Spending Overseas: The cheapest way to pay Article Discussion Area

helenrowland

Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: shrewsbury
Post Count: 24
Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post


Travelex cash passport
I am waiting for my debit card to arrive from nationwide as i am off to oz on sunday. if it does not arrive i have been looking at other options - the cash passport from travelex.
Does anyone know if these are good value? Do they give as good a rate as getting proper cash?
Any thoughts gratefully received !
Thanks, Helen

pancake40

Info collected from the Post Office today... "An alternative way to spend aboard - a flexible alternative to cash and credit cards which can be used in millions of shops and restaurants worldwide (Visa Electron)... It's simple, secure and best of all it's free.
Easy... Load a min of £50 and up to £5,000 in Euros, Dollars or Sterling
Fair... we'll refund the balance if your card is lost or stolen
Check publicity info for comparisons with cash and credit cards/travellers cheques, exchange rate and transaction fee info
Would welcome an expert opinion...?

patsylagan

Hi folks,

I am off to New York and reading your posts I think my best deal is to pre-load my Post Office credit card before I go. Seems this is definitely the way to go for purchases but can I withdraw cash without being charged interest (just a flat fee for each withdrawal), as the money will already be in the account?

Grateful for any help,
Patsy.

mrweeble

Would like to second pancake40s request for advice as to the advisability of the post office prepay card. for those without the leaflet, the link on the site is http://www.postoffice.co.uk/portal/po/jump1?catId=19300207&mediaId=26800661&campaignid=HTML3


Also is Visa Electron widely accepted in the USA? anyone know?

dzug

Post Office card

It's simple, secure and best of all it's free. The card itself that is; to use, not necessarily
Easy... Load a min of £50 and up to £5,000 in Euros, Dollars or Sterling for a fee and/or not that good an exchange rate
Fair... we'll refund the balance if your card is lost or stolen for a fee I believe

All very convenient but it comes at a price. If you want such a card it's not a bad one - but it's not a cheap way of taking money.

pin

Hi all

I don't post on MSE that often anymore, however was wondering if my list was still valid, or there are now some new players on the market?

Thanks!!

ernie-money

patsylagan wrote: »

Hi folks,

I am off to New York and reading your posts I think my best deal is to pre-load my Post Office credit card before I go. Seems this is definitely the way to go for purchases but can I withdraw cash without being charged interest (just a flat fee for each withdrawal), as the money will already be in the account?

Grateful for any help,
Patsy.

You wont be charged interest, or a fee for withdrawing either for that matter! It is completely free, as long as the post office don't start clamping down on people who have a credit balance on their cards...

garyf_2

I work for a US based company in England, locally hired under UK rules. We have a lot of ex-pat employees all over the world who have US based credit cards. I have recently been made aware of a mass litigation that is going on over there to reclaim Foreign Transaction charges on credit cards. Apparently the March 2008 issue of Money magazine has an article in it called "Refunds for Globetrotters".

Basically from 02 Feb 1996 through 08 Nov 2006, VISA, MC and DINERS did not disclose that a foreign transfer fee and sometimes an inflated exchange rate was being applied to all foreign charges and cash withdraws made on US issued VISA, MC, DINERS and debit and ATM cards. Note: the fees on the ATM card was being charged by a subsidiary of MC called Maestro.
A suit was brought about and a settlement was reached.

A web site has been set up to establish claims

http://ccfsettlement.com/


Some of my colleagues are lodging claims in the region of $3,000 (£1,500).

I wondered if there was any form of action in the UK taking place to enable us to claim back charges?

craigreilly

Sorry if this has been answered already - I see the question in the thread but not the answer......Just seems that for a holiday in USA within the 3 mths 5% cashback period, any charges from loading will be offset by the cashback. Am I missing something, or should that work OK? Thansk very much for any info!

Cheers!

Tojo_Ralph

craigreilly wrote: »

Sorry if this has been answered already - I see the question in the thread but not the answer......Just seems that for a holiday in USA within the 3 mths 5% cashback period, any charges from loading will be offset by the cashback. Am I missing something, or should that work OK? Thansk very much for any info!

Cheers!

You are correct, with the 5% cashback and the 2.75% overseas loading, you are in effect 2.25% better off using Amex c/w 5% cashback than using a 0.00% overseas loading card.