Comments on: Which travel money card is the best?

By: Arnold

Arnold — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 20:23:42 +0000

UPDATE: Nationwide are starting to charge £1 for withdrawals overseas and adding a 2% foreign exchange loading.

Egg have likewise gone from excellent to dreadful and are no longer worth considering.

CaxtonFX have changed their charging structure and now appear to be better than FairFX for most overseas usage with the only downside being that you can’t clear the balance by using the card in the UK after your hols as they bill you £1.50 per transaction within the UK.

By: Foreign Perspectives » Blog Archive » Where can you find the cheapest travel money card?

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:53:02 +0000

By: Arnold

Arnold — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:03:48 +0000

David: You’re a nuisance… I’ve to revise this post yet again! Seriously though, that’s really welcome news and makes FairFX the best prepaid card in just about all circumstances I think.

Mark: I’ve checked it in the past and Nationwide use the rate as supplied by Visa/Mastercard which had around a 0.25% spread from the spot rate which is about as close to zero charges as you’re likely to get.

Also worth noting is that although Visa charge Nationwide 1% when the card is used outside Europe, Nationwide don’t pass on that charge. That means that every time people use their card outside Europe, it’s costing them 1%; I’m not really that confident that they will continue to do that indefinitely.

By: Mark Blackman

Mark Blackman — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:00:38 +0000

‘the Nationwide Building Society’s Flexaccount (Visa debit or Cirrus) which has no charges at all for withdrawing cash or converting from sterling to any currency.’

I think it’s very unlikely that Nationwide are delivering spot rates on FX, so I think it would be more interesting to know how far from spot rates they will be.

By: David Bain

David Bain — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 10:36:20 +0000

Thanks for that – a lot of good information there.
One other point about the FairFX card is that it’s offers a free card replacement as long as if you top up at least once in its 3-year lifespan.

By: Arnold

Arnold — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:39:00 +0000

It’s worse than that: the Post Office imply that there are no charges via their “0% commission” signs but they actually work out to around 3.5%.

Having gone through all these cards over the last few days, it’s quite refreshing to find a card like yours that is almost “too simple” in that I was hunting for charges that, by and large, just aren’t there.

By: Mike Smith

Mike Smith — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:37:54 +0000

Great analysis. Unfortunately there are some charges missing. At ICE we believe in putting the costs up front so our 4% represents the margin from spot charged on loading a € or $ card. Far from being free to use, you will find that the Post Office also applies a significant margin on loading Euros or Dollars on to the card, they just don’t tell you about it.