What would happen if .. card abroad

(Cristian Randazzo) #1

Hello
You know, is so hard to send money aboard … fees, days for waiting because the bank has to approve and all this stuff, I hate it ! I’d love to transfer her money now, and she to have access straight away … :frowning:

I live in UK, my mom she lives in Romania. What if, I would create a monzo card, top up £100 to get the card, and then send it to her ? And like that, she can use the card in Romania, and sometimes when she needs money, I can just top up by app ? This would be so much useful for me !! But I don’t know what the big (monzo management) thinks about this. Is this a illegal thing ? Do I could do this ? Opinions …

#2

I have a similar situation where I employ contractors on the continent… I actually provide them all with EUR prepaid mastercards and top up to that…

The issues I can see are 1) she will be spending in non GBP, she will get the best rate, but theres still a rate… 2) the card is for uk residents at present, you would be providing a card to a non uk resident… Technically against the rules and certainly incurring monzo additional fees… I dont know if they would cut you off, but certainly its against the spirit of the arrangement.

Personally I routinely send money from UK to SE asia and it is a one day process with my bank… It used to be a 3 plus working days but not in the last few years. In your situation I would look at using transferwise for the best rates and cheapest movement.

#3

Any reason you’re not using PayPal? It’s easily the best way to send money to family.

(Cristian Randazzo) #4

I tried, but paypal doesn’t accept her cards, she is having a value card so that is not a debit or credit card … I tried everything what could be very easy !

(Jay) #5

Have you thought about Transferwise to transfer the money into her bank account? I’ve used it a few times to transfer money from a EUR bank account to the UK. Last time I paid by credit card and the money was in my UK bank account before I had time to log into my online banking.

(Cristian Randazzo) #6

Yah, I just tried that, it looks really nice and so much easier, it said that the money are gonna be on the receipt account by next week Wednesday.

So, maybe is gonna be earlier ? Or maybe not, maybe it says that date because of the time, is Christmas, holidays etc, no idea :smiley: but yah, if everything is gonna work well and the bank doesn’t need my mom to go to the bank and sign for that money (last time she had to do that…so annoying), then that is cool, and I will try again on January and see how quick that transaction is gonna be done :smiley: :slight_smile:

(Jay) #7

The first few times I did it by making a bank transfer to Transferwise’s bank account. That took a few days (3 working days if I remember correctly) before the money arrived in my UK bank account. But that was mainly because it took a while for the money to arrive in their bank account. Once they get the money you should get an email and get the money within a day or so.

(Alex Sherwood) #8

To top up the card, you’d need to register it & as far as I know, you can only register Monzo cards to a UK address (no doubt someone from Monzo will get back to you about this, after the holiday).

So…to put the transferring money issue in context, for anyone who’s still new to payments / Monzo - the cards are prepaid cards which means they’re designed to be used to make payments. The consumer bank accounts that are provided by the legacy banks can’t (please do point out any exceptions if there are some) accept payments, they can only accept transfers.

Obviously Monzo will be launching current accounts next year when they receive their full banking license. But…it’s safe to assume that Monzo would stil have to charge some fees (which is against their philosophy), in order to process payments which involve currency conversions.

The good news though, is that Tom has said that Monzo will be partnering with the provider of an FX solution which I assume, will enable Monzo users to transfer money abroad, without paying a huge fee. That’s all I know for now but more details should be announced at the same time as the current account launch.

Until then, I think you’re probably best off using another company’s services for this.

Waiting for my Monzo Card
#9

Have you used PayPal before ?

I don’t know what you mean by doesn’t accept her cards? PayPal should be linked to a bank account and withdrawals go directly into her account .

#10

Paypal isnt in every country… I have no idea about romania only know it was years before you could link a Thai bank to it.

(Matteo) #11

that’s true if you’re sending money in the same currency… but the moment you and the recipient have account in different currencies, PayPal screws you over with a crap exchange rate.

I think this screenshot should easily make you understand what I’m talking about (took a while ago, thus not representing the current exchange rate).

And glad to see that @thejayo suggested you to try TransferWise (I used to work there until I left the UK)

@alexs when the time will be right, I would not be surprised to see Monzo international transfers powered by the TW API :wink:

#12

Even if it is in her country, each country has different levels of functionality for their PayPal accounts. In some you can only spend the money in your PayPal account by doing a PayPal transaction to buy something, in others like the UK you can also link current accounts and withdraw money to a bank account. I doubt in her country they yet have that other functionality. And if you try to get around it by setting up a UK account you can’t add an overseas address only UK addresses, and you can only add UK cards and accounts not overseas ones, they have really locked it down and made it hard for those who live and work in multiple countries as you can’t have a single PayPal account but need one for each country.

#13

PayPal in Romania is not send only. Ah the joys of the internet ! But yes they give a crap exchange rate, if have thought that was a universal issue.