Will Monzo Continue To Offer Free ATM Withdrawals Outside the UK?

[chistery]

I am curious as to the spending habits of the minority though. Are they using the card in the UK for the majority of the time and go abroad and just take out a lot of cash every day they are there, or is there very little UK use on these cards, for example?

Similar to EU roaming for mobiles, they have a policy that you have to have used your phone in the UK for 60 of the last 120 days to get to use your UK allowance in the EU, maybe something similar should be in place for free ATM use.

[seahorsejockey (Carl Barrett)]

If Monzo start charging 4% for atm withdrawals abroad I won’t use it (with or without an allowance). Plenty of other options are available that are cheaper IF cash is required. Of course, I would still use the card for purchases where possible.

For a rough example, if I was to withdraw 10000 pesos 10 times on a 3 week holiday to the Philippines it would be £30 to £60 cheaper, depending on service, to just send the 100000 pesos to myself or a local bank account. That’s a lot of beer!!

[evangelskies (Eve)]

I’m all for option 2- the allowance sounds like a good idea except I would probably exceed it within a month if I happen to be travelling overseas. When they introduce ATM fees it’ll just make my spending habits different- using card whenever possible and avoid getting cash out etc. Might be difficult in certain countries/cities, I found it impossible to go cashless in Paris but I used card everywhere in Munich, likewise it would be impossible in Thailand but I can use Apple Pay/ card everywhere in Singapore.

It’s up to users to weigh their options and decide which is more cost-effective for them when travelling, like others have expressed: costs should just be passed on to individual instead of being carried by everyone else via a monthly fee. I think 1.5% is a rate that can’t be beat by money changers/ foreign ATMs but 4% might be

[j06 (Jamie)]

What are the options, please? For those of us who travel.

[BobT (Bob)]

Will Monzo Continue To Offer Free ATM Withdrawals Outside the UK?

Options shared and taken to informal vote at tonight’s event: Option 1: 1% EU except U.K., 2% rest of world, no allowance Option 2: 1.5% outside U.K., no allowance Option 3: 4% outside U.K. with £200/month free allowance Tom emphasised that all UK ATM withdrawals will remain free as will any foreign card purchases - i.e. where possible pay by card not cash! Tom suggested that he will probably take this to an all-user vote before making a decision. All three options should cover their curren…

[j06 (Jamie)]

Thanks @BobT. I was actually asking @seahorsejockey what options would be cheaper to withdraw cash abroad if Monzo goes fair use.

[Borussia]

Hi all,

I’ve had the Monzo card for a while and new to this forum

I have read from Money Saving Expert that Monzo are looking into charging ATM fees in the future:

Monzo has said it plans to introduce ATM fees overseas later in the year - as we predicted - which will bring it more in line with other cards in this guide.

Can you confirm if this is true and when will this happen, if it will?

It is a shame as I love the fact that there are no fees for using the card abroad regardless if it is a card payment or an ATM withdrawal

[BobT (Bob)]

Doh! Was speed-reading msgs before dinner

[alexs (Alex Sherwood)]

Hi,

I’ve moved your post to this topic, as this is where all of the details about Monzo’s plans & (almost) all discussion have taken place.

Tom explained the situation here -

Will Monzo Continue To Offer Free ATM Withdrawals Outside the UK?

We’re not going to introduce anything immediately and we want to figure out a fair solution in conjunction with our community (all of you!) Roughly speaking, a year’s worth of UK ATM withdrawals for an average user might cost Monzo £1. ATM usage within the EU costs another £1 per user. Outside-EU usage costs about £8. And that’s averaged across the entire Monzo userbase of hundreds of thousands of people. In reality, these outside EU ATM costs are driven by a very small fraction of users, some …

And these are the options that Monzo’s been proposing at the current account preview events (which may change before the final proposal) -

Will Monzo Continue To Offer Free ATM Withdrawals Outside the UK?

Options shared and taken to informal vote at tonight’s event: Option 1: 1% EU except U.K., 2% rest of world, no allowance Option 2: 1.5% outside U.K., no allowance Option 3: 4% outside U.K. with £200/month free allowance Tom emphasised that all UK ATM withdrawals will remain free as will any foreign card purchases - i.e. where possible pay by card not cash! Tom suggested that he will probably take this to an all-user vote before making a decision. All three options should cover their curren…

Like you, I’d prefer to not pay the fees too but unfortunately it’s just not feasible for Monzo to keep absorbing these costs.

