Best Travel Card?

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i7aniel
i7aniel Posts: 3 Newbie
in Credit cards
To all MSE forum members
I am in need of some help...
Me and my girlfriend are going travelling at the end of the year for 3 months in America, we are looking for the best credit card to take with us. We want the credit card to be:
1) Foreign usage fees to be free
2) Some kind of interest free period (the longer the better)
3) A high credit limit (£5000 upwards)
Any information would be greatly appreciated
Thanks Dan
«1

Comments

  • stevenhp1987
    stevenhp1987 Posts: 907 Forumite
    First Anniversary
    edited 7 August 2018 at 11:34PM
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    1) Foreign usage fees to be free

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

    2) Some kind of interest free period (the longer the better)

    I've not seen any travel cards with more than the standard "pay by your balance due" free period.

    3) A high credit limit (£5000 upwards)

    This largely depends on a variety of factors, including but not limited to, your income, your credit history.

    If you are going travelling for 3 months, it would imply either students, or a non-full time job with cash to spare. If that's the case a £5k limit is out of question. If you've been lucky with a job given you unpaid leave for so long, the only card from the travel cards, in my experience, who will give you £5k would be Barclaycard.

    Again, it depends on your credit history and your income.

    Additional Info

    Why do you need a credit card with 0% interest? Why do you need a £5k limit?

    Could you not save the money and then go? If you are students, could you not get an internship, part time job?

    USA (I assume that's what you mean by "America") is very expensive in terms of hotels, food, and drinks out compared to the prices here in the UK so expenses can wrack up very quickly!
  • i7aniel
    i7aniel Posts: 3 Newbie
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    Thanks for the reply stevenhp1987
    We both work full time but we can have up to a year off unpaid (sabbatical)
    We have been saving for a while, but will still need a good chunk of money for buying certain things e.g. theme park tickets, airbnbs and other expenses.
    We want to be able to use a credit card for the duration we are away then pay it off when we return.
    Thanks Dan
  • Craig1981
    Craig1981 Posts: 769 Forumite
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    Nationwide Flex credit card is a Visa Credit card, has up to 12 months purchases at 0%, and no charge for international transactions. (pretty sure you will need nationwide flex account though)
    Santander all in one card - but charges £3 a month service fee

    as for limit - will very much depend on individual circumstances

    check eligibility checkers on free credit reporting sites like noddle, Clearscore or moneyclub...
  • CollinT
    CollinT Posts: 32 Forumite
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    [FONT=&quot]The Post Office Platinum Card (Mastercard) offers free overseas purchases and 28 months 0% on purchases which does include the overseas purchases, via their Platinum Card: [/FONT]

    [FONT=&quot]I cannot post a link being new here, but google 'Post Office Platinum Credit Card,' or perhaps some other kind forum member may helpfully post the link.
    [/FONT]
    [FONT=&quot]This card also has a balance transfer offer but it is not that good,
    [/FONT]
    [FONT=&quot]I just use mine for overseas purchases which has worked very well whilst travelling during the past year, even in some really far out places.
    [/FONT]
    [FONT=&quot]Collin[/FONT]
  • Craig1981
    Craig1981 Posts: 769 Forumite
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    CollinT wrote: »
    [FONT=&quot]The Post Office Platinum Card (Mastercard) offers free overseas purchases and 28 months 0% on purchases which does include the overseas purchases, via their Platinum Card: [/FONT]

    [FONT=&quot]I cannot post a link being new here, but google 'Post Office Platinum Credit Card,' or perhaps some other kind forum member may helpfully post the link.
    [/FONT]
    [FONT=&quot]This card also has a balance transfer offer but it is not that good,
    [/FONT]
    [FONT=&quot]I just use mine for overseas purchases which has worked very well whilst travelling during the past year, even in some really far out places.
    [/FONT]
    [FONT=&quot]Collin[/FONT]

    here you go
    https://www.postoffice.co.uk/credit-card/platinum?campaignid=PPC_CC_0001&tmad=c&tmcampid=153&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIjtKIsO7c3AIV4p3tCh2g5A8hEAAYASAAEgJCD_D_BwE
  • i7aniel
    i7aniel Posts: 3 Newbie
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    Thank you for your advice Craig1981 and CollinT
  • Anthorn
    Anthorn Posts: 4,362 Forumite
    First Post First Anniversary Combo Breaker
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    You might consider that a pre-paid card is better mainly because you can buy your currency in advance when the exchange rate is more favourable.

    Personally in the realm of pre-paid travel currency cards I go more for reliability than cost. That's because any likely saving on a holiday trip is going to be negligible depending of course on how much is spent.

    I have never had a problem with FairFX nor Travelex but even so I still take a back up card on every trip.
  • takman
    takman Posts: 3,876 Forumite
    Combo Breaker First Post
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    Anthorn wrote: »
    You might consider that a pre-paid card is better mainly because you can buy your currency in advance when the exchange rate is more favourable.

    Personally in the realm of pre-paid travel currency cards I go more for reliability than cost. That's because any likely saving on a holiday trip is going to be negligible depending of course on how much is spent.

    I have never had a problem with FairFX nor Travelex but even so I still take a back up card on every trip.

    Why would you use either of those cards? your just throwing money away for no reason.

    You don't get a perfect exchange rate so when you top it up you loose some money. A quick look at the fees shows that you have to pay a fee to withdraw money from cash machines. You also have the chance that you don't use all the money on the card so have to pay a fee to change it back!.

    I know you have a Starling account which offers almost perfect exchange rates and no fee cash withdrawals so why wouldn't you use that as your primary card?
    You could also get some other cards which offer similar as backups.

    In reference to your first point of "buy your currency in advance when the exchange rate is more favourable".
    Well if you know how exchange rates are going to change over time then you should be trading in Forex as you will be able to make some big money!
  • EveryWhere
    EveryWhere Posts: 3,249 Forumite
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    Craig1981 wrote: »
    Nationwide Flex credit card is a Visa Credit card, has up to 12 months purchases at 0%, and no charge for international transactions. (pretty sure you will need nationwide flex account though)
    Santander all in one card - but charges £3 a month service fee

    as for limit - will very much depend on individual circumstances

    check eligibility checkers on free credit reporting sites like noddle, Clearscore or moneyclub...

    No such thing as a Flex CC. I guess you meant Select.

    The All In One isn't a bad option. £3 per month isn't that bad.
    Virgin have just suspended applications for their Travel CC.
    They certainly shouldn't depend on a single card.
    Holiday on credit? Hmmmmm
  • Craig1981
    Craig1981 Posts: 769 Forumite
    First Anniversary
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    EveryWhere wrote: »
    No such thing as a Flex CC. I guess you meant Select.
    Holiday on credit? Hmmmmm

    yeah my bad... select CC, Flex Current Accounts... oops!
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