Pre Paid Currency Cards

D

DumfriesDik

Senior member
 SW Scotland
We seem to be going to France every year now and I was wondering if anyone has experience of using any of the growing currency cards?

Do they work and have you had any problems with them?

Cheers!
 
In terms of using them they are standard Visa/MasterCard cards, so should be accepted everywhere that accepts those cards. They are modern travellers' chequers.

The main feature is that you are buying the currency up front, so your exchange rate is locked. Obviously this could be good or bad new depending on the exchange rate between steering and the euro, but at least you know where you are.

The most important thing is the total cost of the euro over a period of time. This is the bit that's worth checking - exchange rate and commissions.

Enjoy all of those holidays!
 
Useful as a back-up or if you know you are definitely going to use it on a very regular basis, but there can be lots of hidden catches and charges so check the T & C's carefully (I didn't :cry: ) e.g. some have weighty annual fees, bad rates depending on whether they are a £GB or Euro card, charges for NOT using the card regularly enough which eat up the balance you thought you had left, fees for topping up by certain methods, fees for certain types of purchase and weighty cancellation fees. I don't bother any more and use cards like Nationwide or Santander with no exchange fees.
 
Never saw the point, I use a Halifax credit card that has no charges for currency exchange. Pay it off in full every month and there's no charges at all. Exchange is fairly competetive last time I checked. In fact I should check again perhaps.

Maybe check money saving expert.com for the latest deals?
 
I see no point whatsoever for people who have a debit and credit card. All you're doing is putting money in advance on a card and locking into a generally poor rate and various fees and charges.

Pull cash out of an atm in europe and purchase with debit or credit card in euros (generally cheaper than sterling as the merchant rates are poor compared to Visa Mastercard commercial rates).
 
Right, I have done a little looking into this, and thanks for the replies, very helpful.

France was an early adopter of the chip and pin, as such, it has a slightly different system/method/chip/something which means that some pre-paid cards do not work on the autoroutes and petrol stations. This was the main reason for having a card, not to faff about with cash at pressure points.

There is a huge difference between cards, there are costs, some of them are hidden. So, to make the drive down to the south of France that little bit easier I have bought a Liber-T Tag.

Okay, we will still use cash at the petrol stations, they are not so bad, but the toll routes are tricky when you are on the wrong side of the car!

So cash remains king with credit/debit card backup.
 
Your usual bank cards will probably have very poor rates.

In Europe the best cards for casual use are from metrobank - no fees on credit or debit and if you find ATMs that don't charge then you can take out only what cash you need. Branches only in the SE of England but you can walk out with a card an hour later.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom