Using Monzo everywhere: improving merchant acceptance

Thanks for raising this :raised_hands:

We’ve had quite a few customers report this to us over the last week or so :see_no_evil:
We have reached out to Mastercard who will work through the issue with EasyJet

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This annoys me also, so much… I thought this was only a prepaid card thing. But seems to have stayed

Great read, thanks. :raised_hands:t3:

I wouldn’t worry about online Auth cards being an issue shops are having to discard their floor limits now anyway due to card fraud offline

I tried to register my Monzo card with the Arrow Cars iOS app for use when I book airport taxis through them - a number of times a year. Arrow took £1.01 from my Monzo card to activate the registration, and then said I couldn’t use the card to pay in advance for a taxi as “they cannot accept cash online”!! Made no sense whatsoever.

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I’ve had Specsavers set up for ages now. Weird.

Grrrrrrr

On the other hand, just last month I was on a flight with TUI, and I used my Monzo card for a payment.

As soon as I landed in Agadir, I did get a payment notification.

Unlike other banks, our card transactions default to online processing

How do other banks do it?

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When the card reader gets on the ground and connects to the internet it sends any taken card details and payment amounts to MasterCard. This is classed as offline processing as the card machine doesn’t check at the time of the purchase if it’s a valid card and has enough money to complete the purchase. The first time you tend to see these appear on your statement is a few days later when they collect the money.
If the machine has an internet connection and the card is set to prefer online it will always attempt to connect to Monzo to check before approving the transaction. Hence how Monzo knows about the transaction instantly.
Some banks use offline transactions as if the card reader has a slow internet connection it will take longer to process then just recording the details to process later on.

That’s how I understand it anyway. Does anyone else have a better explanation?

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I thought all transactions had to be online now?

https://www.merchanthub.com/visa_rules

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Mastercard is notorious for not enforcing their rules though.

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I have certainly not experienced an offline transaction in a long time, with any of my cards. Regardless whether curve, natwest credit or amex: they always go online.

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Same here. I reckon very few preference offline for example.

I’ve noticed Starbucks,pret,Halfords and Asda still transact offline always comes off my visa debit a few days later.

Am I right in thinking if I’ve got a DD set up with one of these merchants who haven’t updated their Sort Code tables the CASS should force them over anyway?

My local council wouldn’t accept my account for a DD and didn’t think there was much prospect of getting their system updated any time soon :frowning:

Would be good to have a list of merchants you are currently in contact with regarding acceptance issues. Similar to @alexs list but a more up to date and official list?

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Not necessarily. However, due to the CASS forwarding (in case of full switch) any DD request to the old account would simply be forward to the new.

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This is a question I have too. I have direct debits with NatWest just because they don’t recognise Monzo.

What happens to them if I switch?

I used to do this. When I switched they all moved over fine.

If you’re doing a full switch, then account redirection and the CASS guarantee pretty much ensures it will work.

With a partial switch, it’s a tad hit-and-miss as you rely on the merchant to have their shit together, and can’t rely on the old bank to redirect.

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