Travelling to Thailand, Laos and Vietnam

[Willow650 (Melita Cawdell)]

Hi Everyone,

At the end of this month I will be travelling to Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. I was just wondering if Monzo will be a good card to use while I am out there?

Trying to figure out money things at the moment!

Thank you in advance

[gmclean]

Quick search and there are threads for all three:

Monzo in Vietnam [Discussion]

Some tips for travelling in Vietnam: Only ever get into a Vinasun (white with green and red stripe) or Mai Linh (green and white) taxi. Do not get into any other taxi, metered or not or you are likely to be ripped off. 90% of places won’t take card. Cash is king here so withdraw at any of the many ATMs. Always check the ATM to make sure it hasn’t been tampered with and check around yourself before taking out cash to make sure there isn’t anyone dodgy around. Expect a fee of between 20k to …

Monzo in Laos

Testing so far… Laos is of course a cash economy, cards are barely useable as day to day spending… Thats any cards not only Monzo. ATMs also seem temperamental and ‘iffy’ eg one machine asked for how much I wanted, said OK, spat the card back and sat there with no indication if money was coming or not !! Again this isnt a Monzo thing. Each ATM I have used successfully has charged 20,000 kip. My Hotel which is card enabled and bills in USD is adding 2.5% ‘credit card fee’ to the bill. I am goin…

Monzo in Thailand [Discussion]

Used Mondo in Bangkok at a Citibank ATM to avoid charges as spotted by other Mondonauts. I can confirm this was seamless but select the credit option when withdrawing cash and you’ll be fine. To get a near perfect rate is great! Only problem is that there aren’t many Citibanks in Bangkok therefore try and take as much as you can. Uber is also a great save to get you places!

Have a great trip!!

[Justin]

Some careful advice I can give you about using your cards for ATM withdrawals in Thailand: unlike ATMs in the UK, some Thai ATMs give you back your card only after they’ve dispensed your money. This means if you get distracted, it can be easy to forget to collect your card from the ATM at the end of the transaction.

This happened to me last time I was there. Keep this in mind when making ATM withdrawals.

[Willow650 (Melita Cawdell)]

Perfect thank you I will definitely keep this in mind!

Where you both using Monzo and a normal bank card?

[Willow650 (Melita Cawdell)]

Thank you for the links to some other discussions, I will take a look at them!

[Justin]

Yes, it happens whichever one you use. After that, you just need to remember.

Luckily, I had several bank cards with me, but on that occasion, I lost my Starling one - so had to rely instead on other options.

[nikeshashar]

Just got back from Thailand.

• All the cash points charge for taking money out.
• Not everywhere accepts Monzo
• You’re limited to £200 per person not per card.

I took some £ notes with me. Get fresh £50 notes from the bank and you’ll get a good exchange rate from a street exchange place. Make sure none of the bank notes have writing on them - they don’t accept them.

[Porpoise1954]

Not everywhere accepts cards of any type but the ones that do have all accepted Monzo. Not all of them have worked with Google Pay though.