Monzo in the US

Skippy13

I'm going to the US for 3 weeks next month and, rather than using a credit card for my shopping, I was looking at the Monzo account and keep the credit card for emergencies. Am I right that there are no fees to use the Monzo debit card abroad? Has anyone used it and been happy with it?

Thanks in advance

jonnygee2

There are no fees for using the card at point of sale. There's a fee for withdrawing cash beyond £200, but in the US you probably won't need much cash.

I'd recommend getting a second fee-free card, like Starling, as a backup. Otherwise, if you lose the Monzo card, you could end up paying a lot of fees!

pochisoldi

jonnygee2 wrote: »

There are no fees for using the card at point of sale. There's a fee for withdrawing cash beyond £200, but in the US you probably won't need much cash.

I'd recommend getting a second fee-free card, like Starling, as a backup. Otherwise, if you lose the Monzo card, you could end up paying a lot of fees!

In my experience of all the countries I've visited in the western world, the US is the furthest away from being a cash free society.

Chip and PIN in the US is about 15 years behind the UK.
Many unattended terminals are "mag strip+ZIP code", many stores are "swipe and make a random mark" because nobody checks the signature strip, I lost count of the number of terminals with gaffer taped chip+pin slots, and the number of times when I put my card in the slot and the cashier said "Ooh your card's got a chip" like I was on the bleeding edge of technology)
Contactless in the US is where the UK was 10 years ago, pending the deployment of chip and pin capable terminals with contactless from day 1.

It's getting better, but only this time last year I had to walk to the cashier at a gas station, hand over a $20 bill, walk back to my car, fill up with regular, then walk back to the cashier and get my change.

Meanwhile someone with a US issued card could have shoved it in the gas pump, entered their ZIP code, filled up, picked up their receipt and been down the road, before I even left lifted the nozzle.

Just the kind of delay you don't want when you're running late for a flight and you've still got to hand the hire car back.

In the US I'd make alternate arrangements for cash, and use Monzo for the last $300 of my cash spend.

PochiSoldi

Skippy13

Thanks both. I've always used a credit card in the States in the past but I want to control my spending better this time. I've opened the Monzo account (didn't like the selfie bit!) and I'm going to see how I get on with it. I like the idea of the pots for saving, so I'll probably use it for that even if I don't use it in the US.

stevenhp1987

pochisoldi wrote: »

It's getting better, but only this time last year I had to walk to the cashier at a gas station, hand over a $20 bill, walk back to my car, fill up with regular, then walk back to the cashier and get my change.

Meanwhile someone with a US issued card could have shoved it in the gas pump, entered their ZIP code, filled up, picked up their receipt and been down the road, before I even left lifted the nozzle.

I've found that entering the numbers of your postcode, followed by 0's work.

E.g. AA12 3AA, enter 12300.

I have a few foreign spend cards, only one this doesn't work on!

Additionally, cashiers in the US are always amazed when I tap my card because they're generally only used there for Apple/Google pay...

System

stevenhp1987 wrote: »

I've found that entering the numbers of your postcode, followed by 0's work.

E.g. AA12 3AA, enter 12300.

I have a few foreign spend cards, only one this doesn't work on!

Additionally, cashiers in the US are always amazed when I tap my card because they're generally only used there for Apple/Google pay...

Entering five zeros / nines usually works just as well.

Many US payment terminals accept chip and pin but retailer often deactivates the feature. UK cards don't really like this as they have to be swiped. Not sure how Monzo deal with it tbh.

gt94sss2

Heng_Leng wrote: »

Not sure how Monzo deal with it tbh.

https://community.monzo.com/t/us-monzo-in-the-usa-wiki/4533

https://community.monzo.com/t/us-monzo-in-the-usa-discussion/12806

username

pochisoldi wrote: »

In my experience of all the countries I've visited in the western world, the US is the furthest away from being a cash free society.

Chip and PIN in the US is about 15 years behind the UK.
Many unattended terminals are "mag strip+ZIP code", many stores are "swipe and make a random mark" because nobody checks the signature strip, I lost count of the number of terminals with gaffer taped chip+pin slots, and the number of times when I put my card in the slot and the cashier said "Ooh your card's got a chip" like I was on the bleeding edge of technology)
Contactless in the US is where the UK was 10 years ago, pending the deployment of chip and pin capable terminals with contactless from day 1.

It's getting better, but only this time last year I had to walk to the cashier at a gas station, hand over a $20 bill, walk back to my car, fill up with regular, then walk back to the cashier and get my change.

Meanwhile someone with a US issued card could have shoved it in the gas pump, entered their ZIP code, filled up, picked up their receipt and been down the road, before I even left lifted the nozzle.

Just the kind of delay you don't want when you're running late for a flight and you've still got to hand the hire car back.

In the US I'd make alternate arrangements for cash, and use Monzo for the last $300 of my cash spend.

PochiSoldi

I found that was the opposite, most places seemed to accept card payment even mom/pop type stores, with only some places strictly cash only.

Much of this issue comes with the somewhat botched implementation of chip and pin.

Whereas in the UK we are very lucky and can tap and go by default in most places, it is like stepping back into 2003 when c&p came into being in the UK, the system is very slow, both hardware response and just general wait. Swipe and sign, albeit not particularly secure, was quick and easy.

I am surprised that large big box stores like Walmart and Target do not support contactless/Apple pay. The hardware looks capable but for whatever reason the feature is disabled.

The postcode numerics plus zeros to pad it out seemed to work for me at gas stations for most, sometimes it didn't work and you needed to see the guy at the counter to prepay.

You might as well use your card to make a payment in gas stations at the counter - you have to prepay X amount but some do this as a preauth and if you do not use all (say you wanted to put on $50 of gas but only drew $35 worth) it will either get corrected to the amount you drew and debit cleanly, or they will charge the $50 as a transaction and then refund the difference as a refund to the card. Saves all of the faff with having to collect your change for a second time.

System

gt94sss2 wrote: »

https://community.monzo.com/t/us-monzo-in-the-usa-wiki/4533

https://community.monzo.com/t/us-monzo-in-the-usa-discussion/12806

Thanks but I was aware of the forum and it's not entirely clear if 'pink coral' is as versatile as a UK credit card.

I use Clarity (in the US) without a single rejection.

Duckyduck

Heng_Leng wrote: »

Thanks but I was aware of the forum and it's not entirely clear if 'pink coral' is as versatile as a UK credit card.

I use Clarity (in the US) without a single rejection.

Why wouldn’t it be? It’s a Mastercard product just like the Clarity. The potential issue would be holds for car/hotel where credit cards are usually recommended as many people have more available credit on a credit card than debit and so not impacted by the pending authorisation.

To echo what someone else said, my experience of the US is it is far from being a cash economy, yes the security technology is years behind here, but cards are accepted everywhere.

Skippy13

I think the only time I've used cash in the US is for tips!



I've also opened a Starling account as it seems more user friendly if I want to take out cash. I'll obviously have credit cards for hotels and for back up but I would rather know I'm spending my 'own' money!