Pre-paid cards REALLY worthwhile?

beatsneedrhymes

The MSE guide to prepaid cards states that:

"There’s one large restriction here, the only foreign currencies prepaid cards operate in are Euros and US Dollars, so if you’re going somewhere more exotic, they’re not for you."

But I spoke to someone at FairFx, who said that regardless of whether you take the Euro or Dollar card, the conversion rate to other currencies will be the equivalent of a 1% charge: a 0.3% difference to 'Interbank levels' and 0.7% charge.

He also said to get the US dollar FairFX card as opposed to the Euro equivalent - they both incur the same charges, but the pound is stronger against the dollar than the Euro so you're getting more for your money in the first place.

Am I being daft in thinking prepaid cards could be good for when travelling outside Europe/the US, or does the MSE article fall short in explaining whether prepaid cards are suitable for that use?

Bongedone

You will lose money twice unless going to a country that natively accepts the currency on the card.

You have to pay to change £ to $/Euro to load the card, then pay a charge to convert $/Euro to the currency of the country you are visiting.

dzug1

Bongedone wrote: »

You will lose money twice unless going to a country that natively accepts the currency on the card.

You have to pay to change £ to $/Euro to load the card, then pay a charge to convert $/Euro to the currency of the country you are visiting.

Yes but.

You lose twice, but a small amount each time - better than losing one large sum as you would with many (but not all) other methods.

There are other things that put me off these cards - you often lose the last £10 on them, effectively, as you can't get small sums refunded. And most of them have more fees than Fairfx