Comments on: Which travel money card is the best?

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.