well).

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7

Thanks @uncle_fungus you are totally correct.

I did say to decline the DDC rather than accept it, but have now edited the home/local part as it was not clear.

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8

Just to add, the margin that a cash machine adds if you don’t get Monzo to do the conversion can be huge. I withdrew 300 AUD from an Airport cashpoint a couple of months ago. The airport was charging £207.86 after conversion, whilst Monzo cost me £184.99 for the same 300 AUD!

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