Finance's on your travels

[vRSG60]

The Halifax Clarity MasterCard was designed for foreign travel. No charges for transactions, business rate of exchange and no charge for drawing cash if you pay it off on the same day.

This.

[ollydog]

be careful when fueling on the pre pay cards, quite a lot of forecourts deduct the maximum amount of fuel on these then debit it back, not much use if you fuel frequently and suddenly find you have no credit and waiting for the card to redebit funds.

steve

[Mawsley]

We had a preloaded card for America a couple of years ago and had 2 problems .....1) not everywhere accepted that card and 2) some hotels charged a deposit which is refunded 10 days later which meant we ran out of credit on that card and when it was refunded we were already back home ...... feckin useless.
Cash and debit card is all I use now.

I was turned away from two places because I didn't have a credit card to pay the deposit, they refused to accept cash or debit.

[sid.]

Well thanks for all the response's, should of maybe thought about this earlier. Cash and a normal credit card is what I've done before, so i think thats the plan for this trip. And maybe go a different route for the next trip. Cheers sid.

[DavidS]

be careful when fueling on the pre pay cards, quite a lot of forecourts deduct the maximum amount of fuel on these then debit it back, not much use if you fuel frequently and suddenly find you have no credit and waiting for the card to redebit funds.

steve

Eh?
That seems odd, the seller must be up to some illegal tricks.
You still need to authorise the payment surely.
I have had one garage in the US who wanted prepayment for all fuel. Bearing in mind that was in mega affluent Carmel, it seemed odd.

Yes, always have a credit card. They can't guarantee payment from debit cards.

[VR_Rider]

I use cash and a post office credit card.

I was offered the pre-paid card at the post office a few years back but preferred the credit card. What sold it for me was widely accepted and easy to cancel if stolen. Plus no transaction fees when used abroad.

Thanks,

Dave

[MattCrane]

We used cash for general spending and an empty MasterCard just for fuel in France. Didn't have any of this taking the maximum amount then debiting it back and we only refuelled at unmanned pumps.

Heard good things from others on the trip about the Caxton card so may consider one next time we go away.

[Toe]

I use Metro Bank when I'm in Europe or one of their listed countries. It's a Mastercard and 0% on transactions. Never had any issues.

[Fishandchips]

Santander zero for me. You get the same mid market rate displayed on xe.com and no transaction fees. No monthly fees and nothing hidden.

You get cash back too even from the transactions abroad.

You get to pay for your holiday 30 days later

If you withdraw cash you don't get charged but you do have to pay interest although if your savvy you can pay of your card straight away with internet banking as soon as the transaction shows.

[Brenhden]

I use a Post office Travel money card and it works great. You can top it up anywhere on your phone and instantly withdraw. It also acts as a little euro nest egg between trips.
Never had a problem with prepay fuel stops either although that might be luck.