Monzo / Mondo / Revolut banking

Ah, it's only the prepaid card (which obviously they're phasing out) which is limited to one withdrawal a month.

I tend to use a lot of cash on taxis (I imagine that would be frowned on for TCR).

A new option for non-cash overseas spending is the Tandem card. https://www.tandem.co.uk/credit-card/ No fees and 0.5% cashback
It also comes in pink which should go nicely with the Monzo card.

I don't know an awful lot about Monzo to be honest so couldn't say for sure.
I got a Revolut account without any invite. Set up your account via the phone app and then order a card from them (£5). Set up some accounts to top up from. Done.

Ha! probably. on the last round of investment I tried to and put in to the lottery but didnt get in. my colleague who started using revolut and I mentioned the investment round did. go figure.

The main difference for me is that its a multi currency card.

You top up in £, use the app to convert it to the currency you are using at interbank rate and then when you are abroad the card purchases you make are automatically taken in that currency. no charges per transaction and the best rate.

What's wrong with the Halifax Clarity Card, I used for my world trip last year, no hassle whats so ever.

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/299551/?offset=150#comment14109307
https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/299551/?offset=150#comment14109222

https://www.halifax.co.uk/creditcards/clarity-card/

https://blog.revolut.com/what-is-the-interbank-exchange-rate/

The difference as I understand it is that you convert the currency when you choose with Revolut and at the time of the transaction with Monzo. Right?

So in theory if you thought that the pound was going to drop massively in value you could buy your Euros in advance with a Revolut card. With Monzo that's not an option; you're charged at the bank rate when the transaction happens.

But of course trying to take advantage of this is basically currency speculation, so perhaps not worth bothering with.

You can do either with Revolut, you can change money to Euros or Dollars in your account whenever you want or you can just keep all the money in sterling and it will apply the rate at the point when you withdraw the cash.

Personally I opt for the latter as trying to play the fx markets is clearly going to go wrong.

So there's no advantage to Monzo for foreign currency then?

The only time I could imagine getting money in advance would be if (for example) you know you're going on holiday in 6 months and Brexit is happening in 3 months and you're anticipating the pound falling.

Well the advantage to Monzo is if you speculated the wrong way with Revolut then you wouldn't have lost money with Revolut. And the disadvantage is that if you speculated the right way then you would lose with Monzo.

Revolut's selling point is holding multiple currencies at the same time.
Monzo just applies the exchange rate of the moment with no extra fees.

But I don't think the intention is really that people are using it to swap money a few months before a holiday. I'd guess it's more that if if you're working for a while in the US, or being paid in dollars then you can work and spend in the same currency rather than having to think about everything divided by 1.41. No wait, 1.39. Oh, 1.42 today.

I'd guess it's more that if if you're working for a while in the US, or being paid in dollars then you can work and spend in the same currency rather than having to think about everything divided by 1.41.

Ah right. That makes more sense.

Universal galactic currency when???

Not really, no. Revolut and Monzo both use the mastercard rate so should be identical if you're just holding sterling.

Revolut has the extra option of holding other currencies if you want to try some hedging or just want certainty.

I hate money. Can we go back to bartering?

I thought Revolut uses interbank rates and not MasterCard.

I'm in! I'll give you one fish for all your monies.

Does Monzo actually do the transaction at the same time? Maybe if it's cash, yeah, but if you're paying for things abroad they seem to work it out a few days later. With Revolut, on the other hand, you can exchange a bunch of money and then spend using that.

Could be, the website's not that clear. I thought it was Mastercard for withdrawals and interbank for exchanges but maybe not looking at the website.

One other thing I was unaware of, rates can be higher at weekends:

At the weekend (Friday 00:00 - Sunday 23:59) we apply a small mark up on the spot rate as the Forex markets are closed. We take the rate from Friday 00:00 and apply a 0.5% mark up on major currencies and 1.0% on other currencies to protect the company from potential losses due to a large fluctuation in the rate. For illiquid currencies Russian Ruble and Thai Baht, there is 1.5% mark up on weekend.

I'm not really a big fish fan. Prefer to stick mostly with the 5 food groups

beer
kebabs
apple pie
sweets
beer

The latest player appears to be Starling with no overseas ATM fees or limits

https://www.starlingbank.com/travel/

I can't be bothered trying them out though.

Anyone getting badgered by the overdraft pop up?

No, never got anything. Is there an overdraft thing now?! Hmpf.

Got a Revolut app and a card on its way.

It says there's a £200 top-up limit unless I verify some shit. It wants a passport photo and photo.

I didn't do this with a normal bank so don't feel like doing it with Revolut. Alternatives?

There probably aren't any. Anti-money laundering and know your client rules are getting stricter all the time, anyone who doesn't ask for shit like that is probably a bit dodgy.

They've got my name, address, bank card/account. Does Monzo want passport?