Best combination of cards for travelling abroad

Lochsideman

Thanks both. That's me set for a trip to Germany without a pocketful of Euros then!

W1zz

Does the 0.84% Visa charge still apply if you use the card to draw cash out of an ATM in the states. It didn't last year, but I'm off out again next month.

Last year I wasn't charged at most ATM's - Some had a small fee (which I avoided).

candyflipper_2

There are two cards in the US that charge no international fx fee. In fact, they don't even pass the visa charge on to the client - they eat it. Moreover, they offer a 1-2% rebate on purchases, which even offsets the difference between the realtime market rate, and the central bank rate. The card issuers are Capital One and Charles Schwab.

Now that we've covered GBP and USD in this thread... are there any cards settled in euros, that don't have fx charges?

Robin_Masters

If you are with HSBC Premier you can open an account in the US and get their Premier MasterCard which has no fx fees.

CannyJock

Robin_Masters wrote: »

If you are with HSBC Premier you can open an account in the US and get their Premier MasterCard which has no fx fees.

What's the monthly cost of the HSBC Premier account again?

And isn't the criteria either £100k salary mandated to the bank or £50k in savings/investments with them?

Good if you're relocating or going to work abroad for a number of years, but not so great for short trips I'd say