Prepaid Travel Cards guide

Spivved1987

I am having some trouble with the Revolut app on my smartphone. Their help is useless, but as far as I can see it is the only way of ensuring that payments I make to my son's Revolut card are more or less instantly available to withdraw cash from ATMs or spend abroad.

Sometimes the need to get cash urgently (ie at a few minutes notice) is more important than getting absolutely the top rate.So Transferwise is not the answer (takes a while to hit receiving account) or Paypal (can't use to withdraw cash from ATMs) Is there any competitor to Revolut now on the market?

Please don't mention using UK debit or credit cards abroad. I also realise I could transfer money from my UK bank account to his UK bank account which is linked to his Revolut card. I know we could do these things, but that's not the question.

The question is whether there is another organisation that does what Revolut does, but isn't Revolut?

NiftyDigits

Spivved1987 wrote: »

I am having some trouble with the Revolut app on my smartphone. Their help is useless, but as far as I can see it is the only way of ensuring that payments I make to my son's Revolut card are more or less instantly available to withdraw cash from ATMs or spend abroad.

Sometimes the need to get cash urgently (ie at a few minutes notice) is more important than getting absolutely the top rate.So Transferwise is not the answer (takes a while to hit receiving account) or Paypal (can't use to withdraw cash from ATMs) Is there any competitor to Revolut now on the market?

Please don't mention using UK debit or credit cards abroad. I also realise I could transfer money from my UK bank account to his UK bank account which is linked to his Revolut card. I know we could do these things, but that's not the question.

The question is whether there is another organisation that does what Revolut does, but isn't Revolut?

https://monzo.com ?

eDicky

Spivved1987 wrote: »

I am having some trouble with the Revolut app on my smartphone. Their help is useless, but as far as I can see it is the only way of ensuring that payments I make to my son's Revolut card are more or less instantly available to withdraw cash from ATMs or spend abroad.

What exactly is the problem? Are you transferring funds from your Revolut account to that of your son, or what?

Spivved1987

No, I can't because the app on my phone isn't working.

eDicky

Spivved1987 wrote: »

No, I can't because the app on my phone isn't working.

Have you tried uninstalling the app, then installing it again? Decent prepaid cards all operate on a phone app these days, so if it's a phone problem it may also be difficult to use other cards such as Monzo.

Spivved1987

Yes. Three times!

eDicky

Try Monzo or Soldo then.

Kickity

Sorry NiftyDigits, I have since realised that I replied to a post of yours from years ago.

overloaded75

Hi

I am having a look at https://archive.is/H10DI - an extensive comparison Which has run for typical 1000 EUR / $1000 usage scenarios.

Of course I was expecting WeSwap to be on top (the scenarios triggers the 1.5 fee for ATM plus the 1% which is waived if you go through MSE.

And that seems to be the case, apart from Fair FX for $, which is just completely off the mark, £100 cheaper compared to everything else (https://goo.gl/No6Ajo) seems just wrong.

Why is Fair FX so massively more convenient that anything else on that page?
Inputs welcome.

Thanks in advance.

eDicky

overloaded75 wrote: »

Why is Fair FX so massively more convenient that anything else on that page?

It looks as if they have neglected to update the FairFX figures along with all the others in December, so they still correspond to the stronger pound last April.

Revolut is mentioned as being shown but is not, perhaps because of its unavailability at the time of the December update.

The comparisons do not take into account general reliability of the cards, quality of customer service, and the costs involved in recovering unused dollars or euros, etc.

Although there's a chance of gain by 'locking in' rates when loading such cards, there's an equal chance of loss by doing so, compared to converting at the time of the foreign transaction.

As far as I can see, Monzo and Revolut are currently the best choices as prepaid travel cards for regular use. Personally I've never tried WeSwap as it seems clumsy and laborious, unsuitable and more costly for spontaneous usage.