Cheap Travel Money Discussion Area

TakeThis

Savage wrote: »

Hey everyone,

Really sorry if this has been brought up elsewhere but have searched and have not found a definitive answer here...its about CaxtonFX cards. I have a global card and with every transaction (ATM, card purchase etc) they apply the 2.75% to the exchange rate they give and THEN also add a 2.75% mark up fee (Been to Oz, NZ, USA). Now on their site it has this extra 2.75% mark up under the section:

"FX mark-up where a Transaction is performed in a currency different from the currency of the Card"

So this would assume my card is in sterling and therefore any transaction using any other currency would give this charge. HOWEVER, this same charge is ALSO listed under the Eurozone and Dollar traveller card, so this should surely mean that any use outside of sterling on these cards should be 2.75%? Yet below this table the site 'helpfully' states that

"Please note that, if you use your Europe Traveller Card or Dollar Traveller Card outside the Eurozone or United States respectively, there is a 2.75% charge on all transactions, including ATM withdrawals."

Now, what I am wondering is does anyone have any experiences using the dollar/euro card in America/Europe and did you get charged the 2.75% mark up? If not, as I suspect, then surely this is false advertising? As if the Euro/America card is treated with Dollar/Euro as the card currency then the global card should have all currencies as the card currency and therefore not have this fee.

Apologies if this has been addressed or if I have missed something (probably have) but I just wanted to clear up whether I have been wrongfully charged!

Thanks!

Edit - On their front page under the global card it really implies that there would be no further mark ups....again is this fair advertising??

"Funds are converted live to the appropriate currency at the point of a sale, including ATMs, giving you the flexibility to use it globally.

The exchange rate applied is fixed at 2.75% below the prevailing interbank rate.

No fees or extra charges on your transactions meaning all costs and charges are included in the exchange rate applied."

There should be no extra charges from the Global card. Have you called Caxton to clarify the position or have you decided to post here first , without giving them a chance to explain?

TakeThis

maver1nk wrote: »

Hi all!

I'm going on a late honeymoon to Australia for 3 weeks, and am looking to spend between 2,500 and 3000 pounds whilst over there. Can anyone advise me about the most secure and cheapest way of spending money whilst over there. I'm hoping that there';s a cheap credit card (or some-such-similar item) that will mean we can avoid taking all that cash.

Looking forwar dto your help!

Gavin

Metro Bank

snow_queen

Hi everyone,

We are going to NewYork in july and have saved about £1500 for our trip. Can anyone tell me the best way to take our money?

I assume travellers cheques are old hat?

Dont really want to use a credit card

Cash of that amount not clever!

Both myself and my other half would like a card each to use
Any ideas please?
Many thanks xx :beer:

penelopeessence

fishergill wrote: »

[
Just wondering why the FairFX card isn't mentioned, as they also provide the card free over £500. Also their exchange rate today (1.245 euros) is better than Caxton (1.24 euros)

FairFX was totally unreliable when I went round the world recently. It was hit and miss whether I could pay a merchant in Aussie dollars and I ultimately resorted to ATMs which worked fairly consistently but had a 1.50 charge on each transaction. I had my card declined at first in my Singapore hotel and then it was accepted. The whole thing caused great inconvenience, embarassment and extra costs. I was emailing FairFX the whole time and they have not so far offered to refund the extra charges incurred.

TakeThis

penelopeessence wrote: »

FairFX was totally unreliable when I went round the world recently. It was hit and miss whether I could pay a merchant in Aussie dollars and I ultimately resorted to ATMs which worked fairly consistently but had a 1.50 charge on each transaction. I had my card declined at first in my Singapore hotel and then it was accepted. The whole thing caused great inconvenience, embarassment and extra costs. I was emailing FairFX the whole time and they have not so far offered to refund the extra charges incurred.

This has occurred with my normal credit card too.

If you baulk at paying 1.50(sic) for ATM withdrawals, then why did you choose that card??

Roseanne1

There's something I don't understand.

I used my HBOS debit card to top up a travel card for use over in Ireland (I done this online from the UK a couple of days ago). As a result, as well as the transaction itself, I got hit with a £1.50 spending fee. I was under the impression these fees only applied if you actually used the card in outlets abroad. In an earlier transaction, in March this year, I used the same debit card to pay for my B&B, again in Ireland. On this occasion, only the transaction appeared, no additional spending charge. Could anyone explain the reason for this please? I always believed, until I read the article on here, that debit cards were the best plastic to use abroad.

Thanks.

TakeThis

Roseanne1 wrote: »

There's something I don't understand.

I used my HBOS debit card to top up a travel card for use over in Ireland (I done this online from the UK a couple of days ago). As a result, as well as the transaction itself, I got hit with a £1.50 spending fee. I was under the impression these fees only applied if you actually used the card in outlets abroad. In an earlier transaction, in March this year, I used the same debit card to pay for my B&B, again in Ireland. On this occasion, only the transaction appeared, no additional spending charge. Could anyone explain the reason for this please? I always believed, until I read the article on here, that debit cards were the best plastic to use abroad.

Thanks.

Some banks charge you to TopUp Prepaid Travel cards. Check before ToppingUp.

a.georgiev

i decided to share it with you because i've been there and it was really amazing. I'm talkin about sunny beach, in bulgaria. at first i thought it's weaky to go there but when i went i was really surprised. it is amazing in sunny beach because it is really really cheap for example10-15 euro for a double room, the food is about 5-10 euro per day and there is a lot of nice places you can visit (except the beautiful beach coast) i mean monasteries and many other entartainments, but there are also very good restaurants and discos that's why i think it's worth to go there, i used this site at first that inspired me sunnybeach-bulgaria.net but the only one thing i didn't like was there are a lot of frauders (especially when you have to change currency)

allenkj

Does anyone have a good way of dealing with foreign money.

If you've come back from holiday and you haven't got a buy-back deal or someone sent you foreign currency, how do you turn in to pounds?

In my case Australian dollars.

liamod

If you are traveling abroad it might be worth setting up a bank account from that country, it is normally an easy process and as simple as setting up a UK bank account. This means that you can directly convert your money with a broker and get the funds sent to your new account. This will stop any transaction charges and you can ensure that you achieve the exchange rate that you want