The best cards for spending abroad!

by Rachel Wait on 16 May 2010  |  22 comments
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If you’re off on holiday soon, a prepaid currency card is a great item to have in your wallet. Here, we take a closer look at some of the best ones on the market.

My honeymoon is only a couple of months away now, so I’m already starting to think about how much money I should take with me.

But this is something I always find a tad tricky.

After all, I don't want to be stuck carrying around a load of cash in case I either lose it or it gets stolen.

But then there's always that worry that I will run out of money one day before the end of the holiday, and I'll have to find some way of getting more cash.

Luckily, however, I've found a solution to this - and that’s using a prepaid currency card. The great thing about these cards is that you can simply load up your card with funds and away you go. Then, if your funds run out, you can simply reload the card.

What’s more, unlike the majority of credit cards and debit cards, in many cases, prepaid currency cards won’t charge you to make cash withdrawals overseas and you won’t always be charged a foreign transaction fee either when you use the cards in shops and restaurants.

So let’s take a closer look to see how some of these prepaid currency cards compare.

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FairFX Currency Cards

FairFX offers three different pre-paid currency cards – the Anywhere card, the Euro card, and the Dollar card.

The Anywhere card allows you to load up your card with Sterling. This means you can take it anywhere in the world and exchange from Sterling into the local currency each time you transact using the card. There’s no loading fee to do this and the minimum loading amount is £10.

You should be able to use this card anywhere in the world, providing the retailer accepts MasterCard, or there’s an ATM. Funds are converted into the appropriate currency (so if you’re in Australia, for example, your funds will be converted into Australian dollars), and at the current exchange rate of the time.

With the Anywhere card, you won’t be charged an ATM cash withdrawal fee but you will be charged a 1.5% foreign transaction fee. This is because you are converting Sterling into whatever currency you are using. That said, standard debit cards will charge you both a withdrawal fee and a foreign transaction fee when you use the ATM. The 1.5% foreign transaction fee also applies to any purchases you make with the Anywhere card.

On the flipside, the Euro and Dollar cards can only be loaded with either euros or dollars and these offer a fixed exchange rate – so if you decide to load your card when the exchange rate is strong, you can keep that rate on the existing money on the card (so it won’t be impacted if the pound weakens, for example). In this case, there is no transaction fee for using your card abroad, but there IS a fee if you withdraw money from an ATM - €1 or $2, depending on the currency.

Caxton FX Currency Cards

The similarly named Caxton FX offers three currency cards, two of which have the exact same names as the FairFX cards – the Global Traveller card, Euro card, and Dollar Card. (Confused, anyone?)

The Global Traveller Card can be used in any country, with any currency, and again, with any retailer that accepts MasterCard. Just like the FairFX Anywhere card, you load up your card in Sterling and funds are then converted into the appropriate currency when you go to use it.

Again, although you won't be charged a cash withdrawal fee (unless you use your card in the UK where you'll be charged £1.50), you will still be hit with a 2.5% transaction charge for withdrawals. And this will also apply if you use the card to make a purchase outside the UK.

Although there’s no loading fee, you will need to load the card with a minimum of £100.

Compare this to FairFX's Anywhere card and you can see you're worse off. Not only do you have to load the card with much more money, you also pay a higher transaction fee of 2.5%, compared to 1.5%. However, you may get a better exchange rate with Caxton FX, so make sure you check both out.

What about CaxtonFX's Euro and Dollar cards? Like FairFX's cards, these offer a fixed exchange rate, and again, there are no ATM charges when you use your card to withdraw money abroad (although you will be charged €2 or $3 in the UK). If you spend on the card, you won’t be charged a transaction fee, providing you only use the card in the currency you’ve selected. So if you use the Euro card in Italy, for example, you won't be charged anything. But if you use it in America, you will be charged 2.5% of the transaction amount.

For the Euro card, there's a minimum load limit of €150, and for the Dollar card, a minimum of $200.

Finally, note that a £10 deposit will be taken when you apply for these cards – this will be added to your overall balance when you load the card for the first time.

Travelex Cash Passport

The Travelex Cash Passport Currency Card is available in six currencies (Sterling, Euros, US Dollars, Australian Dollars, South African Rand, New Zealand Dollars and Canadian Dollars).

However, I have to confess I am not a big fan of the Travelex Cash Passport simply because its fees and charges are a tad confusing and depend on where you buy your card. For example, if you buy it online, you won’t be charged for ATM withdrawals or purchases. But if you pick up your card from Thomas Cook or The Co-operative Travel, you’ll be charged a £1.50 fee for each withdrawal, but no purchase fee.

You should also be aware that if you carry out a transaction or ATM withdrawal with your card in a currency other than that on the card, it will be exchanged to the currency on the card at an exchange rate determined by MasterCard on the day, increased by 5.75% for all currencies.

What’s more, you’ll also be charged a 2% commission for loading your card. And if you don’t use your card for a period of 12 months, you’ll be hit with a monthly fee of £2.

You can also buy your Cash Passport from a range of other retailers, such as Sainsbury’s, ASDA, and Tesco, but it’s worth checking their fees before you do so, as fees will vary.

Other options

There are of course, some other options you could consider if you don’t fancy any of the cards above. The ICE Travellers Card, for example, is available in sterling, euros or dollars. There are no foreign transaction fees or top up fees with the Euro and Dollar cards, but you will be charged a 2% foreign transaction fee with the Sterling card, as well as a 2% top up fee.

You’ll also have to pay a fee of £1.75, $3 or €3 for any cash withdrawals you make. And there’s a minimum loading fee of £100.

Currencies Direct has also launched a prepaid Euro MasterCard recently. There are no loading fees or transaction fees but there is a €1.25 fee for any withdrawals. And as the name suggests, it can only be loaded with Euros.

My Travel Cash is another option. Again, there are three cards to choose from - the Multi-currency card which is loaded with Sterling, the Euro card, and the Dollar card. You will be charged a 1.5% transaction fee for using the Multi-currency card, but there are no transaction fees for the Euro and Dollar cards. However, you will be charged an ATM withdrawal fee of £1, €1.25 or $1.50 depending on which card you have.

And finally, there’s the Escape Travel Money MasterCard from EZ Pay which doesn't charge for international ATM withdrawals or purchases. You can buy your card in dollars, euros or sterling, but the card will cost you £9.99. This comes as a package with a Truphone SIM card which comes with £5 worth of credit and offers cheap calls home from abroad. Just bear in mind there's a 4% fee if you load the card with a credit card, or 99p with a debit card. You won’t be charged if you load it by bank transfer, however. There's no minimum loading amount if you buy through the Travel Money Card website.

Final points

Although I've mentioned that some of the above cards don't charge a loading fee, it's worth noting that some of these cards will add a fee if you use a credit card as opposed to a debit card. It's also worth bearing in mind that most prepaid cards do not benefit from Section 75 protection - unlike credit cards.

That said, one advantage to having a prepaid MasterCard is that if you make any flight bookings with budget airlines such as Ryanair, you will be able to neatly sidestep the fees they charge for paying by debit and credit card!

Decisions, decisions

If you’re feeling a tad confused and overloaded with information, I don't blame you! So to help clarify things a little, I’ve drawn up a chart to highlight the main points of all the cards mentioned above.

As for me, well I’ve decided to go for the FairFX Anywhere card as well as the FairFX Dollar card for my honeymoon – that way I should have covered all bases!

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