Student living abroad

traceywin

Not sure if this is in the right place. My daughter will be studying for a semester next year in Vienna. What is the best way to sort out her bank accounts that is not going to cost too much in charges.

She has a student account with Santander and a current account with Nationwide at the moment.

I look forward to receiving some advice - thank you.

agrinnall

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

Get the best credit card she can (or the best prepaid card if she doesn't qualify for any of the credit cards) and the best debit card that at least offers fee free withdrawals.

SalarySlave

Hey traceywin

I spend a lot of time abroad, I spend with my credit card Halifax clarity, no fees and an almost perfect rate on every transaction. I also have a Norwich & Peterborough Gold account that give me a no fees and almost perfect rate too, but it also allows me to withdraw money for free from cash machines abroad.

Finally to pay rent on the place I stay I use transferwise, there is a small fee for this but the rate is excellent and much better than I have ever found elsewhere. This allows me to transfer money directly from my sterling account into someone else's euro account.
Hope this helps.
I can give you a referral link to transferwise if you like so that you first transfer involves no fee.

ss53

SalarySlave wrote: »

Hey traceywin

I spend a lot of time abroad, I spend with my credit card Halifax clarity, no fees and an almost perfect rate on every transaction. I also have a Norwich & Peterborough Gold account that give me a no fees and almost perfect rate too, but it also allows me to withdraw money for free from cash machines abroad.

Finally to pay rent on the place I stay I use transferwise, there is a small fee for this but the rate is excellent and much better than I have ever found elsewhere. This allows me to transfer money directly from my sterling account into someone else's euro account.
Hope this helps.
I can give you a referral link to transferwise if you like so that you first transfer involves no fee.

Hi - my daughter will be in a similar situation shortly. With transferwise - do both sender and recipient need to be signed up to transferwise? Or just the sender? (I mean does it do straight to recipients bank account or into a transferwise account that they withdrww from)

badger09

ss53 wrote: »

Hi - my daughter will be in a similar situation shortly. With transferwise - do both sender and recipient need to be signed up to transferwise? Or just the sender? (I mean does it do straight to recipients bank account or into a transferwise account that they withdrww from)

Just the sender.

The money is transferred to the recipient's bank account in their local currency.

eDicky

Metro Bank in the London area issues a debit card that's fee free in Europe when you open an account in branch.

Revolut prepaid MasterCard entails no credit check, perfect interbank exchange rate (slightly off on weekends), no fees except 2% on ATM withdrawals over €650 per calendar month, free transfers to bank accounts.