Why you should always carry a second card with you

So today I had I’ve of those nightmare moments. I used an ATM in the Netherlands and the machine rejected my Monzo card but also ate it at the same time (Usually when someone says the ATM ate my card they mean they entered their pin wrong and it was retained… No I actually meant it ate it, spat it back out but it bent round in the mechanism so my lovely hot coral is there for world to see! And it’s a remote ATM, so nobody can access it to retrieve it!)

Of course after the immediate panic (the crying, the wailing, the uncontrollable why me explosion) I put my level head back on, loaded the app and froze my card and ordered a new one immediately. Phew, life saver!

Out of sheer curiosity I wondered if there was anything else I should do, so hit up support. A very helpful chat man offered to send me my new card to Netherlands, but given I’ll be home for the weekend I declined as it’s fine, I have other means of :moneybag:

It’s not the nicest of experiences but Monzo made it super easy. The only thing that could have made this perfect would be having a backup Monzo card for travel emergencies like these. But in the absence of this, my advice, always travel with other cards. You never know that you won’t need them.

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What a nightmare! That’s the first time I’ve heard about something like this happening tbh, I tried to picture that in my head and chuckled (sorry!). I think the idea of a second unactivated card has been floated around the forum before. But definitely travel with at least two cards :raised_hands:t3:

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I’m so glad we could help you out and I’m so sorry this happened :disappointed:

However…I am so disappointed I can’t see a picture of this :wink:

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I’m just having a :beer: but I’ll have a look when I walk back and see if I can catch a shot of it!

And from what I gather it happens quite a bit when cards are slightly bent (I’ve seen an ATM bring dismantled in a bank branch before where this has happened). My card was definitely not bent though

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I was trying to hint at wanting to see a picture but thought that would have been too mean. Now that Hugh has mentioned it I’d like to see it too :joy:

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That’s very unlucky! At least your money is safe though.

I’m going away soon and my mother has a Halifax Clarity card, I’m thinking of order a supplement card on her account for myself as a backup when abroad. It’s either that or pay the bad fees with Lloyds in such an event!

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Good choice. That’s my backup card now, and because they have a promotion on and it’s a new card I get £20 for making a foreign currency transaction. Quids in, quite literally

It’s not mean, it’s quite funny actually. I can see how it wouldn’t be if I didn’t have any other means of paying (or a little cash in my pocket).

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Personally I think this is part of the reason that Apple Pay & Card Freezing should be separate. If his happens, and you freeze your card - you can’t really then continue to use Apple Pay! :frowning:

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Not ideal but you can unfreeze your card, make your transaction and freeze it again. I don’t think there is anything wrong with that, when you block a card you block it, with traditional banks you can’t unfreeze it!

As you wish…
As you can see, someone has now tried to hack it out, like that’s going to f’in work! (I suspect that’s broken the contactless loop anyway so no anyone is going to attempt that part ever again!)

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Wow. I have never seen such a sad Hot Chip card :frowning:

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I know, my poor beautiful card :cry:

You wouldn’t believe that there is another ATM like two steps away, I could have chosen that one!

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Monzo should frame this pic and put it up in their new office. Start a collection: Dead Monzo cards.

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We could always send our old prepaid cards in for them to make a wall with :wink:

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This is why I always carry a frozen card with me when travelling. I don’t know why they don’t make it easier.

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