What does Monzo offer that Revolut doesn't since they introduced the 3% Cash Withdrawals Fee?

Hello!

I’m new to Monzo, got my card the other week!

I have been using it in the UK and it is pretty cool with how it displays purchases etc on the app, haven’t had any problems with it so far but I’m just a newbie!

I actually had a Revolut card previous but upon finding out that Monzo didn’t charge anything for cash withdrawals I switched over… Only to find out that they are going to be charging 3% for anything over £200 in a single month.

  • Monzo offer Mastercard rate

  • Revolut offer Interbank FX Rate which is usually slightly better

  • Monzo charge 3% for cash withdraws over £200

  • Revolut charge 2% for cash withdraws over £200 but this can be upped to £400 with premium (i could use the free trial for my holiday after that I understand it is £6.99 but you get a lot of other benefits)

I do understand that paying by card doesn’t carry any charges for both, but have read that paying by card isn’t widely available for my primary reason of getting the card which is to visit Thailand and Cambodia.

  • Monzo android app is lacking in comparison to iOS version or at least thats what I have read?
  • Revolut android app is the same as their iOS counterpart

What do Monzo actually offer over Revolut now?

along with the 2% charge for cash withdrawals don’t withdraw at weekends because there will be another 1.5% on top of that in Thai baht :slight_smile: + a 1.5% mark up on the exchange rate of the illiquid thai baht - or “just” a 1.5% mark up on POS terminals and within limits ATM withdrawals on the currency exchange rates - which by my math - worst case - could be about 5% fees on ATM withdrawals + the actual card cost of £5 to get the card :slight_smile:

if you don’t withdraw at weekends - you will still be paying 3.5% at ATMs after your initial allowance

and Normal POS transactions will incur the +1.5% for the “illiquid” exchange rates on baht ???

from Revoluts website -

  • " For a few illiquid currencies, we provide the best rate we possibly can. For THB and RUB, we apply a small 1.5% markup on the exchange rate. For UAH we apply a 1% markup.

At the weekend (Friday 23:59 - Sunday 23:59) we apply a small mark up on the spot rate as the Forex markets are closed. We take the rate from Friday 23:59 and apply a 0.5% mark up on major currencies and 1.0% on other currencies to protect the company from potential losses due to a large fluctuation in the rate. For illiquid currencies like Russian Ruble and Thai Baht, there is 1.5% mark up on weekend.

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lol and if you lose your card while in Thailand it will just cost you €30 to get a replacement card :slight_smile: - if you lose it in the UK an expedited delivery will cost you £12 - I think Monzo offer all these services free at present ?

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I signed up to Revolut also, though I barely use it and will likely never use it again.

I initially signed up for a virtual account as I needed to use it almost immediately. A week or two ago I wanted to get a physical card because I was going to Latvia wasn’t sure what the contactless situation would be over there – they wanted £5 for that privilege.

Yes. They wanted me to pay £5 for a card. Not a lost card, just actually owning your first card will cost you £5. Maybe we could start a thread called “Why does Revolut charge £5 for a card and almost no other bank does?” Reeks of desperation.

Not only that, but it was then where I realised being able to text Monzo and getting a human response pretty much always within ten minutes is one of the things I value the most. Revolut was pedestrian to say the least, didn’t try to resolve my frustration at the £5 fee, just directed me to their FAQs and ended the chat!

Speaking of desperation, Monzo seem to think deeply about how to earn money from its customers fairly, how not to appear pushy, or that they’re just peddling any old wares for you to buy so that they can make a quick buck. Have a look at the Revolut “offers” for comparison. A quick one stop shop for phone insurance, travel insurance etc. Not presented seamlessly/subtly, just seemingly bolted on so they can maximise revenue.

Monzo is leagues ahead of Revolut.

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Primarily I think they are fundamentally different products: Monzo is a current account. Revolut is a multi currency prepaid card.

As such I don’t think they are competition. They are working in entirely different areas.

I would say this, though: Monzo offers working support. I have used Revolut, and boy is their support crap:

First you have to convince “RITA” (their bot) to let us pass as she doesn’t understand what you are saying. Then you have to wait 4 hours in the queue to speak to an actual human, who doesn’t understand your issue either. So you need to explain it over and over again. Then at 5pm sharp (or is it 6?) their support time ends. They’ll shut off your chat and boot you off their system in the middle of the conversation. You’ll need to start the whole shebang from the beginning the next morning (RITA and all).

Also:

They’ll suspend your account if there is the slightest hint of something not being quite right. Since getting hold of support can take a while, and you will likely need several attempts as you are booted off their service at close of day, you will likely need days (if not weeks) to figure out why your account was suspended, or how to un-suspend it.

Look at the shambles when the introduced EUR IBANs. Money lost in black holes for days on end (sometimes 1000s of euros) and Revolut just doesn’t care.

At some stage they considered the AUD (that’s the Australian Dolllar) as “illiquid currency” incurring the extra charge. (In general there are lots of complaints on their forum about exchange rates being much worse than they should be.)

I could go on and on and on.

I think, in a way, Revolut and Monzo embody the “you get what you pay for” thing: Monzo is not the cheapest, but they try offer you something in exchange (a working product, a working support). Revolut are cheap. You are their guinea pig. They don’t care about their customer at all. The moment the customer needs support he is no longer commercially viable, so they are not interested.

