Cheap Travel Money Discussion Area

midflight

WARNING

Slight mistake in Martin's updated Cheap Travel Money guide:

"The Post Office credit card has no foreign exchange loading anywhere, so you get the best possible exchange rate at all times.

It doesn't charge a 2.5% fee for cash machine withdrawals though, so if you've a old (but now discontinued) card like Abbey Zero that gives 0% load AND free ATM transactions, it's worth sticking with that. Always double check T&Cs haven't changed though..."

Should read DOES. Quite a difference...

surpoob

I have two Nationwide Flex Accounts.

One with a Visa Debit Card (blue colour) which will receive the VISA loading charges outside of Europe from June. :mad:

With the other account I just have a "cash card" (purple colour) this is a Mastercard apparently and will not receive any loading charges yet :T but Nationwide say it might in the future. Obviously as it is just a cash card you can only use it at ATMs and not for purchases.

http://www.nationwide.co.uk/current_account/foreigntransactions.htm

Maybe this should be included in the main article, providing that you can still request just a cash card.

surpoob

It seems a bit more than just a coincidence that at the same time on the the same day that Nationwide announce foreign currency transaction charges Abbey stop offering their their zero charges credit card.

benjyf

I am lucky# in that I have a Nationwide cash card, debit and credit card on three seperate nationwide accounts.
From what I can work out, it is best to use the credit card to spend money in europe, the debit card to withdraw money in europe, the cash card* to withdraw money worldwide and setup a postoffice credit card for spending money worldwide.
Is that all correct?

* I understand from the Nationwide website that cashcards are mastercards and therefore don't incur the new international costs yet, but they say they do plan to charge for those in the future. Anyone know when?

# The reson I say I am lucky, is that I have had the cashcard for a while and therefore if what I say above is correct, I can still withdraw money for free worldwide. If you already have another account, you can't now get a cashcard.

gpott

The press is making a bit of a "shock/horror" story out of the Nationwide change to passing on the Visa loading, but the key issue is that Nationwide gives a completely unloaded commercial forex rate at the time the transaction is made. No one else does this, so provided there is no minimum to the Visa 1% charge on each transaction, this is still by far the best way to use a British debit card for everyday transactions outside of Europe. If you spend 14 dollars in the supermarket, and this is converted at today's rate of 1.40 to debit 10 pounds to your account, who cares if a 10p Visa charge is added ?

midflight

WARNING: Slight mistake in Martin's updated Cheap Travel Money guide...

Mistake now corrected, but not a single THANKS...

What's the world coming to?

irnside

I've been offered a job in the Middle East for a year. Is it possible to use the Post Office credit card and Nationwide debit cards there when I am over there permanently rather than on holiday?

Do both cards work there?

At the moment I use Natwest for normal banking so was planning on being paid into that account (it's a secondment so I'll be paid in sterling rather local currency) and then transferring an amount each month into the Nationwide account for cash withdrawals and use the PO credit card for any purchases which I would pay off via e-banking. Can I use the Nationwide card for purchases as well?

Any advice or previous experiences would be welcomed. Thanks

Derek_Michael

MSE_Dan wrote: »

This thread is specifically to discuss the

Cheap Travel Money Guide

Click reply to discuss

[The Post Office credit card use Mastercard exchange rates which are loaded + 1%]

Derek_Michael

Post office use Mastercard exchanged rates which adds 1%

niknak_2

Holiday Help

Hi guys , I've been sat trawling the web for the past hour and need a bit of guidance. I'm off to the USA in April for 10 days and would ike to take a credit card. I can't fathom which would be the best deal. (I would like to pay it off over the next 6-10 months)
Deal A - The Post Office
Deal B - Marks & Spencer (10 months on purchases)

It seems that the post office is best for overseas transactions but poor for interest free term and M&S is good on the interest free term and I will be charf=ged for each of my transactions
Any help would be really appreciated