AIBU to ask how you take your "spends" on self catering holiday?

[Oldbird69]

Gone all inclusive for years while ds was young, but going self catering this year. No intention of doing any cooking, will be eating out. Last time we did this folk still widely used travellers cheques, what would you wise mumsnetters advise? We were thinking 10 days worth of euros is a lot to take in cash?

Use a card like Monzo (a current account) or Revolut (a prepaid card) and there are absolutely no fees or charges and you get the best possible exchange rate too. You can only take out £200 in cash abroad over a 30 day period before they start charging, but if you just use the card to pay for everything instead then there’s no issue there.

We have Barclaycard Platinum which has no fees abroad.

I use a travel money card (Post Office) Pre-load it with local currency and you can use it at cashpoints, for shopping and restaurants, and contactless. (Just don't do what I did with my new card and forget to change the PIN to something memorable - I could only use it for small contactless payments and ended up using an ordinary credit card for everything else, and that was way more expensive!)

We used a cash passport from Sainsbury's. Preloaded it with dollars and just used mainly card. Only withdrew cash when necessary. It has an app you can download, which shows your purchases straight away, so you know what you have spent.

It very expensive in that you are charged interest on cash, and the outstanding balance on your account, from you day you withdraw cash

Well you don't have an outstanding balance, because if you are doing these things properly you don't use the same card on holiday as you do at home

On holiday, you use a card that lets you spend and withdraw currency without commission of charges.

At home you use a different card that pays cashback and you put all your spending on it and set up a direct debit to pay it off in full every month.

I also have a Halifax Clarity card that I use for more expensive purchases abroad and a Revolut card for smaller stuff. I prefer the Revolut one to the Post Office one as you can use it for way more currencies. It also gives you a really good exchange rate at the time of purchasing anything.

Post office credit card has a good exchange rate ( or at least I did when I got it still seems reasonable).

We take some cash and put bigger purchases on the card.

Thanks to those who suggested the Halifax Clarity card - just got myself one for my next holiday 👍

Monzo is amazing to take abroad, the minute you spend on it a notification appears on your phone with the amount in Euros ( or whatever currency) and pounds. Used it in the u.s. and France and worked brilliantly

I take a few hundred in local currency and just use my card to take cash out or pay as needed.

What is the benefit of the notifications superj. Why do you need your phone to tell you what you have just done?

I just use the cash machine, same as anywhere else. The fees are minimal enough and not worth the hassle of worrying about carrying loads of cash around. I used to work in fairly developing countries and did the same. Never in all my years abroad have I had a problem using a cash machine. Pretty sure the last time I used a travellers cheque was circa about 1994! Do they even still do those?

Take some euros for the first day and then just use your debit card at a cash point. As you are not a regular traveller tell your bank you are going abroad so it doesn't get flagged as suspicious activity when you use the card somewhere unusual.

Look on moneysavingexpert for the best foreign currency card. We got our weswap card via there and got £10 free. You can load it up instantly and change it from any currency, to any currency, you like. Means you can use any left over money on it back home or save it for your next holiday.

Barbara so that you can instantly see how much you’ve paid in GBP and how much money you have left to spend! Is this trick question?

Not a trick question no, I already have an idea how much I've spent in GBP because I have a vague awareness of the exchange rate. How else would you know whether 30 units of the relevant foreign currency was a reasonable amount to pay for a meal, souvenier, entrance to an attraction etc?

My credit card limit is far more than I'd want to spend on holiday so I don't have 'an amount to spend' as such. I just buy what I need as I go along. Having your phone tell you after the fact seems a bit pointless really.

Pointless for you maybe but I love it! Say you’re budgeting £50 a day, it’s reallt helpful to be able to see exactly how much you’ve spent that day. Monzo has transformed my finances.

I have a Monzo current account which has no fees for overseas transactions, and no withdrawal fees for up to £200 cash abroad over a 30day rolling period. Uses the MasterCard exchange rate too so very good rate. Definitely wouldn’t carry that much cash with me. There are a few prepaid cards with good terms and no fees (easyJet one for instance). My Monzo one started as a prepaid card which I got especially to use abroad, then they converted it to a current account. Metrobank also do free transactions in Europe with their current account.

Forgot to add, it’s particularly helpful because with most old-school credit and debit cards there can be delays before something shows on your account, whereas on Monzo it shows up instantly. It means you can’t get caught out because you thought you had £50 left but you forgot about that taxi fare you paid the other night that hasn’t come out yet. I find it really helpful.

Ok ( re monzo) it's not essential but it's useful to see. And a running total of how much you've spent is again not essential but useful...
The op asked for tips on fee free cards, I echoed pp who recommended it for fee free transactions and the extra benefits ( for some people) of seeing your spend in real time

Thank you so so much everyone! Dh has sorted us out with a Halifax Clarity card. Big weight off my mind 😁

Martin Lewis is on to at this very moment talking about holiday money and insurance! He advises Halifax Clarity.