Cancelling ATM transactions abroad- Monzo account warning!

Alexism

My boyfriend and I were recently on holiday in Argentina. As Monzo customers with a joint account between us, we planned to benefit from their favourable overseas rates by drawing cash from ATMs as we needed it. The first two ATMs we tried, however, presented us with relatively large fixed currency fees right at the end of the withdrawal process. When we saw the fees, we just cancelled the withdrawal (obviously getting no money) and eventually got our money elsewhere.

At that point we were not concerned. The fees were from the ATM, not Monzo, and we had cancelled the expensive transactions.

Then we noticed that the banks had actually taken the money from our joint Monzo account - two transactions in different banks worth about £75. We discovered that exactly the same thing had happened to another person on the trip. We still weren't that concerned, as we knew someone who had had an ATM fail to issue and charge the amount but had a refund automatically after a few days.

It goes wrong from this point.

After days had gone by with no refund, we contacted Monzo via their app. This involved many separate discussions with several different people who often seemed to have no access to the previous chats. Worse, our joint account wasn't treated as joint; agents have said they have no access to conversations with my boyfriend and have told me that they can't discuss it with me as he raised the original query. Worse still, they clearly suspected we were not telling the truth asking us why we didn't raise it earlier and emphasising that it is "extremely rare" that ATMs "fail to pay".

Currently, after we complained, Monzo have made a £20 goodwill payment but just referred our issue to Mastercard. Given the service so far and the tone of some of the responses we are not confident they will represent us well.

So, some tips for others:

• In Argentina at least (and possibly elsewhere), cancelling a transaction when the fee is presented seems to result in a charge every time from most major banks. As you can't see the fee in advance, you might want to reconsider using your Monzo card for cash overseas. This might apply to other debit cards.

• Monzo at least (and hopefully not too many other banks) may assume you making a fraudulent claim and refuse to make a refund unless a lengthy claim process via Mastercard is decided in your favour. I imagine they do get a lot of fraudulent "ATM didn't pay" claims but they clearly don't consider the specifics (this was a cancelled transaction, it would make no sense to mis-claim two separate transactions, no investigation of our parties 100% record of this etc).

• Monzo joint accounts are not as "joint" as you might imagine. Customer service do not have full access to records from both parties and will treat both parties as part of a single query process. This makes pursuing an issue like this significantly more difficult (and irritating!).

I hope others can avoid some of these problems. I'd be very interested to know about other people experience of cancelled ATM transactions overseas or with Monzo. I’ve posted this in monzo forums but also wanted to post here as I suspect the cancelled transaction problem applies to other banks, even if they handle it better.

Cheers

jonesMUFCforever

Should have gone with a proper bank!

EveryWhere

First of all, most if not all, ATMs in Argentina have those high fees. That should not have been a surprise to you.
Secondly, Monzo has a £200 monthly limit. So don't understand why you felt it suitable for ATM withdrawals in the first place.

Thirdly, I rarely use debit cards when I travel. Credit cards only. That way, it's not my money that is in dispute and the bank is usually willing to cooperate.
No good if there is fraud on your account and your holiday money is no longer available to you.
At least with credit cards, there is time for them to investigate before your bill comes due.

Neil49

A Monzo joint account is an account linked to two separate user profiles, hence the issue with both of you contacting Monzo regarding the same issue.

With regard to atm withdrawal limits, each person has a monthly allowance of £200 regardless of how many accounts they hold. When withdrawing £400 cash you must use both joint account cards (£200 each) otherwise you will charged for exceeding your individual allowance.

Personally, I would always use my Halifax Clarity card to withdraw cash from an atm and use Monzo for day to day transactions.

eDicky

Alexism wrote: »

Currently, after we complained, Monzo have made a £20 goodwill payment but just referred our issue to Mastercard.

So you have not yet received any refund of the amounts taken by the ATMs?

It's the first I've heard of such a thing happening (ATM withdrawal amount charged despite cancellation). I've never been to Argentina but others here often have, there's a recent thread on the Currency sub-board.

CardinalWolsey

I assume the OP has now returned to the UK? If not, an approach I would recommend is to video the entire "transaction", from inserting the card in to the machine, all of the selections made, and focus on the cancellation of the transaction and the lack of cash being issued. That could then be used as a reference for the other transactions that failed in the same way.

colcheslad

And then getting charged again? Not sure that's the best idea!

ess0two

How can an ATM charge for a transaction that was never actioned???

Alexism

Thanks for all the replies everyone.

As an update, Monzo have now agreed to credit back the amount subject to a challenge from Mastercard (which apparently takes about 8 weeks).

Here are some replies to people's comments:

EveryWhere:
* Although we were a little surprised at the Argentine ATM fees (I guess you are suggesting we should have researched that before we travelled), the fees were not the issue. It was that cancelling the transaction still allowed it to go through and that Monzo seemed to handle it as if our challenge to this was fraudulent.
* We are aware of the £200 "no Monzo fee" per card limit (we had two cards) but as we only needed £400 or less the Monzo card seemed a reasonable choice. Even if we had needed more, my understanding is you can continue to use your Monzo card for cash at a 2% fee. That would still be good value compared to most other options.

Neil49:
I'm sure you you are right about Monzo joint accounts really being two linked single accounts. It's not what other banks mean by "joint account", though, and I don't think most people would expect the issues that Monzo's version of a "joint account" causes. There are other issus - several Monzo functions can't be used with a "joint account".

Actually, we knew about the £200 per card limit. As above, the way our trip worked, this wasn't an issue but next trip I'll compare the Halifax Clarity terms with the Monzo one. I'm guessing the Clarity option is only worth it if you need a lot more cash than the £400 available on the joint account.

eDicky:
I hadn't received the refund when I posted but, after much escalation, I have now (see above).

CardinalWolsey/colcheslad (is that THE Cardinal Wolsey?):
Yes, we were back before the problem was obvious so no videos possible or, as you say colcheslad, worth paying the fee again to get.

ess0two:
That, of course, is the mystery!

I'll let everyone know if Mastercard challenge the refund eventually!

EveryWhere

Alexism wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies everyone.

As an update, Monzo have now agreed to credit back the amount subject to a challenge from Mastercard (which apparently takes about 8 weeks).

Here are some replies to people's comments:

EveryWhere:
* Although we were a little surprised at the Argentine ATM fees (I guess you are suggesting we should have researched that before we travelled), the fees were not the issue. It was that cancelling the transaction still allowed it to go through and that Monzo seemed to handle it as if our challenge to this was fraudulent.
* We are aware of the £200 "no Monzo fee" per card limit (we had two cards) but as we only needed £400 or less the Monzo card seemed a reasonable choice. Even if we had needed more, my understanding is you can continue to use your Monzo card for cash at a 2% fee. That would still be good value compared to most other options.

My reference to the fees were meant to suggest that if you knew about the fees, there should not have been a reason for you to cancel the transaction in the first place.

Secondly, there is no advantage in using Monzo over the alternatives. Starling Bank, for instance, doesn't have the £200 ATM limit at all.
But as I stated, I prefer to not use debit cards at all, because of the risk of fraud.
Once again, Halifax Clarity does not have the restrictions of the Monzo account, but has exactly the same exchange rate.
Barclay Platinum Travel/ Cashback Plus would have been the perfect accompaniment.

Of course all after the fact, so for information only.