Card to load dollars on to

teabythesea

Hi there,

I leave for NYC and Vegas on the 26th Nov. and I was wondering, what is the best way to carry my currency? I'd like card that I could have my dollars on. Can anyone recommend a card?

jackieblack

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-travel-money#prepaid

pelirocco

Personally I never use a preloaded card , just take cash and a mixture of debit and credit cards

hartcjhart

my brother used the 'fairfx' card when last in the states and was very happy with the rates and ease of use

Takecareofthepennies

We use the FairFX card. Charges are reasonable, exchange rates are o.k. (not market-leading, but certainly better than changing cash) and it is convenient to use.

teabythesea

Would anyone say it's safe to carry around 3000$ dollars? I'm just worried about carrying around that much or would it be okay if we divided it per person? (I shall stuff it down my bra, haha).

KarenG

teabythesea wrote: »

Would anyone say it's safe to carry around 3000$ dollars? I'm just worried about carrying around that much or would it be okay if we divided it per person? (I shall stuff it down my bra, haha).

Safe? No, most definitely not. If they get lost or stolen, they are gone forever. That would ruin a holiday, for sure.

Vegas will accept and cash TCs in any of the casinos. Personally I dislike the Fairfax type cards and prefer a mix of TCs, a little bit of cash, and my credit card.

Neil49

I took a Caxton fx card to NY recently and although the conversion rate is slightly lower than FairFX you don't get charged for atm withdrawals. I reckon the break even point is around $250-300 per withdrawal.

With hindsight I would have made more use of my Halifax Clarity card for atm withdrawals but I wanted a spare card in case one got swallowed up. Downside is that you get charged interest straight away but if you are only away for a short time you can just pay it off as soon as you get home. Alternatively logon to your bank account while on holiday and transfer funds to your Clarity account to minimise the interest charge. What you can't do is put funds onto your Clarity account in advance to bring it into credit.

Also be aware that many US banks charge around $3 for each atm withdrawal, Chase being one of them. We found that in NY TD Bank didn't make a charge (possibly because they are Canadian). They had plenty of branches in Manhattan.

Hope this helps.