Which card to buy travel cash?

harz99

Hi everyone.

I need to order about £2500 in currency online and have 3 cards available to me. Cahoot Debit, Nationwide Silver Credit and BOS Debit - which will be the cheapest, please?
If I use the Credit card the bill will be paid asap. Only use cards as I live in a rural area so need to buy online.

dazza.mk

Nationwide Credit a nono

Cahoot:- you'll probably be hit with the VISA cash withdrawal fee (below)

cahoot debit card charges

You can use the cahoot debit card at millions of outlets worldwide - wherever you see the VISA symbol. You'll have unlimited use of over 41,000 LINK cash machines in the UK and you can use any of the 700,000 VISA cash machines worldwide.

LINK network cash machinesNo chargeVISA cash withdrawal handling charge¹
(cash machine or over the counter)1.5% withdrawn amount
(£1.50 minimum)*


Not sure about BOS, probably a better bet.

Sun

If you wish to have EUROs or Dollars, go for Tesco Prepaid travel card, I loaded above prepaid travel card from my Lloyds TSB Credit card and it was *not* treated as cash withdrawal. Then if u need to get cash just use it anywhere in ATM (abroad), i think charge is €4 only for any amount.

dazza.mk

Travelex USD Rate:- 1.8954
Tesco Prepaid Rate (today):- 1.8528

On £2500 this is equivalent to $106.00 + of course no withdrawal fees.

You'd be better off (if feasible) getting a minimum amount of currency and then using your Nationwide Credit card abroad.

harz99

dazza.mk wrote: »

Travelex USD Rate:- 1.8954
Tesco Prepaid Rate (today):- 1.8528

On £2500 this is equivalent to $106.00 + of course no withdrawal fees.

You'd be better off (if feasible) getting a minimum amount of currency and then using your Nationwide Credit card abroad.

Unfortunately it is not feasible for various reasons.

Thanks for your reply but I was really looking for a simple answer to the question of which of the 3 cards I mentioned would be the best to use.

dazza.mk

See my post 2 then

Nationwide VISA you will get higher interest charges

Cahoot Debit you will proabbly get a 1.5% VISA Network cash withdrawal charge. (above)

So I'd personally double check BOS as they are probably the cheapest option (couldn't see anything in their fees - but am familiar with Cahoot , not so with BOS)

King_Of_Fools

BoS will also pass on the Visa "cash advance" charge for using the debit card to buy cash.

Question is why do you need to order £2500 in currency online? It would be far cheaper to use either of the debit cards to withdraw the currency from a foreign ATM.

tiesto_643

Hi All
I have a question maybe someone may be able to help me with.
I need to get some currency for a holiday but to lack of funds need to use a credit card. Does anyone know if buying currency in a highstreet travel agent would be classed as a purchase on a credit card therefore will be ok for my 0% interest on purchases, or would it be classed a cash and i would be charged the monthly interest on this?
Thanks very much

King_Of_Fools

tiesto_643 wrote: »

I need to get some currency for a holiday but to lack of funds need to use a credit card. Does anyone know if buying currency in a highstreet travel agent would be classed as a purchase on a credit card therefore will be ok for my 0% interest on purchases, or would it be classed a cash and i would be charged the monthly interest on this?

It will be classed as a cash advanced and you will be charged a cash advance fee and a high rate of interest from the day you get the money.

tiesto_643

Oh well looks like that better go on an unused card last minute and be a priority pay off! Thanks for you help.

dazza.mk

Only exceptions to that rule I think are:

1. M&S Doesn't charge a cash advance fee for currency purchases from M&S FX Bureaus.

2. Tesco state on their website that loading their repaid money card with a Tesco credit card will be treated as a purchase rather than a cash advance.

Otehrs have specified that they've used other credit cards to load the prepaid card without a cash advance fee... but you'd be taking a risk.