Barclays Travel Wallet?

SkintDarkknight

I have a bog standard Barclays debit account which offers a travel wallet. What I was wondering was that if I placed euros into it. Are their any hidden charges to pay for things or to withdraw once I'm abroad?

Sandtree

So you want someone to read the T&Cs for you?

The hidden fees is that you pay the Barclays rates when moving GBP into the wallet as a different currency and again when you move money out of it back into GBP.

Why not just get a free Starling account/card where there are no fees and the standard network exchange rate is used rather than a spread? Free and instant to move GBP between Starling and Barclays.

SkintDarkknight

Sandtree said:

So you want someone to read the T&Cs for you?

The hidden fees is that you pay the Barclays rates when moving GBP into the wallet as a different currency and again when you move money out of it back into GBP.

Why not just get a free Starling account/card where there are no fees and the standard network exchange rate is used rather than a spread? Free and instant to move GBP between Starling and Barclays.

Firstly, I don't appreciate the sarcasm, it was a fair question to anyone who may have used it in practice?
What I wanted to know was now that I have euros IN my travel wallet, will it charge me to use said barclays debit card to withdraw cash on or pay for things on once I am in Europe?!

Hope that cleared up any confusion for you!

Sandtree

No, they won't charge you but the ATM may do... always worth looking on Tripadvisor or such to find out the machines with the lowest fee.

If you dont spend/withdraw it all you will also get a poor exchange rate when you convert it back to GBP

John_Gateshead

I'm also interested to hear anybody's experience of this Barclays service. All the alternatives seem to have snags, with even one that I saw recommended charging fees at weekends. Are the exchange rates when "charging" the wallet similar to those offered by companies selling Euros? It seems you can only check the exchange rate when actually buying currency, which I don't want or need to do yet.