Avoid non sterling transaction fee

tartopom

All I want is a way to pay for online purchases in Euros and avoid a non sterling transaction fee, bad exchange rates or any other fees.  I've read the travel spending article but most of the solutions presented have various issues for me:

 - Credit cards or full credit checks aren't viable for me

 - I can't use banking apps (phone too old) - this appears to rule out the Chase mastercard option

The only options remaining, based on info from the article, are the Yonder debit card or prepaid travel cards. Admittedly I haven't done a deep dive on either of those options yet, but does anyone have a recommendation that would meet my needs?

flaneurs_lobster

Who do you bank with? Do you have online access?

Pretty much any product that does what you want will be phone app based, even if it comes with a physical card.

tartopom

I have Natwest and Lloyd's current accounts (the latter opened only a year or two ago) neither of which require a smartphone  even if they do try to shove their app down your throat.

flaneurs_lobster

I take it that you find the fees/conversion rates applied if you were to use either of Lloyds or NatWest debit cards unattractive?

zagfles

First Direct. No non-sterling fees, Mastercard exchange rate, and no requirement for a smartphone (for online banking they have a physical secure key you can use instead of a smartphone app).  

flaneurs_lobster

zagfles said:

First Direct. No non-sterling fees, Mastercard exchange rate, and no requirement for a smartphone (for online banking they have a physical secure key you can use instead of a smartphone app).  

Would be good choice, unfortunately OP doesn't want hard credit check.

MyRealNameToo

tartopom said:

All I want is a way to pay for online purchases in Euros and avoid a non sterling transaction fee, bad exchange rates or any other fees.  I've read the travel spending article but most of the solutions presented have various issues for me:

 - Credit cards or full credit checks aren't viable for me

 - I can't use banking apps (phone too old) - this appears to rule out the Chase mastercard option

The only options remaining, based on info from the article, are the Yonder debit card or prepaid travel cards. Admittedly I haven't done a deep dive on either of those options yet, but does anyone have a recommendation that would meet my needs?

How much are you going to be spending abroad? Enough to justify buying the most basic smartphone that will run a banking app so that Chase or Starling become an option? Doesnt need to be your main phone and in principle never needs to leave the house after setting up the account nor have a SIM as long as you are on wifi at home.

tartopom

flaneurs_lobster said:

I take it that you find the fees/conversion rates applied if you were to use either of Lloyds or NatWest debit cards unattractive?

They are about 3% which seems standard now. I want an option that removes that fee.

tartopom

MyRealNameToo said:

tartopom said:

All I want is a way to pay for online purchases in Euros and avoid a non sterling transaction fee, bad exchange rates or any other fees.  I've read the travel spending article but most of the solutions presented have various issues for me:

 - Credit cards or full credit checks aren't viable for me

 - I can't use banking apps (phone too old) - this appears to rule out the Chase mastercard option

The only options remaining, based on info from the article, are the Yonder debit card or prepaid travel cards. Admittedly I haven't done a deep dive on either of those options yet, but does anyone have a recommendation that would meet my needs?

How much are you going to be spending abroad? Enough to justify buying the most basic smartphone that will run a banking app so that Chase or Starling become an option? Doesnt need to be your main phone and in principle never needs to leave the house after setting up the account nor have a SIM as long as you are on wifi at home.

Sounds.clever until.you realise that the most basic.smartphone will either not run those apps or will stop running them in a few months at which point I am back to square 1.

Barkin

tartopom said:

I have Natwest and Lloyd's current accounts (the latter opened only a year or two ago) neither of which require a smartphone  even if they do try to shove their app down your throat.

Which Lloyds current account? The Club Lloyds account has no fx fees.

There's a monthly charge, but it's refunded if you pay in £2000 per month, which doesn't have to stay there - a quick in & out is enough to have the monthly fee waived.

tartopom

Barkin said:

tartopom said:

I have Natwest and Lloyd's current accounts (the latter opened only a year or two ago) neither of which require a smartphone  even if they do try to shove their app down your throat.

Which Lloyds current account? The Club Lloyds account has no fx fees.

There's a monthly charge, but it's refunded if you pay in £2000 per month, which doesn't have to stay there - a quick in & out is enough to have the monthly fee waived.

I have something called the 'classic' which charges 3% unless I pay £7 a week, and I can only do this it for 6 weeks a year so pointless. I havn't checked what the admission criteria for the premium accounts like club, gold etc but suspect i either don't meet them or  they would charge a monthly fee.