pre paid credit cards

Conafeatherdusn_Barbarian

I am travelling to the USA in September and have been looking at the Ice pre paid card which looks too good to be true - with no obvious charges. Do you know if this card is as good as it seems?

dzug1

Conafeatherdusn_Barbarian wrote: »

I am travelling to the USA in September and have been looking at the Ice pre paid card which looks too good to be true - with no obvious charges. Do you know if this card is as good as it seems?

The charges are buried in the exchange rate - very roughly they are 3%


So nothing special but there are worse ones out there.

Neil49

This is a link to the relevant page on the main MSE site where, if you scroll down to Prepaid cards, you will find details of the best buys.

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

At present, Ukash comes out quite well but the various cards quoted each have their own pro's and con's depending on how you would intend to use them. For example, FairFX charges for ATM withdrawals but their exchange rate is slightly better than Caxtons (which offers free atm withdrawals). Caxton also limit the number of atm withdrawals to 2 per day and 5 over 4 days.

Also beware that most US banks also impose an atm charge of $2 or $3 which is outside the control of the prepaid card companies control. If you are in NY then TD Bank do not impose such a charge and have plenty of branches in Manhattan. I can't comment on other parts of the US.

Also please note that they are not credit cards as you have to load the funds onto them. Don't use one to hire a car or lodge credit at a hotel etc as this will block access to your funds and you wouldn't be able to withdraw cash even if the card was well in credit.

You have posted this question in the wrong section of this site. To view similar posts take a look in 'Overseas Holidays and Travel Planning' and click on 'Flights Currency and Car Hire'

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=193

Hope this helps.