I have been back from Bali, two weeks and the day i returned home i received 6-10 monzo notifications saying “welcome to bali” Card decline as they were trying to use Magstripe.
A week later i was getting the same notification.
3 week after being back i receive a welcome to India notification, and again money tried to be taken.
This had made me SUPER uneasy and anxious, because what if there was money on the card (only used this as holiday travel)
AND i want to use the card when i go away again but im anxious the card is cloned.
You used to (may have changed now) only be able to activate magstripe for 24 hour periods which I guess is to prevent things like this being catastrophic!
Not sure what will happen with the USA launch in America as from what I experienced out there that are very much magstripe champions!
The magstripe option is only for ATMs , even with that option off swipe will still work in a shop.
But I wouldn’t worry, as you can see Monzo’s fraud systems caught it every time by you and you aren’t liable for any fraudulent transactions and you’ll get any money back.
I’m pretty sure the magstripe option isn’t just for ATMs. I’ve definitely had a few transactions on old ticket machines abroad fail until the magstripe option was switched on.
Anyway Lana, there are so many ways your card could have been cloned but you can protect yourself both at home and abroad from some of them by never handing over your card to anyone, if they have a portable card reader let them bring it to you so that you can put your card in yourself. Also where possible always use Apple/Android Pay. They’re both more secure than using your physical card.
Hi all, this happened with me too but they tried in Indonesia.
I was checking my account and saw 3 ATM rejected due to magstripe was disabled. I contacted Monzo via chat and they support block my card right away and I got a new one via mail in a few days.
Important to mentioned that this happened after a few days after a trip to Paris that was something out of my standard and I really think was there somewhere.
Enabling Magstripe is temporary and lasts 24 hours before disabling itself, so you’re only in danger if you lose your card and don’t realise for 24 hours.
In this case, it looks like someone in Paris managed to clone your card and tried to use it at an older ATM. They cloned your magstripe but probably didn’t have the PIN number. Did you receive individual notifications for each of the the ‘Declined’ transactions? This would alert you to suspicious activity immediately.
Thankfully, the security built into the Monzo app stops the card from withdrawing, tells you of the suspicious activity, allows you to freeze the card (details) and tell Monzo sharpish.
This time, Monzo stopped them from ripping you off.
