Why does Monzo think I’m in Spain?

Help
1

I got a notification from Monzo saying “Welcome to Spain”??? I checked my recent transactions and none of the merchants were registered there. Any ideas if I should be concerned?

2

  1. Look out of your window and at a thermometer. Are you sure you’re not in Spain?

  2. Start a chat with support in the app. They’ll be able to look into your account and tell you why you were sent that notification and if you need to have your card reissued.

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3

I’d slap some factor 60 on; they’re having a bit of a heatwave at the moment.

Someone else reported a similar glitch recently. For what it’s worth I never get these messages when I am abroad and I’m sure it’s nothing to be concerned about.

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4

Are you on iOS and do you use private relay as part of your iCloud subscription?

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5

Are you in UK or a nearby country? It could be either a VPN of some kind, or you’ve somehow connected to a foreign network.

Or could just be an error from the app though unlikely.

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6

Monzo seem to use the address of the place you make a payment with to determine where you’re at. See below where I went to a dealers den at a convention:

Makes for interesting results when you’re buying from people all around the world.

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I’ve never been to Poland, Finland or Slovakia.

For those grinning and looking at the VPN icon, it’s a local loopback running 127.0.0.1 to scan network traffic from my phone. Doesn’t do anything to monzo.

7

Never in my life have I ever made a transaction based on another country and had a welcome to said country.

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8

Same, and I’ve made international transactions online in US/Canada/Australia

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9

All of these are in person so I’m assuming they probably brought their card readers with them.

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10

Mind. Blown.

I’d have thought still processed locally if brought their card reader from abroad. Is it even possible to take card machine from one country to another?

I did see the Apprentice did something but then someone paid £500 with a monzo card or some other by contactless so thought it was BS. :joy:

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11

Technically possible, yes as they’re very small :slight_smile: - a portable card reader linked to a PayPal account or Stripe is going to be easy to take with you in a car. Whether you’re supposed to or not I suppose is outwith my knowledge.

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12

If it was an online payment, the payment provider might be based in those countries, or someone set the account up wrong

13

At the end there was text saying the service wasn’t normally available so they got special permission for it.

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