Using cash points in Europe

The black art of moving from A to B on foreign soil
Milshy
Posts: 56
Joined: Sat Jan 19, 2013 2:34 pm

Re: Using cash points in Europe

Post by Milshy »

The post office still do the pre pay card, but you still pay a fee to withdraw your cash from a machine ( as i found out :angry: ) I like it though as you can add a little to your account each month so you have your holiday money sorted. ( bit like a bank really..lol :whistle: )
numptyspence
Posts: 318
Joined: Sat Feb 12, 2011 9:11 am

Re: Using cash points in Europe

Post by numptyspence »

Its a bit like the post office card but the fairfx card only charge €1.50 per transaction rather than €2.0 but they do have some weird usage rules 3 time a day limit or 10 times in 4 days
http://www.fairfx.com/
Tigerman1962
Posts: 262
Joined: Sun May 29, 2011 7:04 pm

Re: Using cash points in Europe

Post by Tigerman1962 »

I've used my Nationwide card in Turkey for several years now, Since they started charging I found that by withdrawing Sterling they don't charge a fee. :cheer:

Find a bank that gives you a choice of local currency or Sterling. HSBC in Turkey let you withdraw Lira, Euro's or Sterling. Obviously if you withdraw local currency you get charged the fee.

Take the Sterling into the Bank, shop or local money launderer! ;) ;) Wherever you can get the best exchange rate and hey presto!!
I have only tried this in Turkey, but am guessing it should be the same in other countries.
I'm off to France soon so I will try it out....
2 wheeled tourist
Posts: 851
Joined: Tue Jul 13, 2010 8:09 pm

Re: Using cash points in Europe

Post by 2 wheeled tourist »

Hey! I'm a tourist. And that's how I like it.
mawse
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Re: Using cash points in Europe

Post by mawse »

davsato wrote: the post office used to do a prepay travel money card that you loaded up before you left, dont know if they still do.
Yes they do. I offered this advise earlier, but op decided to ignore it :dry: guess he didnt like my advise

Works great in france, italy, switzerland and germany, used it without any issues last year
Tigerman1962
Posts: 262
Joined: Sun May 29, 2011 7:04 pm

Re: Using cash points in Europe

Post by Tigerman1962 »

mawse wrote:
davsato wrote: the post office used to do a prepay travel money card that you loaded up before you left, dont know if they still do.
Yes they do. I offered this advise earlier, but op decided to ignore it :dry: guess he didnt like my advise

Works great in france, italy, switzerland and germany, used it without any issues last year
Make sure you spend all the money on the card or save it for the next trip, if you ask for your money back they will sting you with a crap exchange rate. As I found out! :(
davec
Posts: 132
Joined: Fri Jul 15, 2011 9:23 am

Re: Using cash points in Europe

Post by davec »

numptyspence wrote:Its a bit like the post office card but the fairfx card only charge €1.50 per transaction rather than €2.0 but they do have some weird usage rules 3 time a day limit or 10 times in 4 days
http://www.fairfx.com/
+1 for Fairfx, excellent exchange rate too.
I got a motorbike for my wife...

Best swap I ever made.
Schoe000
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Re: Using cash points in Europe

Post by Schoe000 »

Schoe000 wrote:
mawse wrote:Nationwide aint done free cash withdrawals in Europe for quite a while now

Post office travel card might be handy

Not wanting to plug a book, but this one has all the answers you are asking
Thanks for the reply, but the speed that the French seem to change their legislation the book will be out of date.
My mistake, was getting this thread mixed up with the one about current French riding legislation.
davsato
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Re: Using cash points in Europe

Post by davsato »

Tigerman1962 wrote:
mawse wrote:
davsato wrote: the post office used to do a prepay travel money card that you loaded up before you left, dont know if they still do.
Yes they do. I offered this advise earlier, but op decided to ignore it :dry: guess he didnt like my advise

Works great in france, italy, switzerland and germany, used it without any issues last year
Make sure you spend all the money on the card or save it for the next trip, if you ask for your money back they will sting you with a crap exchange rate. As I found out! :(
yes if you go over the channel and use eurines as often as i do its not such an issue but i cant afford to have a hundred quid tied up in a card either. so i always try to withdraw cash to the last note if i can so theres no more than 5eu in there festering till next time. 2eu charge for cash withdrawals.
the beauty of this card is you load up the euros at home in preparation of the trip, if the exchange rate is rubbish or trending up/down you can wait or put a wodge on it when the rat is good or take advantage of bulk deals. the only niggle with it is youve got to put a minimum of £50 on it at a time, not really a biggy.
the cards are mastercard now, not visa electron which had lots of problems. so they should be accepted most places apart from tolls and auto pumps as i mentioned earlier.
oh yeah i forgot, if you leave the card details with your mrs when you go away she can top it up for you if you run out of cash, or you can top up with your mobile too.
there are no details of you or your bank on it at all either in case you lose it.
Dave
Ali in Austria
Posts: 682
Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2012 1:51 pm

Re: Using cash points in Europe

Post by Ali in Austria »

Certainly in Austria vendors who accept Card Payments are in the minority, Credit Card payments even less so.

Petrol Stations and larger Hotels on the whole do but many smaller B&B's & retailers don't tend to or if they do it is Austrian or German Debit Card only. In cafes and restaurants it is actually quite rare for Card Payments to be accepted.

When I order On Line from Austrian Companies quite often the Payment Options are only Bank Transfer (free in mainland europe) or COD where the delivery companies admin charges must be less than a card service providers charges.

Speaking only for Austria, the banking system is a bit different out here. We pay a small annual fee for our Bank Accounts but benefit from free Bank Transfers across europe, free cash point withdrawals and especially good for us is that we can pay a Sterling cheque in to our account and get virtually the actual exchange rate of the day (not the crappy Tourist Rate) for which there is only a charge of about 12 Euro. Unlike using a company who skim a commission of the rate and charge a fat fee for a Bank Transfer.

As a Vendor, having a Card Payment facility is actually quite pricey. We are only small but we get charged nearly 400 Euro per annum for the one machine plus basically 2% on each transaction. We swallow the 400 Euro but have to pass the 2% on to the guest. On the whole, mainland Europeans tend to pay in cash and the British, Americans, Australians etc by card. It may be a cultural thing as we have started to see the younger Austrians, Germans, Italians etc starting to pay by card. The mainland europeans expect to pay a 2% charge where as the British don't. It is also common for guests to make a specific journey to a local cash point rather than pay a couple of Euro's extra which makes me chuckle. We are safer here than the UK as the Card Service Provider guarantees payment for any approved transactions.

As a small business the service charge by the Card Payment Provider is a significant amount from our turnover. It doesn't help you when you are sat in a restaurant and have no acceptable means of paying the bill but it might help to explain why it is. :)
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