Cheap Travel Money Discussion Area

NiftyDigits

Ophiothrix wrote: »

Hi all,

We travelled to Argentina about two months ago and sorted ourselves a Metro card in the hope of free withdrawals. Unfortunately it didn't quite work out. There are two major ATM operators in Argentina, Banelco and Link (the former is by far prevalent and I can't remember seeing any others). When withdrawing money from Banelco, the machines insisted on charging us a fee of about 20 peso. With the single withdrawal limit of 1000 peso it translated into 2% charge. While still better than most other cards it wasn't particularly free. We failed to withdraw any money from Link machines. Despite numerous options for different card types, none of them seemed to work with Metro card. Our travelling companions had a different card (I can't remember the issuing organisation, but it was a Visa card) and they weren't subject to such charges.

My question is, has anybody experienced similar problems with Metro card in other countries? Particularly in Australia, where we'll be moving in less than a week. Many thanks!

No such problem with Mastercard in Australia. The South America problem has been highlighted before...by benjus I think. Though it's not all countries there. I wasn't charged extra in Brazil.
So, the N&P Gold debit card(VISA) is useful for when travelling throughout South America.

RoyEMunson

Hello..

Going to America in a week (San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas). Have worked out from here that opening and loading a Metro Bank account is the best way to go. Having checked the Mastercard rates for today it looks like you will get nigh on $1.58 for the pound.

Has anyone had any experiences with using this card in these cites. Can anyone confirm there are enough cashpoints which won't levy any additional charges as I have been told you get charged to withdraw cash in most places in Vegas.

Any help appreciated.

richardsoffice

Urgent Stop Using Prepaid Euro cards i.e. CaxtonFX inSpain, you could be ripped-off :eek:

Martins Cheap Travel Money page on his MoneySavingExpert.comsite states that for the
Caxton FX, PrepaidEuro card has no spending or foreign load, and no ATM withdrawal charge outsidethe UK. But in reality this can be totally UNTRUE because more and more ATM’sand point of sale card machines are taking your Euros on your card and firstconverting it to pounds sterling and then back again to Euros without givingthe option to decline or any such information and then you are hit with adouble conversion make up! This happened to me last week in two transactions Iwithdrew €150 from two different ATM’s with no indication there was any conversionon the screen or any fees, yet when I got home I found that the withdrawal of €150my card was debited €174 and upon contacting Caxton they told me there’snothing they can do about it, this sometime happens!

rryyaannbb

So I am going to Vietnam for a month, and to avoid having to carry a load of dong around I was going to just use plastic to withdraw money (probably £60-100 equivalent at a time).

Can you help me decide which to use (I'm only 18 so a credit card would probably be impossible to get), here are my options:

Santander Debit card
2.5% load and 2% charge per withdrawal

Natwest
2.5% load and 2% charge per withdrawal

Could also get a Paypal debit card:
2.5% fee and 1% withdrawal charge (exchange rate set by the Bancorp Bank)


So as you can see the only real difference between my current real bank debit cards is the exchange rate they use. Does anyone know what this rate is for Vietnamese Dong that Santander and Natwest would use for my current accounts?

NiftyDigits

rryyaannbb wrote: »

So I am going to Vietnam for a month, and to avoid having to carry a load of dong around I was going to just use plastic to withdraw money (probably £60-100 equivalent at a time).

Can you help me decide which to use (I'm only 18 so a credit card would probably be impossible to get), here are my options:

Santander Debit card
2.5% load and 2% charge per withdrawal

Natwest
2.5% load and 2% charge per withdrawal

Could also get a Paypal debit card:
2.5% fee and 1% withdrawal charge (exchange rate set by the Bancorp Bank)


So as you can see the only real difference between my current real bank debit cards is the exchange rate they use. Does anyone know what this rate is for Vietnamese Dong that Santander and Natwest would use for my current accounts?

Metro Bank debit card if close to London. If Prepaid is an option, then consider the Kalixa card purchased via a cashback website and funded via Bank Transfer.

neet

FAIRFX
I think FairFX changed hands last year and going to top up I noticed the spread for Euro purchase looks less good than before. This could just be a bad day with £ up a bit and their rate not yet moving to reflect this but anyone else tracking these things and agree? Think the rate was 114.25 v spot 116.25 say .17 spread v .12 ish i thought i had got in the past

NiftyDigits

neet wrote: »

FAIRFX
I think FairFX changed hands last year and going to top up I noticed the spread for Euro purchase looks less good than before. This could just be a bad day with £ up a bit and their rate not yet moving to reflect this but anyone else tracking these things and agree? Think the rate was 114.25 v spot 116.25 say .17 spread v .12 ish i thought i had got in the past

Looks to be exactly the same people running it as before...

Have you any links to show otherwise?

sleepymarshmallows

I wonder if some can add some light into this....

I'm soon goin to travel to Vietnam and I'm looking for the best option to take cash with me. So far, I think one of the best options I found is to use my Santander Zero credit card, however I'm a bit put off by the high interest they charge (27.9%!!!) on cash withdrawals.

My question is, I've already have certain amount that I was considering to take with me. If I make a deposit on my credit card account instead, when I withdraw money I wouldn't be borrowing, so they wouldn't charge me that interest, right? Is it ok thinking this or am I being too bold? Has anyone experienced this situation before?

Thanks in advance!!

NiftyDigits

sleepymarshmallows wrote: »

I wonder if some can add some light into this....

I'm soon goin to travel to Vietnam and I'm looking for the best option to take cash with me. So far, I think one of the best options I found is to use my Santander Zero credit card, however I'm a bit put off by the high interest they charge (27.9%!!!) on cash withdrawals.

My question is, I've already have certain amount that I was considering to take with me. If I make a deposit on my credit card account instead, when I withdraw money I wouldn't be borrowing, so they wouldn't charge me that interest, right? Is it ok thinking this or am I being too bold? Has anyone experienced this situation before?

Thanks in advance!!

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3773829

Money_Saving_Dude

Hmm.

I thought I'd apply for the Clarity card because I spend a lot of time in Europe. Did the test application via MSE and was told I'd be given the card. I've never missed any payments, and manage my money well. So I was a little surprised when I got offered the card at 17.9% rather than 12.9% interest rate.

I can only think of two reasons why this may be the case. Firstly, I didn't give them my landline (we get far too many nob-heads calling that and I don't want to add to the list so landline details -- I'm afraid not). The second reason may be that I pay so little in fees. I already have a credit card and the only fees I pay are these European loading fees and cash advance fees. (I pay the card off in full every month, and have done for years.) Applying for this card was to try to reduce these.

So be warned -- you may have a super credit rating (ie be a very low risk to the finance providers) but these crooks want to take as much from you as possible.

But hey, just as they are free to try to screw me I'm free to tell them to sod off -- 17.9% works out at £1.50 per £100.

One thing I did notice. From their Privacy Notice (my emphasis):

Using companies to process your information outside the EEA

All countries in the European Economic Area (EEA), which includes the UK, have similar standards of legal protection for your personal information. We may run your accounts and provide other services from centres outside the EEA (such as the USA and India) that do not have a similar standard of data protection laws to the UK. If so, we will require your personal information to be protected to at least UK standards. We may process payments through other financial institutions such as banks and the worldwide payments system operated by the SWIFT organisation if, for example, you make a CHAPS payment or a foreign payment. Those external organisations may process and store your personal information abroad and may have to disclose it to foreign authorities to help them in their fight against crime and terrorism. If these are based outside the EEA, your personal information may not be protected to standards similar to those in the UK.

So I have no way to protect myself once I have agreed to their terms and conditions. My data my be managed by a dude in Bangalore who may choose to sell it on. I have no comeback or protection from this. Are they taking the p1ss?

Sorry, Halifax, but I've declined your card.