Best debit card/account for no fees when withdrawing abroad

cmbrookes

Hi all

I’m going to Krakow, Poland in a few weeks and was just wondering if anyone could advise the best card or bank account for zero fees when withdrawing money from a cash machine?

grumbler

MSE: Travel credit cards

Don't believe the stupid title - the article is about debit and prepaid cards as well.

penners324

Starling, Monzo or Chase on the debit card side

Indout96

Chase are fee free from cash machines but you can pay for almost anything in Krakow via card (apple pay not so much) so you would get 1% cashback on using Chase.

cmbrookes

Indout96 said:

Chase are fee free from cash machines but you can pay for almost anything in Krakow via card (apple pay not so much) so you would get 1% cashback on using Chase.

Are chase reliable ? I’ve read on some reviews on trust pilot that they blocked some customer accounts and they couldn’t get access to their money.

Indout96

We used ours last year in Poland (Krakow) Egypt, Portugal and Bulgaria and never had a problem. I also have a Virgin travel card as back up but never used it.
The only hiccup was a car hire in Bulgaria where we could not get the petrol cap to open to fill it before it went back. we spoke to them and they just said they would add it to the same card and that was refused. But I consider that a plus as it means they cannot just add spurious charges after the effect. 
I just went to hotel reception with the card and did a new transaction for it and it went through fine.

grumbler

cmbrookes said:

Indout96 said:

Chase are fee free from cash machines but you can pay for almost anything in Krakow via card (apple pay not so much) so you would get 1% cashback on using Chase.

I’ve read on some reviews on trust pilot that they blocked some customer accounts and they couldn’t get access to their money.

Is there any bank in UK that has never done this? And the bigger the customer base the more likely you are to find such information in the Internet.

That's why you need some backup, and not only abroad.

DullGreyGuy

cmbrookes said:

I’m going to Krakow, Poland in a few weeks and was just wondering if anyone could advise the best card or bank account for zero fees when withdrawing money from a cash machine?

Agree with the suggestions above over which banks to consider however all they can promise is that they wont charge you any fees. I've not been to Poland but in many countries the ATM itself charges a fee and that applies no matter which card you use. Tripadvisor etc can be a good source of finding who's got the lowest prices as they do vary notably (in Mexico they even vary between states)

Goes without saying to decline the ATM's offer to charge you in GBP, their conversion rates are always terrible

k_man

cmbrookes said:

Indout96 said:

Chase are fee free from cash machines but you can pay for almost anything in Krakow via card (apple pay not so much) so you would get 1% cashback on using Chase.

Are chase reliable ? I’ve read on some reviews on trust pilot that they blocked some customer accounts and they couldn’t get access to their money.

Any account/card could be blocked, although I don't remember many reports from Chase users about card payments, although there were about large/new transfers being blocked*.

If you are abroad it is much harder to resolve. I would advise having a second payment option too, just in case.
ETA: as suggested above, a credit card is useful for any payment that may pre authorise a large amount (fuel, hotel bookings, car hire etc).

* This seems to impact many banks, with a rise of reports for those those offering tempting interest rates, so likely to have large amounts transferred.

adindas

cmbrookes said:

Indout96 said:

Chase are fee free from cash machines but you can pay for almost anything in Krakow via card (apple pay not so much) so you would get 1% cashback on using Chase.

Are chase reliable ? I’ve read on some reviews on trust pilot that they blocked some customer accounts and they couldn’t get access to their money.

Chase is reputable bank as it is owned by JP Morgan Chase the largest bank in the world as measured by total assets.