Travel credit cards

eDicky

HotPotato wrote: »

One of the things I also like about Revolut is the ability to do international transfers at spot rate. Does Starling let you do that?

No, Starling is no use for cross currency transfers etc. Revolut was losing too much on unlimited ATM withdrawals so had to impose fee-free limits, as Starling may also find necessary in future.

HotPotato

eDicky wrote: »

as Starling may also find necessary in future.

ok, but as of the moment, unlimited is no problem?

I was using revolut a lot, but hit my top up limit twice, and am having trouble increasing it again. (your savings were taken into consideration once, and cannot be taken into account again)?!?!

They emailed me back saying that usa will be added soon, but I think you're right, the rate on the transfer is very good, but the fee isn't fixed and becomes quite expensive if you want to send a lot of money abroad.

Paul_McD

I took out the card 3 months ago and have used it on 2 trips abroad (both to Spain) as well as paying online in euros to book car hire. No problems at all. And the cashback is nice as well.

I was a bit surprised to find that you can't manage the account online but the paper statements are clear, it's easy to manage using the app and I love the notifications on my phone very soon after making the transaction. This was especially true when in Menorca earlier this month I filled up the car with petrol. Although the first attempt at payment (cashless) was declined, the 2nd attempt (chip & pin) went through. Within the hour I got notifications of both the failed and successful attempts.

On experience so far I would certainly recommend.

leej72

Hi everyone
I recently got a starling card as I didn't want to pay loads of charges (as I had in the past) with my existing Halifax card and we had a planned trip to Canada and the States. It appealed to me because it said on the MSE site that there were no charges for spending and more importantly cash ATM withdrawals. My wfie however tested the card on a recent trip to NYC and she had to pay ATM charges everytime she withdrew cash. I thought this card didn't charge anything? I read on a forum that, the free fees don't apply to UK purchased cards. Is this true? I've also read that people are having problems paying with it at various places.

Anyone know anything about this card? I may aswell use my other more reliable cards if this is the case and they charge!

Cheers

eDicky

leej72 wrote: »

she had to pay ATM charges everytime she withdrew cash. I thought this card didn't charge anything?

The Starling card does not charge anything, it is the ATM operators in USA that make a charge for withdrawals. These apply whatever card you use, announced onscreen.

As for people having problems, I've used the card in many counties with none. But any card can fail sometimes for obscure reasons, that's why you should always take more than one.

mooragor

I was also rejected for a Tandem card. Experian said I had a 999 rating!
I phoned up twice to ask them to review it, and have heard nothing (2 months ago now), so i'm giving them up as a dead loss.
Have taken out Halifax and Barclaycard ones now instead (both of them auto-approved immediately)

MoneySpendingProfessional

I cannot praise the Starling bank account enough - their set up was so easy, they have NO charges for withdrawal, no minimum pay ins, you get Interest on your balance and you can use t anywhere. I've personally been to Canada and North Cyprus and had no problems anywhere, you just treat it as a credit card when you are there. And I've actually just used it as a savings account when I'm not away. The app is great, really helpful and informative you can see how much of your spends were on holidays / transport / eating out / groceries / entertainment / shopping. Super easy and user-friendly and no fees! yay!

MartinJS

I've had a Tandem card for a few weeks and I'm pretty happy with it. I like the mobile app and how I get real time notifications of what I spend, very handy as when spending abroad the notification shows the amount you spent in GBP. What's disappointing about this card is they don't support Apple or Google Pay. I emailed them and got this reply:

Hi Martin,

Our card isn’t currently available to use with Apple pay and Google pay there are several other pieces of infrastructure that would need to be built before we would be able to offer this. However, this is something we are working towards, but I wouldn't be able to give a definitive time frame of when this would be just yet, so please keep an eye out for updates on our progress. I hope that’s helpful.

--

Naima from Tandem

yatp1

Agree with positive comments about Starling Bank. I noticed that the £300 cash withdrawal limit becomes €300 in Europe (£270 on today's rate).

saxenamilan

:jTandem: Feedback
I got a Tandem card recently, and used it exclusively on a 10 day trip to Spain. Very happy with the service. The app (I have Android phone) notifies as soon as you make a payment. It also shows the £ equivalent of the non-£ currency it is used to pay in, but I have noticed it is indicative and the real transaction on statement is few pennies different (not that it matters for small transactions). Best part is that it also notifies instantly if the payment is declines, along with the reason for declining. For example, in Spain card don't have a contactless limit of £30 like do here (there they have limitless Contactless+PIN instead) and when the server at a restaurant tried to charge over the equivalent of £30 using contactless, it was declines and the app notified me that it was due to being over the contactless limit (of £30).
Customer service has been very helpful - they have a built in chat tool in the app for customer service, that works Mon - Fri. Not sure about the weekend support if you are stuck somwhere, but I would anyway always travel with a backup travel card. Statements are paper bases only at the moment, but I have been told by customer service that the app is soon going to get a download pdf option. So, I would totally recommend Tandem card!:j