Hi, new user here.
Just wondering as it is so handy, I might start to use it as my normal card, what do you guys do?
Bonus question: is there a maximum on the contactless e.g. £30?
There’s no advantage for me to use Monzo as my main card. I use a cash back credit card, and so would lose about £60 a year.
I use it for ATM withdrawals (very rare; I made my first withdrawal since the beginning of December last week) and for spending abroad as I get instant notifications in Sterling (it’s not exact, but close enough for me).
Yes, the contactless limit is £30 (unless you have Android Pay, presumably).
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These might be interesting reads:
and
Edit: While the below is mostly true it seems not to be true in all cases:
Contactless limit is £30, unless you are using Android Pay or (the not yet implemented and no timeline revealed to Apple’s NDA’s) Apple Pay.
For myself, I use Monzo for all my day to day spending, but until this is upgraded won’t have my salary paid in:
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I have, for example, used my Monzo account pretty extensively over the past 2 weeks for internet UK and EU purchases and for contactless too. I have DDs and SOs that operate without trouble. I receive BACS income without problem.
I can download CSV files of all transactions and soon I’ll be able to “print” PDFs of statements.
I find Monzo to be technically excellent and ethically sound.
So, all in all I would be generally happy to make Monzo my main account. If I did, I would need a secondary account where I could occasionally pay in cash and the odd cheque and then make a transfer.
But the one thing stopping me making Monzo my primary account is that I’ve had a joint account with my wife for 40 years and I’m not about to stop sharing now.
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I’ve been using Monzo as my main (and only) account since the current account preview back in August 17’ - no issues what-so-ever. I agree that it might have shortcomings for some people (no cash deposits, paying cheques by post only, etc) but for me it’s never let me down.
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I have been using Monzo as my first and only card since early 2016 and have had no issues at all, I used the preview current account no issues and will continue to do so…
Monzo is now my main account and I get paid in to that account and all my DD’s go from there.
This is your choice, if you are happy and you find it handy go for it.
PROTIP: Don’t let other users put you off using it as your main account with things like no statements, CASS, Apple Pay and so on… if you don’t need that or are happy to wait you will be fine trust me.
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I’ve been a 
Monzo user since 2016, but from December I have been using TSB instead. Partly because the account is a leftover from when LloydsTSB split, partly because (until recently) Monzo didn’t easily offer statements and I have switched on my paper statements for an upcoming remortgage later this year, and partly to test out the Save The Change feature.
Save The Change is great, as it rounds up on every purchase (not just the day’s end total) but I can’t wait to revert back to Monzo as I am so used to having live balance accuracy that I just cannot work with pending transactions and ‘Available Balance’ any longer! That figure is three or four clicks deep in TSB’s app and a lot less prominent than my ‘Current Balance’.
Just need to get this mortgage application out of the way…
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Another voice for cashback (or other rewards) credit cards as main card. Contrary to what I thought until quite recently they are not just for VIPs or super high spenders.
I have been using Monzo since Oct 16. I initially only used it as a contactless travel card instead of oyster card, but after a few weeks i switched to using it as my primary bank card. i do not have any credit cards, and i ended up transferring my money from lloyds to monzo as needed over time.
due to the excellent chat support on the app, i was actually saved from trouble more than once, and with that peace of mind to have someone on call instead of having to wait to speak to a teller at a big bank, i prefer monzo!
Hi @dommmm, I use Monzo for all my day to day spending in the UK and when I travel outside the UK. You should try it first and compare it with your current main card to see the difference.
I don’t trust Monzo enough to use it as my main card. I’ve had 1 issue using it in France and I’ve lost count of how many times it hasn’t worked for me in uk. I make sure I have my Halifax card for travel and my main back for uk transactions. I do like the instant notifications, and when the main banks catch up with this I will be leaving Monzo.
Name a card that’s 100% reliable. Cards fail, all the time. I’ve found Monzo very good. Not the absolute best, no, but pretty high up there in my anecdotal experience. All of the major global payment networks have tons of compatibility issues (though Mastercard and Visa are much better than the others for this, in my experience), and there are so many card/BIN/terminal/etc combinations failures happen… a lot.
It’s best to just have enough cards on you to be prepared for the ‘let’s pull a stack of cards out of my purse and hand them over one at a time hoping one of them will work’ game. That’s a game I can’t recall ever losing, but sometimes it has involved digging fairly deep into my stack of cards…
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Were these recently, or over a long period?
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I’ve had more issues with Monzo in my short time with them than all my cards since I first starting using them. Just my experience. I don’t trust Monzo, and I’m put off even morei by replies from its blind acolytes. It’s a bank not a religion. It doesn’t work for me.
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Stopped using it as myself main card a couple of weeks ago after repeated failed attempts to use it for everyday purchases. It’s never been any where 100% reliable for me
That’s fair, for sure. I’m surprised, personally, as one reason I’ve been using my Monzo card a lot, despite having no rewards, is how reliable it is. It’s so nice to be able to tap and feel pretty confident it’ll work rather than have the hassle of digging around to find something that works.
That said, my primary card before Monzo (and still for large purchases) was (is) an American Express Rewards Credit Card. American Express has so many compatibility issues it’s a joke (I’m not talking merchants that don’t take Amex, that’s understandable, I’m talking compatibility issues and failures where it should work).
See, for me it’s been darn close to 100%. I can think of one failure case I’ve had (SWR ticket machines contactless), but those only take Visa, and fail with any Mastercard/Amex/Discover-Diners (for contactless). We must shop different places. It’d be cool to do some massive crowdsourced data logging if people were willing to - simple as ‘card/network/entry method/result’ - a few seconds to enter each purchase and get some real big data as to reliability.
Without that, it’s all anecdotes. Your experience is poor, and mine is that the reliability is one of the most impressive things!
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Do you have the CA or the pre-paid? I’ve had mine for 6 months, and have had two days within that time with issues (there were other days on the pre-paid, but I hadn’t happened to need to buy anything on those days).
Is it the same store repeatedly that has issues, or multiple different locations?
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Good point. Is this a case of a wide variety of issues, or one terminal/acquirer/something that just never works used by places you frequent? The latter might be an easy fix. Has Monzo said anything to you?
I struggle with this way of thinking. Like you, I try and put as much on the AMEX as possible (I’ve not encountered issues with using it, especially as the bulk is online) - Although the compatibility is still an issue.
But when I can’t use it, I’ll try and use another card which offers rewards… Tesco being the main one (mmmmm Avios).
Yes Monzo has a beautiful interface and is enjoyable to use (the app). But why give up the rewards?
Genuinely interested to know… it’s not a dig.