Caton FX Global Card vs. FairFX Card

Toe-Jam

skydiveJames wrote: »

Hello,

I'm trying to decide which to get for a 3 month trip to SE Asia.

FairFX's exhange rates aren't amazing, and they charge an ATM fee.

The Caton FX card do not charge the ATM fee. On their site they say this about the exhcange rate: "The exchange rate applied is fixed at 2.5% from the prevailing interbank rate."

What exactly does this mean? Is this 2.5% lower, than say the rate on XE.com?

Regards
James

I think James your looking for the wrong card for your trip to Asia and the exchange rate is not relevant on the fairfx website.

You should be looking at the Fairfx Anywhere card, which doesn't have an exchange rate. It uses the Interbank rate which is the rate that mastercard supply to all banks worldwide and changes every minute of every day. Fairfx add 1.5% to this. You can see the rate at www.xe.com so if you stick £98.50 in there and convert it to what your currency is, you'll see accurately how much you'll get for £100.

Its cheaper for cash withdraws aswell again charging 1.5% as opposed to a set fee. which makes it better for withdrawing small amounts of cash.

yes 2.5% is lower than interbank its like deducting £2.50 off every £100 you spend.

bigturnip

Donnie wrote: »

Concerning the Cash Passport...Even at the £14.99 special introductory price, that's £1000 worth of cash withdrawals via the FairFX card. Don't be taken in by headline figures.
How much you would need to spend on the Cash Passport for it to be better value than the FairFX Anywhere card?

If the Cash Passport card were free, you would save 1p in every £100 spent compared to the Anywhere card. So in order to recoup the cost of the card compared to the Anywhere card you would have to spend 1499 x £100. Yes, that's £149,900 :rotfl:

Once the special introductory price is over, that will rise to £299,900.

Only then will you be able to save that 1p in every £100.

So if you load £1,000 or more there is essentially little difference, presumably they both use the prevailing exchange rate set by MasterCard?

Although I did notice that Travelex use a normal geographical telephone number for their customer services whereas FairFX charge 80p/min, presumably a lot higher when calling from abroad.

Donnie

bigturnip wrote: »

So if you load £1,000 or more there is essentially little difference, presumably they both use the prevailing exchange rate set by MasterCard?

Although I did notice that Travelex use a normal geographical telephone number for their customer services whereas FairFX charge 80p/min, presumably a lot higher when calling from abroad.

Agreed. Swings and roundabouts dependent on your pattern of usage.

Our Cash Passport Globe MasterCard® is subject to an initial minimum load amount of £250 and a one off card purchase fee of £14.99. Please note that this card purchase fee is not applicable on orders of £1,000 and over.

Plus there are extra fees for over the counter transactions(£10) and a £10 charge for a negative balance.

Personally I use my FairFX card for Ryanair, so no interest in topping up with £1000.

uncletomcobbly

I'm thinking of getting the FairFx Euro card for a forthcoming trip to France, and transferring funds to it from my Smile Visa Debit card.

Does anyone know whether Smile will treat that as a currency purchase transaction and hit me with the fees that they apply to other UK Bureau de Change transactions? If they do, it kind of defeats the object of getting the FairFx card, as I'd only be using it for ATM withdrawls anyway - I have a Santander Zero card for purchases.

(I know I could use the bank transfer option instead, but that's just too long winded for me at the moment)

Toe-Jam

bigturnip wrote: »

So if you load £1,000 or more there is essentially little difference, presumably they both use the prevailing exchange rate set by MasterCard?

Although I did notice that Travelex use a normal geographical telephone number for their customer services whereas FairFX charge 80p/min, presumably a lot higher when calling from abroad.

You can call FairFX on 01753778619 which is a Landline no.

bigturnip

I've gone with the FairFX card in the end, it's only .01% more than the Travelex card, but I still can't help but think that Travelex are going to try and screw me over somewhere along the line. I've also been able to split my money over two cards, meaning that if one gets lost or stolen I still have the other one and can just transfer the balance from the other card.

Allan87

fairfx.com/cardfaq wrote:

What are the fees for using my account?
We do not charge any monthly or quarterly fees or any fees for foreign exchange transactions, checking your on-line balance and statements or for purchase transactions.

The only charge I can find on their FAQ is €1.50/$2 for ATM withdrawals, so does that mean I won't get charged for using it in shops/restaurants abroad?

Donnie

Allan87 wrote: »

The only charge I can find on their FAQ is €1.50/$2 for ATM withdrawals, so does that mean I won't get charged for using it in shops/restaurants abroad?

To which card do you refer?

fishleg003

Read the whole topic and I think I'm more confused than what I started with...

I picked Caxton from what I gathered FX charge you at the atm and Caxton doesn't in Europe.

ATM Charges in Europe
FX Euro - ATM €1.50 for the euro card
Caxton Euro - Zero
If you are with drawing as you spend it sorta person your gonna be hit quite badly time you finish your holiday.


For EUROPE so eurocards....

You lose when you come back as they charge you to use either in the UK but just leave some cash on it and use it again next holiday or just make sure to spend it all.

Anyway sure I have it all backwards some how ?