ber this year.
In mid-September this year, Monzo wrote to its customers asking for their help in determining how the bank should cover the costs of withdrawing money outside of the United Kingdom.
After a short round of voting, the new fee will now be set at 3 per cent for any international cash withdrawals made over a free allowance of £200 per month by current account users. For those still using Monzo’s pre-paid debit card, they will receive only one free withdrawal up to £200 per month.
Though the current account has only just passed its beta-testing phase, Monzo has stated that it expects to have offered it to all existing customers by the time these fees come into effect on 18th December.
All global point-of-sale transactions, both in-store and online in local or foreign currency, and ATM withdrawals in the UK will remain free of charge.
The new fee comes after Monzo released data on its customers’ ATM usage, which noted that annual ATM withdrawals costs have risen from £6 per active user in 2016, to £16 per active user in 2017.
Prior to this announcement, the bank absorbed these fees itself. It explained in its September blog post that this had become unsustainable, particularly in light of losses in 2016 of £7.9m.
The two other options put before participating users were a 1 per cent charge for ATM withdrawals within Europe and 2 per cent outside Europe, or a 1.5 per cent charge for all withdrawals outside the UK. More than 6,000 votes were cast, with the winning option receiving more than two thirds of the vote.
Monzo acknowledged that its new fee is not the cheapest option for travellers, with Revolut dropping its fee for foreign withdrawals to £200 per month and 2 per cent thereafter in December last year.
However it hopes this won’t affect business, stating: “Our aim is not to always be the absolute cheapest on the market if it means we can’t build a sustainable business, but instead to find a fair way to meet this cost as part of the overall Monzo experience.”
