Travellers Cheques v Credit Card

subs81

We are going to the USA on holiday this summer and I'm not sure whether I should take travellers cheques or the Santander Zero Credit Card. Previously when going abroad I have always taken travellers cheques but I have estimated I'll need £3000 spending money for this trip (eating out/ excursions/ fuel) so don't want to be carrying loads of cheques around.

I don't have the Santander Credit card but have a good credit rating and should have no problem getting one. The benefit of the travellers cheques are the protection should you lose it and being able to get a replacement fairly quickly. With the card you don't have the hassle of cashing in cheques everytime you need cash but should I lose the card, I won't get a replacement and will have to find another way of paying for things.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

ferf1223

why not put some on a pre-paid card like Caxton or FairFX...we actually have 2 FairFX cards as was recommended on their site - so if we lose one, we can transfer all the funds on it to the other. Only plus/minus there is you would lock in the rate at the time you loaded the pre-paid card, whereas with the Santander Zero card you would get the rate at the time of the transaction. So depending on how the market goes, you could do a lot better or a lot worse one way or the other.

The other thing - are you thinking about taking cash out of ATMs on the Santander Zero credit card? I can't quite tell from your post if you're just thinking of handing the card over to pay for these things or taking cash out (or both). There aren't any foreign exchange loading fees, but there's no interest free period on cash advances so you will start paying interest straight away. It may not be enough to worry about but worth thinking about.

whatusername

The beauty you have with pre paid cards and TC is that you always knwo what rate you get however with CC you get the rate of the day which could be good or bad. I always feel i can budget better with TC or pre pay cards, i use caxton fx card

subs81

Thanks both for your advice. To answer whether I plan to pay by card or cash, I would use the card as much as I can but it is still handy to have cash for small items or places that don't accept cards.