I will move from Italy to London in March for work.
Here I’ve got an Italian bank account (BancoPosta Click) . Can i move all my savings to a Monzo card when i arrive in London? Are there any cost - conversion- fees /daily limits?
I prefere to use a Monzo card there because with my italian card I’ve got a lot of extra commissions abroad so I was thinking about moving all my savings on the Monzo card and then I will open a bank account in the weeks upcoming (more calmly).
My suggestion would be to use a service like TransferWise to transfer your money to a relative / someone you trust’s UK bank account & then transfer your money to Monzo from there.
Otherwise you’ll be charged a conversion fee by your bank when you transfer the money from your Euro bank account to Monzo’s account & since it’s a bank, the fee probably won’t be very forgiving.
It’s also worth bearing in mind that you can’t transfer money from your Monzo account to a bank account (yet - not until the current accounts launch) so you’d need to withdraw it via an ATM or possibly, using PayPal in order to move it into your newly opened UK bank account.
Poste Italiane accounts being similar to our historic 9 digit National Girobank accounts (and their Eurocheques) before they morphed into bank accounts with standard 8 digit account numbers. Many European postal administrations ran banking services in paralel to traditional banks, but over the years more and more have been wound up and replaced by accounts connected to the main banking system. The Eurocheques were great as whatever national postal system issued them they were in a common format and you wrote the currency next to the amount, i.e. GBP etc.
If Poste Italiane allow you to make international transfers, you can make a direct international transfer to your Monzo card (this will go through our holding bank account). Conversion fees are calculated at source (Poste Italiane in your case). You’ll also need our International bank account details. Request them via the in-app chat
Otherwise you can use a third party service (like Transferwise or Midpoint). Fees will be up to the service you choose. Bank details would be the ones you see in the app when you choose “Top-up” and “Bank transfer”, or the international ones provided by the support team.
In both cases, you should specify your Monzo card’s 9 digit code (on the bottom left) as a reference number. This will automatically assign the money transfer to your specific card.
Unfortunately, it often happens that international transfer services strip down the reference number to add their own - so you may expect some delay and a couple of email/chat exchanges with support before your top-up is ready to use.
Topping up with a debit card (international cards are accepted) is the quickest option (it’s instant). Again, conversion rates are at source.
My only concern now is those conversion fees calculated at source…so the PosteItaliane conversion fees.
I can’t find it!
If I understand correctly: If those fees are too high it’s better use Trasnferwise that have no conversion fees cost but only a commission of 0,5% (5€ transferring 1000€ and no other hidden cost/fees).
