Holiday prepaid Cards - is this too obvious..?

Wayne_Laura

Hi all

Me n the missus are planning a wee trip abroad later in the year, and so I've started looking at how we're going to manage our play money

My thinking is this: for security, we want a small amount of Euros play money in our wallet/purse (so we use the travelmoneymax converter to find the best bargain), we want fee-free purchasing, just to buy stuff while there, and we want fee-free withdrawals, since we wont want to be carrying loads of Euros in case of anything shifty happening..!

Obviously, the first place I looked was MSE

Now, I saw this link: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-travel-money#prepaid

Which states basically:
FairFX: 0% on purchases, decent exchange rates, free to top-up online via Debit Card
CaxtonFX: Cash withdrawals free, not so good exchange rates, free to top-up online via Debit Card

So the question that's nagging me, putting those last 2 bits of info together is....

Load a big bunch of Euro's onto a FairFX, so we get a decent exchange rate
Load cash onto the CaxtonFX with cash from the FairFX card

Since the FairFX is fee-free for purchases, moving money from it is no charge, and since the CaxtonFX is fee-free to load it online, there's no charge to move money to it

Can I load it with Euros that are already Euros? (The FairFX is a Debit Card, so should be a valid means of loading the CaxtonFX I assume)
This would then get rid of their not-as-good exchange rate would it not, and we'd benefit from the advantages of both?

It's probably been asked to death, but it just seems too obvious to me. The saving probably isnt spectacular, but if it even gets us an extra chilled drink, it's worth spending a few minutes online checking a form




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stilltheone

Neither are free in the way that you imagine. Use the Travelex Cash Passport Globe PrePaid Mastercard instead.

PixelPound

The FairFX cards have to be loaded in sterling, which is then converted to Euro's. The exchange rate has been pointed out as not as good as say the mastercard/visa bank rate, but seems decent as its only slightly different.

Not sure passport globe is that great. They have a flat usage fee on 1.49%
Todays rates
FairFX 1.118
Travelex 1.1101

So the rates not even better!

Wayne_Laura

stilltheone wrote: »

Neither are free in the way that you imagine

I'll have a rummage tomorrow if i have time at work, but what kind of fees are you talking about?

stilltheone

nic_c wrote: »

The FairFX cards have to be loaded in sterling, which is then converted to Euro's. The exchange rate has been pointed out as not as good as say the mastercard/visa bank rate, but seems decent as its only slightly different.

Not sure passport globe is that great. They have a flat usage fee on 1.49%
Todays rates
FairFX 1.118
Travelex 1.1101

So the rates not even better!

You should educate yourself a little more before making such pronouncements.
Apart from the plethora of posts on the subject on the forum, there are also the Terms & Conditions of the aforementioned card to peruse.

stilltheone

Wayne_Laura wrote: »

I'll have a rummage tomorrow if i have time at work, but what kind of fees are you talking about?

There are so many recent threads on the same subject.

I've told you of the best value card out there.

Do the research or take my word for it.

budgetflyer

nic_c wrote: »

The FairFX cards have to be loaded in sterling, which is then converted to Euro's. The exchange rate has been pointed out as not as good as say the mastercard/visa bank rate, but seems decent as its only slightly different.

Not sure passport globe is that great. They have a flat usage fee on 1.49%
Todays rates
FairFX 1.118
Travelex 1.1101

So the rates not even better!

Wrong!
The Travelex Cash Passport Globe its a sterling card and converts to any currency and uses the Mastercard rate which today is 1.1442

so its 1.142 minus 1.49% = 1.127 so is in fact the better deal.

Not to be confused with their Euro + Dollar cards