Really?Thats disappointing. Did support say that? I wonder if they are talking about their 1st generation or 2nd generation free plan
Here’s the email I received from Monese:
Margarita (Monese)
1 Oct 2021, 13:41 BST
Hi Ivan,
Thanks for reaching out!
We’re glad to introduce new pricing plans and features that you can view on our pricing page
Don’t worry, your pricing won’t change just yet. You’ll be automatically migrated to the new alternative plan starting from November 28th, 2021. If you’d like to upgrade your pricing before that - here’re the new pricing Fees and Limits
To change plan head to your Monese app > Settings > My Plan then simply choose preferred pricing. Note: if you re-select your current pricing plan, the billing date will be extended to 1 more month and you’ll only be charged for the days you’ve used it.
If you require any further information, feel free to contact us.
Best regards,
Monese Support Team
Find answers to most common questions in our Help Centre at https://support.monese.com
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Oh man that is super disappointing. Thanks for letting me know Ivan. I think I will miss the euro card. The joint account had worked out very well for me and my partner but as others have said there are cheaper alternatives.
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As they have retitled the free tier “Starter”, I don’t think it will be long until they delete that tier altogether a la Bunq.
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I’ve just had an email “inviting” me to upgrade to the Essential plan with the offer of 1 month free.
I think your prediction may be right.
Given the fee is below £2 a month, and their current referral rate, I think this is a bit pathetic. Six months would be reasonable!
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I wonder if it will be possible to downgrade afterwards. I’m thinking perhaps not.
You may have received the email I did, emblazoned with
“Best ever pricing plans” being best priced for Monese rather than the customer, who has seen no price reduction or enhancement to any tier, and the downgrading of the free tier to almost total irrelevance.
I do wonder if they are struggling financially. Who on earth in their marketing department thinks that this is a good idea?
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I did receive the email yes, and I’m in agreement with you that this is definitely not a good idea.
I only have a small regular amount going into Monese at the moment and one direct debit, so it would be fairly easy to swap out.
Just need Chase to start direct debits and I think I’ll be off.
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I got the Monese account for the Euro account. I can see that becoming chargeable as well.
I guess so many Fintechs don’t bother doing their research and see how companies’ products like Tandem’s credit card crash and burn when an unsustainable fee gets charged.
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I see they are moving quickly into BaaS
Revenue generation from the paid accounts not keeping the lights as hoped.
I very much like Monese, they have a low risk and somewhat of a unique offering. Spend like a local with the euro card is a big draw for me but also the joint account without the CRA reporting is brilliant and surprisingly not well known.
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I’d almost forgotten about the Euro account, it’s been so long since I’ve had chance to use it.
Hopefully that will stay as it is a great feature, especially having the separate card.
I used it recently in mainland Europe. Thankfully I didn’t get whacked for DCC on it, though whether that was because it was detecting it was a Euro denominated card or because Germany is becoming moral and not using this level of sharp practice I don’t know
As far as I know it is a Euro denominated account and as such there should be no DCC.
Whenever I’ve used it in the past it has behaved as if it was a local account with no charges or fees.
I suppose, even if I leave the account dormant, the dedicated Euro account makes it worth keeping.
As long as they don’t start charging for it that is.
Oh I’ve had DCC offered to me on euro denominated cards before, in Spain. The machine there takes it from the country of issue, apparently. I was told in El Corte Ingles (oh, the irony) that there was “no way I could be charged in euros”, so I just left €50 of shopping on the till and walked out). A different branch of the same store was able to charge me in euros only after I threatened to do the same and a manager was miraculously able to swap the bill to euros. Friends had this done to them in restaurants where they had selected euros and the waiter had changed it back to sterling !
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On a slightly different note, what are the community’s thoughts on moving over from Monese to Revolut?
I do have a Revolut account, which at the moment is very much under used.
Why either or?
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Just throwing some ideas out there at the moment.
I probably do have too many accounts at the moment, and with Monese changing their pricing structure and account limitations, I was looking for possible alternatives (if that makes sense)
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I think it was most likely because, as technically a prepaid Mastercard currency card, it would be against Mastercard’s rules to apply DCC. You therefore shouldn’t see DCC on a Monese Euro card at all, although some merchants do flout the rules as the BIN of the card still identifies it as being from the U.K. - so they can “tell” it’s foreign, in a sense, even though it shouldn’t matter.
For detail on the rules, see here:
Never give the card machine back to them until the transaction is fully approved ; that’s the golden rule (accepting that it is easier said than done with pushy waiters and card machines displaying messages in foreign languages).
If you are ever charged in DCC when you didn’t want to be, just dispute the charge with your bank by filing a chargeback with the reason “unwanted DCC”. The cardholder will win, you get a free whatever it was, and it will teach them not to do it again!
Spain is well known for being the absolute worst country for DCC ripoffs, though, so you always have to be on the lookout there.
The other thing to do is always pay contactless via Mastercard, if possible, as Mastercard don’t allow DCC via contactless.
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I use all of them.
I have accounts with KBC in Ireland (which may either get closed or moved to Bank of Ireland, as KBC are withdrawing from the market), Fineco, Revolut, Starling and Monese.
I like Monese’s separate card just for the Euro account, and the aforementioned technicality about DCC is also good in the Eurozone, but Revolut is still a decent option. I just can’t quite trust them as much as other banks and fintechs, though.
Fineco also allow you to have a Euro card, but their app is not as good as Monese and the account can be difficult to open.
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