We don’t know exactly when the fees will come into effect but users will of course be given plenty of notice.

I hope that helps

It’d be good to hear your thoughts on this too.

[Borussia]

I see where Tom is coming from and can see that there is a need to start charging, but won’t it be better to have a flat fee that covers all countries?

I wouldn’t mind paying like £3-5 per month extra for a premium account that gives a decent/unlimited ATM withdrawal amount and that allows me not to have any surcharges on foreign ATM fees. Revolut has a black card and that includes medical insurance (I don’t think that’s really needed and see this being taken away).

I’m interested to see how the vote goes, I do like Option 2 to be honest as it is fair for everyone

How do you guys think?

[HoddzDJ]

Personally, as Monzo has never been advertised as a current account for the traveller, I’d be in more inclined to get a dedicated travel card for over seas atm withdrawals.

[Borussia]

I’ve never really liked the idea of a Forex card (that’s just me being me) and it could be because of trust of where I’m placing my money and the troubles if I lose the card.With Monzo I know I’ll get help asap and can track my spending easier when back at the hotel

[Etughgyug (Not Theresa May)]

I don’t think the majority should be made to pay the price of the "small fraction"of users that monzo are paying for. Surely there must be another way.

[adil_i (Adil Iqbal)]

Personally I feel monzo should do what metro & other banks have done. Free EU withdrawals, this could maybe have an upper limit for outside of the UK to allow you to distinguish between the high-expense users. This will also allow a 'fair usage policy, whereby those you use the most in the EU cover the higher cost. Then charge as you see fit with the rest of the world (hopefully the lowest rate/highly competitive ). Only thing I’m not sure about and probably what you guys at monzo aren’t sure about is how banking fees & regulations change post-Brexit 🤦.

[billinghamj (James Billingham)]

Making it as a quick (unofficial & informal) poll, so we can get a vague idea as to what people are thinking:

• Option 1: 1% EU except U.K., 2% rest of world, no allowance
• Option 2: 1.5% outside U.K., no allowance
• Option 3: 4% outside U.K. with £200/month free allowance

@dlegresley

Tom emphasised that all UK ATM withdrawals will remain free as will any foreign card purchases - i.e. where possible pay by card not cash!

Tom suggested that he will probably take this to an all-user vote before making a decision. All three options should cover their current costs.

The results of this poll will not be used in any way. I’m just interested to know what sort of split we’re looking at.

[anon31249595]

I would vote for an Option 4, free in EU but with perhaps a weekly or monthly limit on number of transactions. Otherwise may as well get an account at someone like Starling

[MS308]

Or option one with a small adjustment.
Free uk withdrawal, £200 free monthly withdrawal in eu - 1.5% for everything above the limit , 2% everywhere else.

[alexs (Alex Sherwood)]

Once the fees are introduced, as far as I know Starling will be the only providers (aside from credit cards) that offer no fees for ATM withdrawals so what does that tell you?

You could use Starling for foreign transactions & with the current accounts, it’ll be easy to use them alongside Monzo but ultimately by the time they get anywhere near Monzo’s size, they’ll have to introduce these fees too.

Also, Monzo mainly need to win over the customers of the legacy bank’s, Starling aren’t really the competition here, regardless of how much noise they try to make about not charging fees once Monzo introduce them. These fees shouldn’t be the deciding factor for users that want more than just a currency card.

So I wouldn’t worry about the competitive advantage, the fees will only cover Monzo’s costs anyway so in the end, they’ll still be unbeatable. What matters is what makes sense for you, with your spending habits.

[nick69g (Nick)]

In my opinion, it should always be free UK withdrawals as all banks (as far as Im aware) in the UK offer free withdrawals.

Then whatever the cost is to withdraw cash or use your card overseas, you should pay for. If you incur the cost, then why would you not be expected to pay for it?

If you go on holiday and it costs you more to buy something that it usually would in the UK, you don’t expect the travel company to reimburse you - do you? You accept the fact that overseas travel might cost you more than spending in the UK.

Unless Monzo introduce a “prime” account with a monthly fee to cover overseas withdrawals - then people who travel and make use of overseas withdrawals regularly, would benefit from it.

Obviously if Monzo want to give free withdrawals overseas, or a reduced rate to attract and retain customers, then that choice is theirs to make.

Just my thoughts anyway…

[chistery]

I rarely use cash nowadays on holiday anyway. Go somewhere like Sweden and it’s so rare to see anyone use cash. Bjorn from Abba hasn’t used cash since 2011 apparently.