Cash in Switzerland

Dephead2004

Hi all, hoping for good advice on cash withdrawals in Switzerland. I have used a nationwide a/c before which was free but the arrangement has been replaced with free insurance (good). So what is the best card to use to get say £1500 in cash from a ATM. It can be done in 5x £300 withdrawals. I have a Clarity and other cards. Many thanks for all your thoughts and advice

bengal-stripe

Dephead2004 wrote: »

So what is the best card to use to get say £1500 in cash from a ATM. It can be done in 5x £300 withdrawals.

You cannot withdraw GBP (Pounds) from an ATM in Switzerland, only CHF (Swiss Francs).

Dephead2004

Thanks. I should have translated that into CHF. I was using the GBP equivalent. So what is the best way to withdraw 450CHF /day

agrinnall

I would be quite surprised to find any debit card that would allow you to withdraw as much as £1500 in one day from ATMs, in general cards will have a transaction limit (often £250 - £300) and a daily withdrawal limit (which may be the same as the transaction limit, but where it's more I've never come across on that's higher than £600). Whether a credit card would allow more I'm not sure as it's something I try to avoid doing.

Dephead2004

OK lets be clear. I am happy to withdraw 450 CHF over 5 days to make up the totals. My question to the experts is: on which is the best card to do this process?
Thanks

patman99

Have you thought about the pre-paid cards ?. You can load-up the card with the money you wish to spend, then use it just like a debit card. No need to find an ATM, or worry about trying to withdraw a large sum of cash.

Dephead2004

As we are all money saving experts I wanted to do this for no cost. As per my original post I used to be able to do this on a Nationwide a/c for nothing using their deboit card and gt a great VISA rate of exchange

caz2003uk

The post office as far as I am aware are the only pre loaded currency travel card that allows Swiss francs!

It doesn't cost to load it, it costs 2.50 CHF per cash withdrawal at a limit if 500CHF a day!

http://www.postoffice.co.uk/travel-money-card

bigadaj

Surely just use the clarity card. No fees, visa exchange rate and interest only at 1% per month so credit by Internet banking in a few days and charges are minimal.

Dephead2004

Thanks that's great advice from caz2003uk and bigadaj. caz2003uk wins so far with my 2500CHF challenge as the PO card weighs in at 5 transactions at 2.50CHF each= 12.50CHF = 8.33GBP cf Clarity card 1% for 2500CHF = 25CHF = 16.66GBP. But that means 5 trips to the Bank. Thanks guys

Dephead2004

Is the Mastercard rate of exchange better or equal to the VISA rate?