Cheap Travel Money Discussion Area

stilltheone

meher wrote: »

Ignoring your retorts and put downs for a mo, I see that you're hung up on nationwide when that was just one of the three other cards that I highlighted. If you cannot clock up credit with nationwide too bad, it doesn't cease to be an option though.

I appreciate that I overlooked atm withdrawls. That's because I speak from my experience and I don't normally take cash out of ATM and would rather collect travel money from the local money exchange bureaus. I always take lots of money with me to convert.

This global card that you're promoting has already fleeced you and offered you a bad rate, that you seem to have overlooked. Why would I want to buy a card with a very bad exchange rate when my fee free mastercards and visas offer me an excellent exchange rate and when there's no added charges for the purchases? Travelex prepaid card has not only offered a bad rate when you paid the pound, it also charges you for EACH purchase. My clarity, santader zero and nationwide gives me the day's rate based on the calculators that you've posted and without any charges for purchase that travelex charges.Sorry I don't understand your point. Where have I suggested that.

I think you're talking about an ordinary travelex prepaid card. This thread is about travel money and my posts have been about travel money and prepaid travel cards and making a comparison with the conventional fee credit cards.

Still the prepaid card charges you each time you make a purchase as I pointed out in my earlier post which other fee free credit cards don't.

BTW I shall not be dignifying your posts anymore with a response if you resort to retorts. Stick to topic and I'm happy to correct or clarify my stance.

Meher....

Are you so wrapped up in your argument that you cannot see the wood for the trees?

Why am I having to repeat myself?

I will put it in bold this time.

The Travelex Cash Passport Globe uses the unadulterated Mastercard rate. You can check the rate here

The Travelex Cash Passport Globe does not make any deduction from the Mastercard 'wholesale' rate.

As you seemed incapable of following the links in post #1555; the Mastercard rate for the US$ on the 15th was US$1.615201. The Visa rate was US$1.6101

The currency is only converted at the time of usage, so you get the full wholesale rate at the time.

The only charge is the 1.49% fee on any spend.

So the equivalent rate that you would have received on any spend(including ATM withdrawals) with the TCPG was US$US$1.615201 x 0.9851. U$$1.5911

There are no ATM withdrawal charges.

Get it now?

I mentioned Nationwide because you wrote that it was fee free. Do you object to me doing so??

None of the cards you mention are fee free, as they charge interest on cash withdrawals. (Though the interest can be small with prudent payment).

But the Nationwide is not in the same category as the other two, as it charges 2.5% for cash withdrawals and ordinarily, charges 2% commission on foreign spending.

So rather than ranting about Travelex and praising others, it would have been better to do your research before you mislead others.

If I didn't post, others could be misled by your post.

Travelex Cash Passport Globe is better all round than the Nationwide BS CC.
But if you use the Nationwide for your UK spending and rack up an allowance, it worth using the Nationwide CC for purchases abroad.

So please, check the links and read the T&Cs before replying. You might just learn something.

Hint: Everything bold & blue is a link. If you would have clicked through the Travelex Cash Passport Globe link(the big blue one in post #1553) I provided to you in the first place, you might have saved yourself a lot of pain.

meher

stilltheone wrote: »

The Travelex Cash Passport Globe uses the unadulterated Mastercard rate. You can check the rate here

So you say, show me this clause on the travelex website. Until I have EVIDENCE that they use unadultrated Mastercard rate on their website, I'd assume they use their own rates and no way will I trust such sites or recommend it.

stilltheone wrote: »

The Travelex Cash Passport Globe does not make any deduction from the Mastercard 'wholesale' rate.

There's a flat usage fee of 1.49% for each purchase which other credit cards do not have. I reject such pauper companies' cards that have to live out of my card purchases.

stilltheone wrote: »

the Mastercard rate for the US$ on the 15th was US$1.615201. The Visa rate was US$1.6101

I don't dispute that but you're seriously misleading everyone by associating mastercard rate with travelex when the site makes no such claims. Travelex has their own conversion rates which is pitiful exchange rate. I'm open to correction but you have to show that information from the site and not just juxtapose the mastercard sign with the mastercard coneversion. Don't insult people's intelligence.

stilltheone wrote: »

The only charge is the 1.49% fee on any spend.

Other fee free credit cards like nationwide, Clarity or Santander zero do not charge at all. I'm interested in why people, apart from the unfortunate folks who are rejected by clarity and nationwide, would settle for a stupid card like travelex.

stilltheone wrote: »

There are no ATM withdrawal charges.

I don't use ATM for withdrawls abroad, as I said and I'm only interested in my travel money needs. Those who want to us of the ATM, should do their own research.

stilltheone wrote: »

I mentioned Nationwide because you wrote that it was fee free. Do you object to me doing so??

