Credit Card vs Starling Bank Debit Card

tony1997r

Hi all, I am wondering if anyone can help me out with a bit more knowledge here.

I am travelling to Sweden soon and looking around for the cheapest way to spend money whilst there.

On his website, Martin seems to rate many overseas credit cards before overseas debit cards. In his blogs he mentions the Starling Bank Debit Card for overseas payments however he doesn't seem to rate this as the top card.

Starling Bank offers 0 fees on both expenditures and ATM withdrawals abroad along with good approved globally used Mastercard exchange rates. I am struggling to understand why this is not rated as the top card for overseas expenditures.

Can someone please explain to me under what circumstances would I be better getting a overseas credit card such as Tandem / Halifax Clarity etc because I am wondering if the Starling Bank offer is too good to be true. I am aware that the advantage of credit card use is to provide more time for repayment to the bank after borrowing the money, but is there anything else which I should be aware of which disadvantages the Starling debit card to the variety of overseas credit cards that are available.

Thanks,
Tony

EveryWhere

Starling Bank is fine for you, as is the Metro Bank debit card(for Sweden).
Credit card just gives you more protection, but the exchange rates are exactly the same.

londoninvestor

The MSE article is due a bit of a rewrite:

MSE_Travel_Credit_Cards_article wrote:

It's also possible to get non-sterling transaction fee-free debit cards, but you'll need to shift bank account. It's questionable whether it's worth it just for this (as you're forgoing other bank account perks – see Best Bank Accounts), which is why we favour just getting a credit card and using it right.

This isn't really true - neither Metro nor Starling nor Monzo requires you to switch your current account to them, to set up any direct debits, or anything like that. You can open them as an entirely separate account from your existing current account.

pramsay13

As far as I can see the Tandem / Halifax are listed as top travel credit cards, and Starling is listed as top travel debit card.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/travel-credit-cards/#starling

There's no need to choose either / or so why not get get both?

When we were travelling we had a bit of an issue and Starling wouldn't work in the atm abroad so we had to use Halifax Clarity card which worked fine. No-one seemed to know why this was the case and it started working a few days later.

NoodleDoodleMan

As far as I can see the Tandem / Halifax are listed as top travel credit cards, and Starling is listed as top travel debit card.

Wrong for credit card, correct for debit card.

As long as you can settle the balance in full by the date due on the next monthly statement then the Barclaycard Platinum Travel Cashback Plus is the best credit card - and is the best plastic overall.

No ATM fees with no cash withdrawal interest fees, and no fees for purchasing goods or services abroad - with the added benefit of 0.25% cashback.

It's the top pick on that MSE guide as the best "user friendly" credit card for holidays.

pramsay13

NoodleDoodleMan wrote: »

Wrong for credit card, correct for debit card.

As long as you can settle the balance in full by the date due on the next monthly statement then the Barclaycard Platinum Travel Cashback Plus is the best credit card - and is the best plastic overall.

No ATM fees with no cash withdrawal interest fees, and no fees for purchasing goods or services abroad - with the added benefit of 0.25% cashback.

It's the top pick on that MSE guide as the best "user friendly" credit card for holidays.

From the link posted
Top travel credit cards
Barclaycard – good for cash + 0.25% cashback
Tandem – good for spending + 0.5% cashback
Halifax – long-term best buy but no cashback
Aqua – easier-to-get + 0.5% cashback

Top travel debit cards
Starling – fee-free spending & cash wdls
Monzo – fee-free spending worldwide

NoodleDoodleMan

Barclaycard – good for cash + 0.25% cashback

Also good for spending, hence it being listed top pick.

https://www.nimblefins.co.uk/barclaycard-platinum-travel-credit-card

londoninvestor

NoodleDoodleMan wrote: »

Also good for spending, hence it being listed top pick.

https://www.nimblefins.co.uk/barclaycard-platinum-travel-credit-card

It is a good card, but not sure I would let being #1 pick on that site be the deciding factor when it admits to doing pay-for-play:

Nimblefins wrote:

Some of the offers or products that appear on this website are from companies which NimbleFins receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where offers appear on this site (including, for example, the order in which they appear).