Travelex Cash Passport Globe - Beats the rest?

stilltheone

spooner wrote: »

My wife used a Travelex Globe for an extended trip during December while I stayed in the UK and made sure her card was topped up. Alliance & Leicester/Santander didn't charge for loading the card - it was a simple £ sterling money transfer as you would for paying a credit card, for example.

Things to watch though. The first bank transfer took a full week to appear in the Globe account. Subsequent transfers were the more usual 1-3 days. From memory, the bank account has to be in the same name as the Globe card holder (our bank a/c is in joint names and that worked).

Any remaining balance on the card will cost you to get back. £6 through "card services". Alternatively, they charge a 99p flat rate per UK tranaction so I'm going to top up to a round figure+£1 and draw out the cash at a UK ATM.

The "usual price £29.99" for the Globe card is possibly marketing - it has been "free" for at least 6 months...

Useful info.

anisahnanah

Hello!
I am travelling for 10 weeks this Summer to Russia, Mongolia, China, Vietnam and Thailand. So I'm definitely going to need one of the prepaid cards that I can use anywhere. I can't apply for a credit card because I have a no credit history.

I've ruled out the FairFX prepaid card due to the £1 ATM withdrawal charge. I'm trying to differentiate between the CaxtonFX and Travelex global cards. From what I understand, the only charges that apply to the cards are:

• CaxtonFX mark up the interbank exchange rate by 2.5%
• Travelex charge a 1.5% ATM withdrawal fee

Does anyone know for certain if the Travelex Cash Passport GLOBE card uses the interbank exchange rate, or a lower rate?

What I will probably do is apply for both cards and take 2, for security if nothing else. But I'm unsure which I should use as a main card for making regular ATM withdrawals.

Advice would be much appreciated

Baldur

anisahnanah wrote: »

I've ruled out the FairFX prepaid card due to the £1 ATM withdrawal charge. I'm trying to differentiate between the CaxtonFX and Travelex global cards.

I made a quick calculation the other day on the difference between withdrawing £300-worth of foreign currency with the Travelex Passport Globe @ 1.49% and the FairFX Anywhere @ 1.4% + £1 - both of which claim to use the prevailing Mastercard exchange rate.

With the former, the charges would amount to £4.47 or £5.20 with the latter.

If Caxton also use the Mastercard rate, their charge @2.5% for the same amount withdrawn would be £7.50.

anisahnanah

Baldur wrote: »

If Caxton also use the Mastercard rate, their charge @2.5% for the same amount withdrawn would be £7.50.

This could be a very silly question - but I'm struggling to get my head around what the 'charge' actually means. For Caxton, the 2.5% charge means that they reduce the interbank rate by 2.5%. Is this the same for the FairFX and Travelex charges of 1.4% and 1.49% respectively?

I had previously thought that they charge you ...% of the amount you withdraw from the ATM.

Baldur

anisahnanah wrote: »

This could be a very silly question - but I'm struggling to get my head around what the 'charge' actually means. For Caxton, the 2.5% charge means that they reduce the interbank rate by 2.5%. Is this the same for the FairFX and Travelex charges of 1.4% and 1.49% respectively?

I had previously thought that they charge you ...% of the amount you withdraw from the ATM.

Whether the rate is reduced by 'x%' or 'x%' is added to the Sterling amount that you pay, the result (within pennies) is roughly the same.

a) 10,000 Rubles @ today's Mastercard rate of 45.519297 on a zero-fee card would roughly cost £219.69

b) 10,000 Rubles with the rate reduced by 2.5% (44.381315) would roughly cost £225.32

c) 10,000 Rubles with 2.5% added to the transaction sub-total would roughly cost £ 225.18

stilltheone

The difference between say, the Travelex card and the Caxton card is that the Travelex card does not tamper with the Mastercard rate or charge a withdrawal fee. They take a fee of 1.49% on top of whatever you use.
Caxton take the 2.5% from your total.

Simple example: Place £100 into the Caxton Global card and it is immediately reduced to the equivalent of £97.50.

Placing £100 in to the Travelex card leaves it's value at £100, but you cannot withdraw the full £100 value abroad(without incurring extra charges) unless you have £101.49 in the account.

anisahnanah

stilltheone wrote: »

The difference between say, the Travelex card and the Caxton card is that the Travelex card does not tamper with the Mastercard rate or charge a withdrawal fee. They take a fee of 1.49% on top of whatever you use.

So Travelex definitely use the Mastercard rate, and not their own? In that case I think I'll use the Travelex card as my main card for spending and withdrawing abroad. I'll have either the CaxtonFX or FairFX for my back up spending card - my gut feeling is to go with the Caxton since FairFX charge you an extra £1 for each withdrawal. Though I suppose it won't make a great deal of difference really.

It would be great if MSE had some updated travel money advice for people travelling to multiple countries, backpackers etc.

Thanks very much to both of you for your help!

budgetflyer

Baldur wrote: »

You appear to only be considering the fee/percentage charge rather than the underlying exchange rate - I don't know about Travelex or Caxton but FairFX use the prevailing Mastercard rate on the date that the transaction/withdrawal is reported to them.

If the other issuers apply their own rate, it could be that the FairFX card will beat them, despite apparently higher charges.

Mastercard's currency converter can be found HERE for comparison - just enter date and the base currency of your card (GBP) Pound Sterling.

You have to be carefull which Fairfx or Travelex card you buy.
On their single currency cards they both apply their own rates rather than Mastercard rates.

£100 to Euro checked today

Mastercard 114.7

FairFX Euro card 112.24 + 1.5 Euro atm withdrawal fee

Travelex Euro card 111.15 free atm withdrawals

Whereas Travelex Global and Fairfx Anywhere cards are at Matercard rate.
ie 114.7
Fairfx 1.4% + £1 international atm fee

Travelex 1.5% Free international atm withdrawals.

In my mind this does make the Travelex Global card the best value

Baldur

budgetflyer wrote: »

In my mind this does make the Travelex Global card the best value

As per rough calculations in post #14

I made a quick calculation the other day on the difference between withdrawing £300-worth of foreign currency with the Travelex Passport Globe @ 1.49% and the FairFX Anywhere @ 1.4% + £1 - both of which claim to use the prevailing Mastercard exchange rate.

With the former, the charges would amount to £4.47 or £5.20 with the latter.

budgetflyer

Yes I know Baldur. I was just pointing out both Travelex + Fairfx both also issue cards that do not apply the Mastercard rate , so care must be taken to buy the correct card. ie a global card.