Monzo charges no foreign transaction fee on card spending and passes on the Mastercard exchange rate. Cash is where it gets expensive outside Europe: the free account gives you £200 of fee-free withdrawals every 30 days, then charges 3%, whether or not Monzo is your main bank. Perks and Max raise that to £600, for £9 and from £19 a month. For long-term travel in Southeast Asia, where a lot of daily spending is still cash, Starling (no cap from Starling) and Wise (£250 a month free) cost less on withdrawals.
Monzo is one of the UK accounts families most often already have when they start planning a long trip, and its card is free to use abroad. We have not used Monzo on our travels. Since leaving the UK in October 2025 we have used Starling for everyday card payments and cash withdrawals, up to its £300 daily limit, and Wise only for holding local currencies and paying landlords and vendors who want a direct bank transfer. So this article is built from Monzo's own published terms rather than from our experience of it.
What follows is a straight comparison against those two, using Monzo's help pages, Monzo's plans page, Wise's UK card fees page and Starling's travel page, all checked on 1 October 2026. If you are weighing Revolut as well, our Starling vs Wise vs Revolut verdict covers it.
The Short Version
Spending by Card: Monzo Is Fine
On card payments Monzo has no weakness worth worrying about. Its travel page says you can pay "in any currency" with "no foreign transaction fees", and it passes Mastercard's exchange rate straight to you. That is the same deal as Starling, and a long way better than a high-street bank card adding around 3% to every payment.
So for hotels, supermarkets, restaurants and anywhere else that takes a card, a Monzo card costs you nothing extra. The problem in Southeast Asia is how much of daily life does not take a card.
Cash Outside Europe: The £200 Cap
Monzo's allowances depend on where you are and which account you have. Outside the UK and the European Economic Area, which covers the whole of Southeast Asia, Monzo's help page gives these limits:
| Monzo account | Fee-free cash outside the EEA | After that |
|---|---|---|
| Free account, Monzo is not your main bank | £200 every 30 days | 3% |
| Free account, Monzo is your main bank | £200 every 30 days | 3% |
| Plus | £400 every 30 days | 3% |
| Premium, Perks or Max | £600 every 30 days | 3% |
Being a "main bank" customer, which Monzo defines as paying in at least £500 in 35 days with an active Direct Debit, or receiving certain benefit payments, makes no difference outside Europe. It only unlocks unlimited fee-free withdrawals in the UK and EEA. The Extra plan is not listed in Monzo's allowance table, so check the app before you assume it raises your limit.
Two details matter more for a family than for a solo traveller.
The 30 days are rolling, per withdrawal. Monzo says the allowance "resets exactly 30 days after each withdrawal, not at the start of the month". Take out £150 on the 2nd and £50 on the 5th, and those amounts free up again on different days.
Joint accounts share the allowance. Monzo says allowances "are shared across all the accounts you hold with us", and gives the example of £100 from a personal account and £100 from a joint account using up the full £200. Two adults with a joint account do not get £200 each by spreading withdrawals across accounts.
What That Means on a Month of Cash
As a worked example, not our own figures: say you withdraw £600 of local currency over 30 days outside Europe.
| Card | Card-side fees on £600 |
|---|---|
| Monzo free account | £12.00 (3% on £400) |
| Monzo Perks or Max | £0, but the plan costs £9 or £19 a month |
| Wise | £9.42 (2.69% on £350) |
| Starling | £0 from Starling |
Wise counts its £250 by calendar month rather than rolling 30 days, so the two do not line up exactly, but the order does not change.
None of these cover the fee charged by the machine itself. Every card pays that, and in Southeast Asia it is often the bigger cost. In Thailand it was 250 THB (about £5.90) on every one of our six withdrawals, and Cambodian machines charged us $5 to $8. Our guide to ATM fees in Southeast Asia covers how to keep that part down, mainly by taking out more at once. The other way is to need less cash: Wise can scan local QR codes in some countries, and our guide to QR code payments in Southeast Asia sets out what tourists can use where.
The Paid Plans: Worth It for Cash?
Monzo's plans page lists Extra at £3 a month, Perks at £9 and Max from £19, with a three-month minimum on Max. Perks and Max lift the outside-EEA cash allowance to £600.
Paying £9 a month to save the 3% on up to £400 of extra cash is only worth it if you would otherwise withdraw more than £500 a month on Monzo. A free Starling card already removes the card-side fee entirely, so for most long-term travellers the cheaper fix is a second account, not a subscription. Max also bundles worldwide travel insurance. We have not assessed that cover, and any packaged policy needs checking against your trip length before you rely on it for long-term travel.
Is Your Money Protected?
This is where Monzo is ahead of Wise. Monzo Bank Limited is a UK bank, authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority (register number 730427), and Monzo's FSCS information sheet says eligible deposits are protected up to £120,000 per person. Starling has the same protection. Wise is an e-money account: your money is safeguarded, but it is not covered by the FSCS.
For a family holding savings or a house deposit while away, that difference matters more than any ATM fee. It is one reason Starling, not Wise, is our main account.
When Monzo Makes Sense
- It is already your main bank and you mostly pay by card. Spending is free, and you can keep using the app you know.
- Your trip is mostly in Europe. As a main bank customer, withdrawals in the EEA are unlimited and fee-free.
- You withdraw less than £200 a month in cash. Under the cap, Monzo costs the same as Starling.
- As a backup card. A second card from a different bank is worth carrying anyway, in case one is blocked or swallowed by a machine.
Our Verdict
Monzo is a good card to spend on abroad and a weak one to live on cash with outside Europe. The £200 rolling cap is lower than Wise's £250, the 3% over it is higher than Wise's 2.69%, and Starling charges nothing from its side at all.
For long-term travel in Southeast Asia, we would not make Monzo the cash card. If you already have it, keep it as a backup and for card payments. Starling is what we use for card payments and cash, and Wise for holding local currencies and paying landlords and vendors directly. We set out how those fit together in our Starling vs Wise vs Revolut verdict.
Fees and allowances change. Monzo figures are from its Monzo help page on fees abroad, its plans page and its FSCS information sheet. Wise figures are from its UK card fees page, and Starling's from its travel page. All were checked on 1 October 2026. Check them before you rely on them.