I won't object, I'll just reject if I think you're selectively responding and if I believe my post has been taken out of context. And unlike you I wouldn't ask your permission to reject what you post.

I hope you'll appreciate that repeating yourself is not going to change the facts (or my mind for that matter).

stilltheone

meher wrote: »

So you say....

I wasn't sure if you were just being obtuse, but now I am.

You are simply showing your ignorance.

If you had at least a modicum of intelligence, you would have checked the Terms and Conditions before coming on here and ranting like a mad woman.

But seeing as intelligence is not your forte, I will spoon feed you, as you obviously need special attention.

Travelex Cash Passport Globe Terms and Conditions Page 4



You just shown yourself to be just a big mouth and little brains to back it up.
A few seconds of research would have done you some credit, but instead you chose to advertise your ignorance in post after post.

I hope that you now slink away into ignominy.

stilltheone

meher wrote: »

So you say,....

As to the rest of the utter stupidity contained in your post... you would have an excuse if I didn't provide the links for you to check all the relevant information.


Moving on from that...

There are no fee cards, but they are not credit cards.

The Nationwide CC is not a fee free CC, not by a long chalk. It charges 2% commission on purchases(which is higher than the Travelex cash Passport Globe) plus 2.5% on cash withdrawals. Horrendous.

Only if you have racked up a 'commission free allowance' will that be potentially reduced. But you are still stuck with 2.5% for ATM withdrawals.
You recommend that as a fee free card??

Seems like a lot of fees to me. :rotfl:

It is you who is being selective with the facts. Creating a ridiculous scenario where you have to do all your spending on the Nationwide CC in order to rack up an allowance for your holiday purchases, but god forbid you make a cash withdrawal. What a waste of time and energy.

Why not just get a decent bank account? The Travelex Cash Passport Globe is just much better value than the Nationwide CC. No stupid rules, just a 1.49% fee for anything you spend.

Every day it still amazes me to see the kind of people we have roaming around our planet.

Now let's see if you go back, edit your posts and eat humble pie or if you continue to wriggle like a snake in some vain attempt to save face.
I'm thinking it might be the latter...

meher

I did toy around the idea of getting a prepaid card for some time and looked at fairfx, to be specific. I wasn't happy with the rates they offered. But they lock in rates apparently, so if you actually watch out for good rates and buy it at the time, it could work in your favor if the euro/dollar weakened. But it is a gamble. Travelex seems to do the same but their rates are a lot worse than FairFX. For instance to get one of those US dollar currency cards, for £1000 you get a measly $1570:




As if that isn't bad enough, you're charged for each purchase, each atm withdrawl. Their cards also have dormancy rates and fee if you went above the limit unknowingly. I suppose it's easy to list what isn't charged by travelex. Considering their neverending long list of charges and fees, it's simply not worth it. I suspect they realised they were not competitive enough and have stripped off their highly ambitious £29.99 fees thankfully.

Nationwide is fee free throughout Europe and if you're an existing customer, you can get their gold card for which you pay just 1% to use it abroad. You can also clock up credit if you use it in the UK. And it is still free to use worldwide until the end of this month. They keep having fee free offers throughout the year, so it's an idea to keep looking at their site. They also almost always have interest free purchases for at least 6 months. Santader zero too has some such offers and they don't even charge you fees for balance transfers. I had Sainsburys gold card for a short time, had excellent exchange rates and was fee free and also paid the travel insurance but there was a monthly charge if I remember right. I ended that contract when I got my own santander zero. But Martin lists Clarity above Santander zero. It is meant to be the ideal card but you get no interest free purchases with it if that's an option you'd be looking for.

The other thing I do is whenever I travel abroad, I buy foreign currency if I find a good rate.

dzug1

Sophie4120 wrote: »

But equally, with the cash passport, they will be giving me their own exchange rate anyway? So it actually makes it more expensive than cash?

So, yeh, confused! Would be grateful for any thoughts

No ON THIS CARD and on this card only they give the full Mastercard rate

Poster after poster gets confused on that and refuses to accept that it is so


Most Russian change bureaux (that I could see) charge commission so you'd have that to contend with in any calculations you did there.

Scotts_2

Hi everyone,

I've been sick of getting paltry rates from banks and Bureau de Changes for a while now, especially as I only tend to need the equivalent of a couple of hundred pounds of local currency - using cards for the rest.

I'm in the process of setting up an online swap shop for those small amounts of leftover currency so buyers and sellers can get nearer the true rate for their holiday cash. It's going to be free to use, and I'd really like to know what other people think about the idea. Think of it as an E-Bay specifically for smaller amounts of foreign notes and coins.

Please feel free to PM me with your thoughts or post them here, I'd love to hear your feedback.

Paul_Manc

I have recently returned from a trip to Canada (Alberta) and adopted the following approach to cash.

