UKash Pre Paid travel Card

eDicky

EF1 wrote: »

I topped my card up when the exchange rate was over 1.40 and have 1200 euros on it. I am going on holidays in June so would I be better off using the card abroad at ATM to withdraw all the cash and paying to cancel it afterwards or cancelling it for free now (bearing in mind the exchange rate is much lower)

An interesting question - how to avoid the fees and preserve your 'bargain' euros' value.

If you cancel your Ukash and have the balance refunded to your bank account now, you should receive more pounds than it cost you to buy the euros - but then you will need to buy euros again for your trip. And we don't know what rate Ukash will give you for the conversion back to pounds, you need to ask them. Currently the mid-rate is 1.283 or 78p per euro.

I think the best solution, if it still works, is to sign up for Revolut with their smartphone app and load the euros from your Ukash card directly to the Revolut EUR balance. Others were doing this successfully (see page 4), and you can then convert to GBP and withdraw or keep them to use with the Revolut card on your holiday. This will cost nothing to try. Others withdrew to Amazon or PayPal, fees and less ideal exchange rates may apply.

Somebody else was going to withdraw their euros in cash from a Raphaels Bank dual currency ATM in the UK, which should work, but we never heard the result from them. This would also depend on whether you would be comfortable keeping the cash, and the cost and convenience of visiting the ATM - they are mostly at London Underground stations:
http://www.cashpointcompass.co.uk/#/

Keeping the card until June will involve the monthly and usage fees, but then if you empty it you can just forget about it - no need to pay the closure fee. So you can compare relative costs and convenience...

EF1

Thank you eDicky

Theant49

Hi. I have just checked my UKASH prepaid travel card before arranging to transfer the balance to my nominated bank account before the card is withdrawn and guess what: during 2016 I have had 13.2Euros in 'Monthly Service Charges' taken out of my account by UKASH, and 30 Euros in 'Inactivity Fees' taken out by UKASH as well. I did not use the account during 2016 and have been charged 43.2 Euros in fees on a 140 Euro balance, or 30%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!