Use Monzo to pay in shops, restaurants and online, anywhere in the world and in any currency, with no fees.
We pass Mastercard's exchange rate directly on to you, and don't add fees or additional charges.
There are no fees to withdrawals made from an ATM in the European Economic Area (EEA). For other countries, you can withdraw up to £200 in cash every 30 days for free. If you've used your free allowance, there's a 3% charge on withdrawals after that.
To find out how travelling abroad with Monzo works – from exchange rates to ATM fees – read our guide!
Back in September, we announced that we needed to introduce charges for withdrawing cash from ATMs abroad, as a way of helping cover costs that we’d previously been absorbing.
Based on your votes and feedback, we’ve settled on a solution that we think is fair for everyone.
From today we’ll be introducing a 3% charge on cash withdrawals made from international ATMs, after a free 30-day allowance of £200.
Remember:
Spending by card in a shop, hotel, restaurant, or at any other “point of sale” abroad will remain free of charge
Online transactions made in a foreign currency will also be free of charge
We’ll continue to pass on the Mastercard® exchange rate with no markup
ATM withdrawals in the UK will continue to be free of charge
How it works
If you’ve already upgraded your account, you’ll be charged 3% on cash withdrawals you make at any ATM abroad, after a limit of £200. This limit is applied over a 30-day rolling period, and you can make as many withdrawals as you like up to a total value of £200 without charge.
So, if you withdraw £200 from an ATM in Moscow on the 1st of May, any subsequent ATM withdrawals you make while you’re abroad in the next 30 days will be charged at 3%.
After 30 days (in this case on the 31st May), you’ll be able to withdraw up to £200 abroad again free of charge.
If you are still using the prepaid account, you will be charged 3% on any withdrawal you make in a foreign currency, after a limit of £200 applied in 30-day rolling periods. To upgrade your account, just tap the invitation in your app.
You can always see how much of your free allowance is left in the app, and we’ll show you clearly how much you’ve been charged on each withdrawal.
Covering costs, not making a profit
Our goal is to build a viable business that’s here for the long run, supporting our customers and working to make banking better.
Every time a Monzo user withdraws cash from an ATM outside the UK, we pay the ATM owner a significant fee. We had previously paid that fee ourselves, but last year it became clear that continuing to do so would be tricky.
These charges do not help us turn a profit. Together with our community, we wanted to find a reasonable, sustainable way to cover these costs.
We’ll always communicate clearly, transparently, and make sure our community is kept in the loop.
To that end, we’ve identified a few common questions about using your card abroad. If you have any unanswered questions, please ask us on the community forum 🙂
Common questions
Does this affect how I can use my card abroad? 💳
The limits and charges only apply to cash withdrawals. You can continue to use your card to spend in shops, hotels, restaurants and any other “points of sale” abroad for free.
Making online transactions made in a foreign currency will also be free of charge, and we’ll continue to pass on the Mastercard® exchange rate with no markup as usual.
ATM withdrawals in the UK are not affected, and will continue to be free of charge.
I’m already abroad! When do the fees and limits start? 🛫
The fees and limits will be applied from today, Thursday 4th January. Transactions made before today will not be charged or included in your £200 limit.
Is there a limit on the number of withdrawals I can make? 🔢
You can make as many withdrawals as you like, up to a total of £200 every 30 days for free.
After that £200 limit, you can continue to make as many withdrawals as you like, at a charge of 3%.
If you make a single withdrawal of over £200, you will be charged 3% on anything above £200.
Back in October, we initially announced that the prepaid card would be limited to one single withdrawal of £200, due to limitations with our card processor. You can see this is still reflected in our Ts&Cs. However, we have now been able to build a solution so that users are able to make multiple withdrawals on both prepaid and upgraded accounts.
How does the 30 day window work? 📆
Your 30 day window starts the first time you make a withdrawal abroad (or in a foreign currency if you are using the prepaid card).
The window resets exactly 30 days after that first transaction was made. So if you withdraw £200 worth of Euros in Paris at 11am today, then you will be able to withdraw another £200 free of charge at 11am 30 days later.
How much of my free allowance do I have left? 💵
You can find out how much of your £200 free allowance remains in the limits section of your app.
Simply go into your account settings, which you can find under the Account tab. From the settings screen tap Spending limits to see how much of the £200 you have left.
If you have any questions, please reach out to us on the community forum. You can find out more about our reasons for doing this in our original blog post from September.