Cheap Travel Money Discussion Area

Aaron

It might depend on the combination of cards. I've used a co-op bank current account debit card to top up Post Office and Caxtonfx without being charged, even though they charge for using it at bureau de change.

lostgirlontour

In the good old days I used my Nationwide debit card to get cash from Credit Union ATMs in the US without being charged any fees by Nationwide or the credit unions. I have now got the Halifax Clarity card (based on advice from this site) and was thinking I could use that to get cash from Credit Union ATMs without being charged a fee by them (and hopefully pay off quick enough to avoid much interest). Now starting to wonder if the Credit Unions charge a fee for cash advances on credit cards and it is only debit cards that are fee free. Wondered if anyone had recent experience of doing this?? Please.

mm78

Hello,

after having spent the day studying the article about cheap travel money, I came to my conclusions..

I am going to spend the next year traveling in latin America, so looking for a bargain card to withdrawn money as over there cash matters.

So far, according to my calculations, here is the top three solutions:

1) Sainsbury's Gold Credit Card - perfect exchange, no fee, no interest if repaid in full, cost £5/month that works out £60/year which is the only fee applicable to withdrawing cash abroad. It's great also because not having fixed fees it's possible withdrawing small amount of money at a time.

2) Natwest Debit Card - it looks bad having a total fee per transaction of (2.75% + 2% + £1.25). Overall, assuming of getting £100 out of the machine, this sounds like about a 6% fee. I am mentioning Natwest Debit card as I got an account with them so already got this card in my wallet.

3) Halifax Clarity Credit Card - Not sure why this is considered better than many debit card...as I pointed out above, my Natwest Debit Card charges around 6% on each cash withdrawal, while the Clarity has a fixed 12.9% which is double the amount...HOW COME IS BLASTED AS THE PREFERRED CHOICE? Even Sainsbury looks much better, as for withdrawing £1000 would cost £1060 with Saisbury (due to the fixed fee assuming one year use) while would cost £1290 with Halifax?!?!

At the moment I have been rejected by Saisburys/Halifax due to credit score (they both use creditexpert.co.uk to check the credit rating), I guess because I haven't been long in the UK and then I score low.

Halifax looks very costly if compared to Sainsbury though, so can anyone explain why is considered the best travel credit card? I mean, spending £1000 on holiday and repaying £1290 does not look like a bargain to me, while using a debit card the charge would probably be around £1060 !!

My last option is opening an account with Metro Bank, as I live in London as they should offer a Debit Card with 0% fees whatsoever....any experience with that?

Thanks!

MM

ManAtHome

mm78 wrote: »

3) Halifax Clarity Credit Card - Not sure why this is considered better than many debit card...as I pointed out above, my Natwest Debit Card charges around 6% on each cash withdrawal, while the Clarity has a fixed 12.9% which is double the amount...HOW COME IS BLASTED AS THE PREFERRED CHOICE? Even Sainsbury looks much better, as for withdrawing £1000 would cost £1060 with Saisbury (due to the fixed fee assuming one year use) while would cost £1290 with Halifax?!?!

The Clarity card charges 12.9% per year (around 1% per month). You can reduce this by making early payments, but even if you left it the full month, your £1000 would only cost £1010.

Metro account is better if you're a 'local'

KTF

You can also (in my experience) pre-load the Clarity card and avoid any fees altogether.

rubbish_money_saver

Hi i am not sure if this has been answered previously, but any help would be greatly appreciated.

I am going travelling in 5 days to thailand for a month and i am planning on taking thai baht as i am not aware of any pre-paid cards that you can use and i think i have left it too late to apply for one, i also got rejected for a credit card.

However when i go to australia after the month in thailand and i got a thomas cook pre-paid card however i think this has been a mistake as don't think the rate is very good, can anybody advise me if i should not use this thomas cook card?

mm78

how does the pre-loading works exactly?

what fees are avoided?

Never done anything like that...

Thanks!

mm78

@ Manathome

so can I pay the balance as early as I want with the Clarity Card?

I mean, can I for example spend today and pay tomorrow? (assuming that tomorrow the spending is showing up in the online account? In this case the interest would be close to zero..

Thanks!

TakeThis

mm78 wrote: »

@ Manathome

so can I pay the balance as early as I want with the Clarity Card?

I mean, can I for example spend today and pay tomorrow? (assuming that tomorrow the spending is showing up in the online account? In this case the interest would be close to zero..

Thanks!

Since you have been rejected by both providers, why are you continuing to ask questions(that have been answered a hundred times before)?

TakeThis

rubbish_money_saver wrote: »

Hi i am not sure if this has been answered previously, but any help would be greatly appreciated.

I am going travelling in 5 days to thailand for a month and i am planning on taking thai baht as i am not aware of any pre-paid cards that you can use and i think i have left it too late to apply for one, i also got rejected for a credit card.

However when i go to australia after the month in thailand and i got a thomas cook pre-paid card however i think this has been a mistake as don't think the rate is very good, can anybody advise me if i should not use this thomas cook card?

Throw it away!

If you want an excellent Prepaid card at short notice, you can pick this one up at the airport. Just order at least four hours beforehand.

Travelex Cash Passport Globe ordered via TopCashBack or Quidco (if you have an existing Quidco account). You get 0.5% of your initial top-up back.

Cashback website > Travelex > Globe card.

Do not load the Prepaid card with any of these bank cards: Barclays, Lloyds TSB, Natwest, Santander or RBS. Co-op may charge too, but may refund if pressed(Simply because there is nothing in their T&Cs about this charge)....or at least check with your bank beforehand.

You can use it in both Thailand(seek out AEON ATMs as they don't have the 150 baht charge) and throughout Australia.
Though because of the almost universal 150 baht per ATM withdrawal in Thailand, larger withdrawals, cash or TCs in Pounds will help to cut costs.