Gift vouchers for travel - do they exist and where can I get them?

[Melassa]

My cousin’s DS has a big birthday coming up and us impossible to buy for (has every gadget under the sun, will only wear specific sportswear, or only ever wants money). Sending money is impractical as it costs me loads for a bank transfer to the U.K.

I’ve sent vouchers fit Amazon/shops in the past but thought it would be nice to do something a bit different. So, as he wants to go travelling this summer I thought of a voucher he could redeem against a flight, or a train ticket, or even hotels/places to stay. Does something like this exist? I saw a site called Flightline where you could buy vouchers to redeem against flights - has anyone used it? Is it any good? Are there others that are good? It needs to be something I can pay in my credit card.

TIA

https://www.mastercard.co.uk/en-gb/personal/find-a-card/prepaid-gift-mastercard.html

Something like this would probably be better. Then he can use it wherever, for whatever.

TrailFinders do vouchers and they don't have an expiry date.

Ah Trailfinders! I’d forgotten about them. Do they still exist? Will check right away, thanks.

fir the credit card he has a revolut card already but the IBAN is U.K., so again, stupid bank charges. Yet another Brexit bonus. I did look into getting him a euro revolut card, but as he’s resident outside the EU he’s not eligible. Gah!

How about a Monzo account for you and or him. Multi current, on line, ideal

If you find I downsides, I'd be glad to know about it.

Monzo is U.K. residents only, so I’d need to transfer money from my EU bank account into a U.K. Iban. Like Revolut, so bank charges.

I need something I can pay with my EU credit card, I only pay a small commission for the currency change but no hefty bank fees. Hence me thinking of vouchers. It never used to be this hard!

I’ve looked at Trailfinders, it looks promising so will delve further into that. Thank you

Travel Inspire

Link

We bought Trailfinders vouchers as a wedding gift but you are then obviously restricted to just them. In our case we knew the couple was planning to use them for their delayed honeymoon.

It depends what kind of travel he is and if he would be happy to be bound to one company.

Yes, that was my doubt. I will check how much has been booked already and with who.

I like both those ideas, but if he’s travelling in a group the others might have a lower budget. The best thing would be the credit card solution but I wanted to give him a bigger sum than usual and the bank charges would eat into it quite a bit.

Went to post last night but DC interrupted. Was going to say similar ref. Being restricted. There's no point in giving someone e.g. £50 in vouchers if they don't have the other £250 to buy what they actually want, or end up paying over the odds because constrained to that supplier.

OP, I hear what you're saying about bank transfer fees, but are you really sure they're worse than the foreign transaction fees for credits cards or whatever you'd face buying the vouchers? Ultimately there's always a fee/cost buying in a foreign currency, sometimes hidden in rates. I regularly have to send money to Spain and use Currencies Direct for the transfers.

I've done a load of backpacking and by far the most useful gifts were specific items of kit which I had asked for and cold hard cash.

I looked at Flightline vouchers last year as a gift, turns out they are a very expensive option, you are restricted to buying from certain airlines at certain times. I couldn't find a good alternative and ended up giving cash.

I've previously used Western Union to send money and it was significantly cheaper than doing a bank transfer. I was able to send funds from my Middle East bank directly to my UK debit card. Could you look at that option?

I really do think money is more useful. I don't use any specific travel agencies for my trips and just book what's cheapest/most convenient. I've travelled a lot over many years and have never used Trailfinders, for example. If someone gave me a voucher it would be more of a chore to get rid of, tbh.

Could you offer to pay for an experience or activity somewhere?

Isn't Trailfinders more of a 'backpacking across Asia' type provider, so would be useless if they want a package holiday to Ibiza?

I'm not sure it has to be this hard though? We recently sent 500 euro to a Spanish activity holiday provider and it cost about £2.50 to send the money from a Starling bank account with the exchange being made at the full Mastercard rate.

But in the UK using a credit card adds extra costs compared with bank/debit card so maybe that's the issue.

I agree - it could quite well be that any 'voucher' type solution is so restricted that it renders a lot of the value of the gift worthless. Eg with cash he could buy a flight for £50, but the same flight would cost £250 using the voucher, instantly wasting £200.

Rather than send vouchers, why not just send cash via " wise"( formerly " transferwise". Very low fees, safe and quick to arrive. Maybe not as exciting as travel vouchers but much safer!

Thanks all, I agree cash might be the best option. For Western Union/Transfer wise can you set up a transfer in advance? So I can give it to him to redeem wherever he needs?

re the bank fees, I’ve been paying a lot more recently, I don’t know if it’s my bank or a general problem. Eg. For a £50 transfer I had something like €22 in fees. With my credit card I just get the conversion rate applied which is not always super advantageous but costs less than €22. Hence me using credit card for U.K. stuff.