What tier of MasterCard Debit is Monzo in the US?
Standard, Enhanced, or World Debit Mastercard?
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It’s definitely not a World Debit, but how do I tell the difference between Standard and Enhanced? I just see “debit” and the MasterCard logo on my card.
If it is like Visa, it is the first part of the card number.
World would make it more competitive with CC.
Could you tell us what the difference is, please?
I was hoping for a summary, but thank you.
Summary:
Standard debit cards, well, the name says it all. You get the basic level of support from the card network that would come with any card issued by that network- zero liability for fraud, emergency card replacement (at a cost), emergency cash (at a cost), ID theft protection (actually that’s new to me- I didn’t know that was a standard MasterCard benefit)
Enhanced debit cards also have extended warranty (adds up to one year to the warranty period of products purchased on that card) and return protection (insures against the shop refusing to take back a return- in the event of such a refusal you can send it to the insurer at your expense and get reimbursed for the purchase, but not postage).
World debit cards have some travel benefits on top of those- travel booking services, hotel dispute assistance, price matching on hotel bookings, additional benefits when booking at certain hotels, as well as purchase protection (if you buy something and it’s stolen or damaged within 90 days of purchase you can ask them to cover the cost of repairing or replacing the item, depending).
Basically, an enhanced debit card provides a layer of protection on your shopping, and a World debit card provides some travel benefits and adds short-term insurance on all your shopping too.
Also, to add to this, I wouldn’t exactly complain if World Debit was made available as part of a Monzo Plus US or something like that. Generally, credit cards with travel benefits charge annual fees for the extra benefits, so it would make sense for that to be a tier above. However, I definitely think Enhanced debit should be part of standard Monzo. The return protection would definitely be a draw to those who shop at stores with more restrictive policies.
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Are the new debit cards World Debit Mastercards now
Is this to benefit from higher interchange when outside the UK and EU?
Interesting. Personal account card (oldest card) just has the Monzo logo there. Joint says “debit”. Business card (newest) says “world debit”.
Edit: binlist.net reckons they’re all World debit / Business World debit.
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I wonder when we’ll see this for US cards- we’ve still got just plain old standard debit.
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I received a Starling Connected Card today and lo and behold it has the World Debit branding on the front just like new Monzo cards have on the back!
Does anyone on here know what this is about? I can’t imagine Monzo and Starling’s cards are actual World Mastercards since the list of perks they list on their website is amazing.
Edit: just noticed this disclaimer:
Note: This benefit may not be available to all issuers. Please check with your issuing bank for details.
…in small font under all of the actually enticing perks listed! I guess that’s that then. But this begs the question what is the upside of Monzo/Starling issuing World Debit cards as opposed to the standard ones, when none of the fun perks of the World card are included?
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I believe the upside is mostly to the business, as they may get slightly better interchange rates. But as far as customers are concerned? A card is a card is a card, and the exact wording matters not.
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Ah, ok. That’s a shame - I was getting excited over nothing!
Since this post ended up in the Monzo US subforum I did want to mention that in this respect we have it better on this side of the pond. Over here, the banks that offer World Debit pretty much all pass on at least some of the benefits offered as a selling point. This is probably in part because the market is more crowded here, with seemingly a new challenger bank showing up here every week (my Facebook feed is full of ads for challenger banks I’d previously never heard of).
For example, when SoFi switched from regular Visa Debit to MasterCard World Debit, customers gained mobile phone insurance ($200 of damage/loss per incident, 2x a year covered as long as you pay your mobile phone bill with the card every month), purchase protection (items purchased on the card are insured against theft and damage for the first 90 days, up to $1000 per item), extended warranty (manufacturer’s warranty is doubled, up to an extra 2 years), and “satisfaction guarantee”- bought something and want to return it, but the store won’t take it back? Send it to their claims centre and they’ll refund you less shipping, up to $250 per item.
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That sounds fantastic! Thank you for sharing. Are there any account fees to subsidise the cost of those perks (I know current (or checking as they’re know over there) account fees are way more common in the US)?
When a traditional bank offers World Debit, usually yes. For example, BMO-Harris only offers World Debit to their “Premier” customers, which requires a US$10k minimum balance or $25/month fee. HSBC is the same (their debit cards are MasterCard in the US), although their Premier requirements are higher- at least US$5000 of salary paid in each month as well as the $50 monthly fee or $75000 minimum balance. Some banks do break out the fee separately- for example, Fifth Third Bank will charge you $3.95/month to have a World Debit card.
Challenger banks, on the other hand, not so much, at least not by directly charging fees. The expectation has been set pretty early on that monthly fees are not to be charged when you’re online-only. They try to make up the cost of these perks by other means, such as interchange fees (capped at 20 cents + 50 basis points per transaction for debit card transactions within the US), or in the case of SoFi, through their other operations (they also offer student and personal loans, mortgages, and stock and crypto trading) and by taking away other perks (back before the switch, they would reimburse ATM operator fees so that you paid nothing extra when withdrawing cash; now they don’t charge their own fee but no longer reimburse the third party operator’s fee if they charge one). You don’t pay extra, but something has to give way to make room for these new perks.
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Try doing those perks on 0.2% with no fixed fee allowed on interchange as per the UK cap.
Fees are not going to run in the UK where all the big banks offer free accounts with no perks. Paying fees is normally for insurance or other premium features. Our banks however have less branches and cheques are rarely used with cash use also alot lower that help with costs.
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