Best Travel money card for teen

joness75

Hello, my son is going to America with school and i'm trying to work out what is the best way for him to carry his money. I have looked at a few pre paid travel cards but every time I decide on one, I review it and they are awful, does anyone have an experience in this please?

NoodleDoodleMan

We have a Caxton FX card - never had any issues - I believe you can get one in Dollars as the default currency.

Straightforward to manage online when you get the usual plea - send more money please !!!

eDicky

Avoid the cost and possible problems with prepaid cards, keep money as pounds in a bank account with fee-free debit card which converts currency when used:

https://www.nationwide.co.uk/current-accounts/flexone/

https://www.starlingbank.com/current-account/bank-account-for-teenagers/

https://monzo.com/features/16-plus/

CKhalvashi

Any of the above options by eDicky will work fine.

If you want to be sure of the exchange rate, I'd use Wise (I have a Wise card in my wallet and none of the above), ensuring a set amount of money is loaded onto the card. Note that you don't get full FSCS protection in the same way, but that Wise are a well established company with decent financial records.

SandyShores

We've got a Fairfx prepaid card:  https://www.fairfx.com/currency-card/  

It seemed a bit simpler than the MSE ones and it worked for us, but this is what MSE recommends in case you haven't seen them:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/prepaid-travel-cards/

eDicky

CKhalvashi said:

Any of the above options by eDicky will work fine.

If you want to be sure of the exchange rate, I'd use Wise (I have a Wise card in my wallet and none of the above), ensuring a set amount of money is loaded onto the card. Note that you don't get full FSCS protection in the same way, but that Wise are a well established company with decent financial records.

I've been using my Wise card quite a lot lately, but I don't think the account is available to teenagers.

NoodleDoodleMan

A fee free UK debit card is not going to avoid ATM charges in the USA - to the best of my knowledge there are no such machines, or, at best, very rare.

I still reckon the Caxton FX is worth a shout - you can get an additional card at no extra cost, it can be loaded in dollars, and as a Mastercard it is a dependable (in my experience) card.

The OP can give the son the additional card and load it as required online.

Other views may differ, that's the nature of opinions.

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.caxtonfx.com