monobank – 1 Year: My Experience and Mobile Bank Review
I have been meaning to write a post about monobank – a convenient mobile-first bank right on your smartphone with a sleek free black chip card. Still, I somehow never got around to it.
monobank’s first anniversary – November 2018
Today gives me a great occasion – monobank (affiliate link) is celebrating its 1-year anniversary!
It surprises me that many people still haven’t heard of monobank, and among those who have, most are overly cautious or simply too lazy to try something new. That’s a shame – the service is genuinely convenient and saves a lot of time.
What monobank is and why it is convenient
It is Ukraine’s first full-featured mobile-only bank with no physical branches or queues (the project operates under Universal Bank’s license). Signing up takes just a few minutes in the smartphone app: you snap photos of your documents, pick a pickup point or courier delivery, and get a black Mastercard with a chip and contactless payments.
Black monobank card with a chip and contactless payment
Key benefits and tariffs
After using it for a while, there are several things that make it hard to go back to traditional banks:
- Handy mobile app: manage your PIN code, spending limits, transfers, and balances straight from your phone with zero branch visits.
- Fair tariffs: free card top-ups, transfers, mobile top-ups, and utility payments without extra fees.
- Credit limit: many new users easily get a 5,000–20,000 UAH (about $180–$720) limit right away without paperwork, plus interest-free installments at partner stores.
- Monthly cashback: getting real money back in chosen spending categories is one of the nicest perks, easily worthy of its own dedicated post.
Core card tariffs
Your credit limit and security settings can be adjusted in a couple of taps right inside the app – no need to call support or fill out paper forms.
Managing the credit limit in the app
How to get a 50 UAH cashback bonus
If you haven’t tried a monobank card yet, spend a couple of minutes signing up – once it’s activated, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how smoothly everything works. Install the app via my affiliate registration link and both of us get 50 UAH (about $1.80) credited to our cashback balance (if you install directly from the app store, the bonus won’t apply). You can later withdraw that cashback straight to your main card balance and spend it.
As for monobank itself, I wish the team continued growth – stay just as simple, transparent, and reliable, and keep surprising us with new features and your signature cat :-)