I had previously acquired a Halifax Clarity Mastercard and had used this on a Canary Island trip with good rates and no added charges.

For the Canada trip, I preloaded the card with in excess of my envisaged credit card and cash expenditure. I did not exceed this during my stay and on receiving my statement I had no loading on any of my charges and no interest to pay, even though I had taken out about £500 in cash during the trip.

For cash withdrawls, some failed at smaller Canadian Banks (e.g. Canada Trust). At Royal Bank of Canada, my receipt stated that I would be charged a $Canadian 1.50 ATM fee, but this did not appear on my Halifax statement, I also used CIBC with no problem and no ATM charge.

So if you have the funds, preload a Halifax Clarity card and get very good rates on cash and on Credit Card purchases.

In addition to above, I obtained $Canadian 300 at Manchester Airport, taking out the £4 buy back option. I returned $Canadian 290 on my return, and I calculate the total currency exchange cost (when compared to the Credit Card cash exchange rate) was £9.36 which included the £4 buy back option and £4.26 original commission fee. Next time I will look into the rate I would get ordering in advance for airport collection, without the buy back. But overall, £9.26 overall currency handling overhead for a holiday is not bad.

Paul Manc

stilltheone

meher wrote: »

I did toy around the idea of getting a prepaid card for some time and looked at fairfx, to be specific. I wasn't happy with the rates they offered. But they lock in rates apparently, so if you actually watch out for good rates and buy it at the time, it could work in your favor if the euro/dollar weakened. But it is a gamble. Travelex seems to do the same but their rates are a lot worse than FairFX. For instance to get one of those US dollar currency cards, for £1000 you get a measly $1570:




As if that isn't bad enough, you're charged for each purchase, each atm withdrawl. Their cards also have dormancy rates and fee if you went above the limit unknowingly. I suppose it's easy to list what isn't charged by travelex. Considering their neverending long list of charges and fees, it's simply not worth it. I suspect they realised they were not competitive enough and have stripped off their highly ambitious £29.99 fees thankfully.

Nationwide is fee free throughout Europe and if you're an existing customer, you can get their gold card for which you pay just 1% to use it abroad. You can also clock up credit if you use it in the UK. And it is still free to use worldwide until the end of this month. They keep having fee free offers throughout the year, so it's an idea to keep looking at their site. They also almost always have interest free purchases for at least 6 months. Santader zero too has some such offers and they don't even charge you fees for balance transfers. I had Sainsburys gold card for a short time, had excellent exchange rates and was fee free and also paid the travel insurance but there was a monthly charge if I remember right. I ended that contract when I got my own santander zero. But Martin lists Clarity above Santander zero. It is meant to be the ideal card but you get no interest free purchases with it if that's an option you'd be looking for.

The other thing I do is whenever I travel abroad, I buy foreign currency if I find a good rate.

You post is misinformed at best. Read the T&Cs of the respective products before posting this nonsense. There is little excuse, as it has been explained to you time and again. In addition, your 'synopsis' for existing Nationwide customers is completely wrong.

zagfles

Paul_Manc wrote: »

I have recently returned from a trip to Canada (Alberta) and adopted the following approach to cash.

I had previously acquired a Halifax Clarity Mastercard and had used this on a Canary Island trip with good rates and no added charges.

For the Canada trip, I preloaded the card with in excess of my envisaged credit card and cash expenditure. I did not exceed this during my stay and on receiving my statement I had no loading on any of my charges and no interest to pay, even though I had taken out about £500 in cash during the trip.

For cash withdrawls, some failed at smaller Canadian Banks (e.g. Canada Trust). At Royal Bank of Canada, my receipt stated that I would be charged a $Canadian 1.50 ATM fee, but this did not appear on my Halifax statement, I also used CIBC with no problem and no ATM charge.

So if you have the funds, preload a Halifax Clarity card and get very good rates on cash and on Credit Card purchases.

In addition to above, I obtained $Canadian 300 at Manchester Airport, taking out the £4 buy back option. I returned $Canadian 290 on my return, and I calculate the total currency exchange cost (when compared to the Credit Card cash exchange rate) was £9.36 which included the £4 buy back option and £4.26 original commission fee. Next time I will look into the rate I would get ordering in advance for airport collection, without the buy back. But overall, £9.26 overall currency handling overhead for a holiday is not bad.

Paul Manc

Excellent shame about the airport forex charges - couldn't you have waited till you got to Canada and withdrawn from an airport ATM - then your forex charges would have been zero :cool:

Technically it's against the T&Cs to pre-load the Clarity, not sure I'd risk it myself, although most likely the worst that would happen is they return the money from where it came so if you loaded it via a bank transfer they'd just send it back to your bank waiting till you got back... I suppose they could get upset and close the account since you broke the T&C's but I doubt they would...