Pack the right travel money card for your winter holiday
Published: 9 December 2009 By MoneyHighStreet Staff 1 Comment
As the Christmas season brings colder weather and snow, many Britons are expected to trek to their favourite winter getaway.
Peter Harrison, travel money expert at moneysupermarket.com has advised consumers to wise up and try to get the best deal on their travel money, especially with a weakening pound.
He said that while using credit or debit cards may be the most convenient way for tourists to pay for their expenses on holiday, the various debit and credit card providers charge differently which could make a big difference. Using an uncompetitive product may cost you.
Harrison said, “There are now a few different options available to holiday makers and picking the right travel money product could save them a packet. Prepaid currency cards are great for budgeting as consumers can only spend up to the value of funds that they load onto their card. Another advantage is that if lost, customers can have their card replaced, usually for a fee of around £10, with all the funds in tact.”
You can get a FREE FairFX currency card here – just sign up and load €10 and get the card free – it usually costs £9.95.
Prepaid cards are becoming an increasingly popular payment method for travellers and can be topped up with the appropriate currency before travelling and used in shops and restaurants just like a debit or credit card.
“The market leading prepaid cards from FairFX or CaxtonFX charge no purchase or foreign loading fees and can be topped up online or over the phone for free with a debit card. Most prepaid cards offer an excellent rate of exchange; however some will be better than others so it’s worth shopping around to ensure you’re getting the best deal,” he added.
But Harrison said that if you have a best deal on your debit or credit card, you may not need to buy a prepaid card.
Most banks will charge a transaction fee every time you make a purchase on your debit card and ATM fees are common for most debit and credit cards. The charges differ from one provider to another.
Nationwide FlexAccount offer consistently good rates when used outside of the UK and has no charges for usage in the European Visa Region. For example, customers using the Nationwide card rather than the Current Plus account from NatWest, could save themselves £45.00 on fees when withdrawing £1000 from ATMs outside the UK.
Credit card users are reminded that transaction fees on both cash transactions and purchases can be as high as 2.99 percent. Nationwide’s Gold and Santander Zero Cards have no transaction fees, but customers should avoid taking out cash from an ATM or they could be hit with a withdrawal fee and be charged a higher rate of interest from the transaction date.
It’s interesting that Ryanair are going to start charging to use normal debit/credit cards to purchase flights from their website. The only way that you will be able to purchase the flight without incurring any charges will be by using a travel money card.
I firmly believe that pre-paid travel money cards are going to be big business over the next few years for several reasons:
Security – The enable users to have the same peace of mind of using a debit card/credit card whilst enjoying the benefits of considerable savings on foreign exchange costs.
There are a whole host of other reasons why to get one, as if you are anything like me, it is only the day before I travel that I actually think about ordering currency! – Clearly to order a pre-paid card you have to be slightly on the ball, but once it is ordered then you can keep the card for many holidays to come!