So, if you

  • enjoy being a guinea pig for potentially exciting features
  • Think 3% fees for ATM withdrawals over £200 is too much (a judgement call that I think you are fully entitled to)
  • don’t think you’ll need support
  • don’t need to do any foreign currency transactions (including POS) on a weekend
  • don’t need “illiquid currencies” (with the caveat that what they consider “illiquid” might well differ from what just about everybody else does)
  • or need any of the features that only Revolut can offer (multicurrency accounts)

By all means: go for them. But I have tried them, and wouldn’t trust them with a single pound of mine any more.

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Both FCA authorisation and FSCS protection

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I used Revolut for the first time in ages last week, and their support seemed to have got a lot better. I got a response in a few minutes - much better than the previous time I tried when it took over 24 hours.

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Thanks for the replies guys, appreciated.

Think I will stick with Monzo tbf, just wanted peoples thoughts on the matters raised and if they could provide other info :smile:

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So I was in China recently and took my Monzo card along (I’m still on pre-paid currently). What I found was actually quite surprising: Even though most places take cards, very few places accept foreign cards. And those who do in many cases don’t accept Monzo card (presumably because I’m still prepaid, this even happened in hotels). Assuming that switching to current account resolves the problem in places that accept foreign cards, that still means you need cash for a vast majority of transactions.

Even in Europe it often happens. When I was last in Croatia I spent some time going to a natural park there. Guess what, nobody accepted cards. Even at my hotel I had to pay with cash. That means having to withdraw well over £1000 to cover the cost of the whole holiday.

So long story short, if you travel a decent amount then it’s no longer feasible to stick to Monzo as your only banking solution even if all the bugs/outages were fixed. I’ll keep my Monzo account because it’s hard to know how the rest of the banks will evolve in terms of the foreign transaction fee. But unless other banks crack down as well, my Monzo account will likely become dormant once my current balance is used up. I’m going to open an account with Starling, which works exactly like Monzo used to: zero fees.

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Yeah I was looking at Starling account as well.

Hate hassle of moving around, but guess have to if want best deals.

With Revolut as well you can use android pay, sure I read that this opens it up to be accepted at more card terminals? May be wrong.

Edit: I was wrong, its Samsung Pay.

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One advantage to Samsung Pay is it works with most card readers. It uses both NFC technology and magnetic secure transmission (MST) technology. MST technology emits a magnetic signal that acts like magnetic strip that you find on most credit cards. This allows you to use this electronic wallet at more terminals than similar applications.

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It’s super easy. It took me literally five minutes to open an account with them.

well free now but how about tomorrow?

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I suppose it would depend on how many lost their cards and needed replacements - don’t lose your card - no fees :slight_smile: - why anybody would pay to receive an initial card is beyond me , but lots on revolut seem to think its worth it - thats the great thing about life, nobody knows what will happen given differing circumstances - we all make choices - if you don’t like the charge - if they arrive …

They are completely different products. Monzo is a current account, it just so happened to have a fee-free prepaid card during its beta stage which some people misinterpreted as a travel card. Revolut on the other hand is an actual travel card.

If you’re looking for an awesome bank account with brilliant customer service, beautiful mobile app, no nonsense and no fees (besides the occasional withdrawal fees and overdraft if you choose to have one) go for it. It can actually be used as a “travel card” since foreign payments still remain free and give you the MasterCard exchange rate (which seems good enough for me).

If you’re only looking for a prepaid travel card then I think Revolut would be the better option but then again from what I’ve heard their customer “service” is dreadful so YMMV.

This is statistically untrue.

We were discussing this a month ago, and at that exact moment in time when I looked it up…

Interbank rate: £1000 = $1349 (USD)
Mastercard rate : £1000 = $1360.21 - winner

Today’s rate, a month later

Interbank rate : £1000 = $1314.7
Mastercard rate : £1000 = $1322.33 - winner

I’m all for supporting competition, and ultimately there’s lots of companies doing great things in this space and taking different approaches. Monzo will be the best choice for many customers, for others it may not be. However, it’s always good to take a look at the actual data being made behind a point :grinning:

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Good point, although not sure two data points are statistically valid :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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I’d say they are, however the narrow data set would make the conclusions drawn from them unreliable :wink:

but that’s just semantics…

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I’m gonna stick with Monzo for now, I dont go to Thailand until April 2018, if Monzo turns into a fully fledged current account I may stay depending on whats on offer otherwise I think I’m gonna give Starling ago as my main account, if they still have on offer what they do now that is.

Monzo will be turning into a fully fledged Current Account - just like Starling (but better imho :stuck_out_tongue: )

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i am testing both cards right now. in a nuttsell

Revolut and Monzo costs me the same on GCB to EURO charge on ATM within the free allowance. beyond that 2% ia cheaper than 3%.

Revolut transfer money to euro account within 2 days and with zero charges. Monzo tbc cant compare yet as there is no current account feature. Revolut beat Natwest by roughly 11% on the international transaction (all costs included)

Revolut is slightly better in currency conversion if you understand FX markets (if you do you wouldn’t try conversions over weekends)

Both analytic capabilities are similar and both dont have a feature i want (customised categories and subcategories, for example i want my smoking costs as smoking)

Both decent security even though revolut adds some extra protection by blocking online transactions

Monzo has the best community hands down. i feel i am actually heard here. Revolut is miles behind

Monzo has a better brand hands down

Revolut is backed by Lloyds Bank. Not sure about Monzo.

Monzo had bettet product engineers. have seen what these guys do in meetups. jesus christ :wink:

i personally use revolut when i am abroad and Monzo in UK. i will probably buy Revolut premium fee as my family lives in EU and i live in UK. this will allow me £400 atm cash free per month plus monzo another £200 thats more than enough foe me and also ulimited fx bank transfers. also free virtual cards. Monzo should consider definitely a premium product at some point around FX. it is big

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