Spending abroad which bank to use?

daveyjp

Had no issues with Starling, both individual and joint account held.

gary1312

Always a good idea to have more than one travel card, preferably one each Visa and Mastercard. Personally I go for Starling and Revolut. I take Starling as my main card purely because I favour cash and the ATM limits are generous. I also hold a Santander Basic account, for the same reason as @Marchitiello mentions - the benefits when travelling in countries where Santander operate - a benefit I learned about from him on this very forum. However as most of the options mentioned in this thread are free to open and get a card (Revolut excluded) it's not hard to get yourself a few options.

GeoffTF

boingy said:

GeoffTF said:

boingy said:

My wife has a first direct account with debit card that is only used for spending abroad. She pays in some hundreds of pounds before she goes and uses the debit card to spend it. If something goes pear shaped the exposure is limited and her main bank account does not get frozen or emptied.

FD could give you an unwanted unarranged overdraft when your card goes missing:

https://www.firstdirect.com/banking/current-account/overdraft/

She has had the overdraft facility removed - one quick phone call.

If I wanted to limit my exposure when my debit card was lost or stolen I would be concerned about:

"An unarranged overdraft is when you pay for something that takes your account overdrawn without an arranged limit in place or beyond your arranged limit which was agreed in advance to cover it. An unarranged overdraft may result in declined transactions though we’ll always consider allowing a payment which takes you into an unarranged overdraft first if we can based on your financial circumstances."

The link also says:

"You can also ask us to reduce or remove your arranged overdraft limit at any time by calling us on 03456 100 112."

It does not say that removing the arranged overdraft will do anything to stop whoever has the card from running up an unarranged overdraft. I realise that the bank cannot stop offline payments, but I would hope for more reassurance nonetheless.

sausage_time

So long as you take due care of your card and details, I'm not sure I see any more risk to individuals when using the card abroad versus at home.

GeoffTF

sausage_time said:

So long as you take due care of your card and details, I'm not sure I see any more risk to individuals when using the card abroad versus at home.

Some of us are paranoid at home too. Hopefully, if there is no overdraft facility, the bank would at least ask for a PIN if a payment would overdraw the account, which should be good enough.

sausage_time

GeoffTF said:

sausage_time said:

So long as you take due care of your card and details, I'm not sure I see any more risk to individuals when using the card abroad versus at home.

Some of us are paranoid at home too. Hopefully, if there is no overdraft facility, the bank would at least ask for a PIN if a payment would overdraw the account, which should be good enough.

Not sure how that is managed with off-line transactions (such as on a plane).  I guess the card chip has some visibility on approved transactions and perhaps available balance last time it was "on-line".

GeoffTF

sausage_time said:

GeoffTF said:

sausage_time said:

So long as you take due care of your card and details, I'm not sure I see any more risk to individuals when using the card abroad versus at home.

Some of us are paranoid at home too. Hopefully, if there is no overdraft facility, the bank would at least ask for a PIN if a payment would overdraw the account, which should be good enough.

Not sure how that is managed with off-line transactions (such as on a plane).  I guess the card chip has some visibility on approved transactions and perhaps available balance last time it was "on-line".

I do not believe it does. If a dishonest person finds a lost card or steals it they will want to drain it as quickly as possible. That is not likely to be easy with offline transactions. Not knowing the balance makes draining the card difficult too. I have a Tesco Clubcard Pay+ account and keep the balance below £100. I am never asked for a PIN, but I have not tried to make the account overdraw.

boingy

GeoffTF said:

sausage_time said:

GeoffTF said:

sausage_time said:

So long as you take due care of your card and details, I'm not sure I see any more risk to individuals when using the card abroad versus at home.

Some of us are paranoid at home too. Hopefully, if there is no overdraft facility, the bank would at least ask for a PIN if a payment would overdraw the account, which should be good enough.

Not sure how that is managed with off-line transactions (such as on a plane).  I guess the card chip has some visibility on approved transactions and perhaps available balance last time it was "on-line".

I do not believe it does. If a dishonest person finds a lost card or steals it they will want to drain it as quickly as possible. That is not likely to be easy with offline transactions. Not knowing the balance makes draining the card difficult too. I have a Tesco Clubcard Pay+ account and keep the balance below £100. I am never asked for a PIN, but I have not tried to make the account overdraw.

Frankly, Geoff, I don't know how you sleep at night. Perhaps stick to cash.

GeoffTF

boingy said:

GeoffTF said:

sausage_time said:

GeoffTF said:

sausage_time said:

So long as you take due care of your card and details, I'm not sure I see any more risk to individuals when using the card abroad versus at home.

Some of us are paranoid at home too. Hopefully, if there is no overdraft facility, the bank would at least ask for a PIN if a payment would overdraw the account, which should be good enough.

Not sure how that is managed with off-line transactions (such as on a plane).  I guess the card chip has some visibility on approved transactions and perhaps available balance last time it was "on-line".

I do not believe it does. If a dishonest person finds a lost card or steals it they will want to drain it as quickly as possible. That is not likely to be easy with offline transactions. Not knowing the balance makes draining the card difficult too. I have a Tesco Clubcard Pay+ account and keep the balance below £100. I am never asked for a PIN, but I have not tried to make the account overdraw.

Frankly, Geoff, I don't know how you sleep at night. Perhaps stick to cash.

No. Cash is much more risky.