Monese Review 2026: Fees, Exchange Rates and Is It Good for Sending Money Abroad?

Plans and the everyday fees

We dug through the plans to see where the real costs sit. Monese runs four consumer tiers: a free Pay As You Go plan, Everyday at £2.95 a month, Cashback at £7.95, and Premium at £14.95. Higher plans cut the fees that matter most.

The card itself costs about £4.95 to deliver, though that is waived if your first deposit is £100 or more, and it is free on Premium. The free plan carries no monthly charge.

Two smaller fees catch people out. On the free plan you pay £0.99 to receive a payment, which is unusual, and an account left untouched for 12 months attracts a £1 monthly dormancy fee until you use it again.

Exchange rates and the cost of spending abroad

This is where the plan you pick really bites. Monese uses the market exchange rate, then adds a margin: 3 percent on the free plan, 2 percent on Everyday, 0.5 percent on Cashback and nothing on Premium.

Cash abroad is dearer still. A foreign ATM withdrawal on the free plan can cost around 4 percent once the foreign-currency surcharge is added, so the free tier is best for card payments rather than pulling out notes.

We could not confirm every figure against Monese's own fee pages, and the published tables are not always consistent. Treat the numbers here as a guide and check the live fee page in the app before you rely on them.

Monese can both spend and send, so we model a transfer. We use the live mid-market rate as the yardstick: on 29 June 2026 the pounds to euros mid was about 1.1599, so £1,000 is worth roughly €1,160. Rates move daily, so the figures are illustrative.

Read it like this. Send £1,000 on the free plan and the 2 percent fee takes £20 before conversion, so your recipient gets about €1,137. Send it at the weekend and an extra 1 percent drops that to roughly €1,125.

The point is the gap to a specialist. A dedicated transfer service typically charges well under 1 percent, so on the same £1,000 the recipient would get more than €1,150, leaving Monese around €15 or more behind on a single send.

What moving money looks like

Unlike a pure spending card, Monese does let you send to a recipient abroad, to more than 30 countries and 15-plus currencies from inside the app. Transfers run on Monese's own rates and fees rather than a third party's published rate.

You can also hold and move money between your GBP, EUR and RON accounts, send instantly and free to other Monese users, and receive euros into a European IBAN. For everyday multi-currency life, that is genuinely useful.

The catch is price, not ability. The free-plan margins make Monese an expensive way to send larger sums, so it is better seen as an account that can transfer than as a transfer service. You can compare the wider market in our money transfer comparison before you decide.

Where Monese fits

If you are an expat or recent arrival who wants one app for a UK salary, euro spending and the odd transfer home, Monese does a lot in one place. If your route runs to eastern Europe, you can also see provider options on the send money to Romania page.

For sending money as the main event, though, weigh the fee gap. Over a year of regular transfers, the difference between Monese's free plan and a specialist adds up to real money.

Account-opening for the underbanked

We rate Monese highest on the job it was built for. It was founded in 2015 by Norris Koppel, who could not open a UK bank account as a new migrant, and the app still opens accounts in minutes without the usual hurdles.

That matters for a specific group. If you have just moved to the UK, lack a credit file or cannot show a utility bill, Monese gives you a working sort code and card when a high-street bank may turn you away.

Credit Builder

Monese also offers Credit Builder, run by its separate lending arm and costing £2.50 a month. It works by reporting small, regular repayments to credit reference agencies, which can help a thin or empty credit file grow over time.

Treat it as a tool, not a miracle. It builds a record through consistent payments, so the benefit comes only if you keep it up, and it is a paid add-on rather than a free feature.

Who runs it

We checked the FCA Register. The UK operator is Monese Ltd, authorised as an Electronic Money Institution under firm reference number 900960, with that status held since November 2019, from a registered office in London.

One point is worth clearing up. An older Monese entity shows on the register as a cancelled e-money firm, but that is superseded, and the live, authorised entity for today's customers is the one above.

How your money is protected

Here the detail matters. As an authorised e-money firm, Monese must safeguard your balance by ring-fencing it at a separate credit institution, so it is kept apart from company money.

That is not the same as a bank, though. It carries no FSCS cover, so the £120,000 deposit guarantee does not apply, and in an insolvency an administrator could take costs from the safeguarded pool before customers are repaid.

Ownership and the money worries

Monese had a difficult stretch. Auditors flagged uncertainty over its finances in early 2024 after heavy losses, and investor HSBC wrote off its stake that year.

The business was then restructured. Its technology arm was spun out, and the consumer app was bought by fellow fintech Pockit in late 2024 with fresh funding, so it keeps running as an independent brand while the new owner integrates it.

The reviews worth weighing

We looked at the customer view, and it is largely positive, which sets Monese apart. On Trustpilot it scores around 4.3 out of 5 from more than 53,000 reviews, and its app-store rating is higher still.

One theme still recurs, though. A run of reviewers describe accounts frozen for compliance checks with little explanation and slow, automated support, sometimes for weeks, so keep funds elsewhere accessible in case a check holds your account.

Getting started. Download the app and pass an identity check with a photo of your ID and a selfie. Monese markets that you can open an account without proof of a UK address, which is its main draw for newcomers.

Paying in. Add money by bank transfer, by debit card, or with cash at a Post Office or PayPoint, though cash top-ups carry a percentage fee. Transfers in from another Monese user are free and instant.

Support. Help is mainly in-app, and reviews often flag slow or automated responses, particularly when an account is under review. Keep your own records of any transfer in case you need to chase one.

We rate Monese against the apps people most often line it up with. For holding and spending several currencies it competes well, and you can sense-check today's costs against rivals with a live comparison of today's rates and fees.

For sending money cheaply, the better pick is clear. Our Wise review covers a service built for low-cost, transparent transfers to overseas bank accounts, with fees usually well under 1 percent and no weekend markup.

Its closer rival as an account is another we cover in full. Our Revolut review looks at a broader app with multi-currency spending and transfers, though Monese tends to beat it on opening an account if you lack a UK credit history. Other card and app options sit close by, so our Currensea, Caxton, Travelex and Wirex reviews are worth comparing.

As an account for migrants, expats and anyone the high street finds hard to serve, Monese earns its place. It opens in minutes, holds pounds, euros and lei, and helps newcomers build a credit record, all backed by an FCA-authorised firm.

What holds it back is the core job most of our readers want. The free plan is an expensive way to send money abroad, the weekend markup stings, protection is safeguarding rather than FSCS, and the brand is still settling under new ownership.

That balance lands it at 3 out of 5. Monese is a strong account that happens to send money, rather than a strong way to send money, so if cheap transfers are your aim, compare a specialist first, then keep Monese for what it does best.