Travel Money Dilemma

[Pez11]

Travelling to Europe soon and not sorted out any currency yet. It's only for 3 nights so was wondering whether to just take cash or should I get one of those prepaid cards (Revolut or Wise according to Martin Lewis)! Also Post Office do one but reviews are terrible.

The Starling travel debit card also sounds great but I don't really want to open another bank account just for that, and besides I don't travel often at all so not sure if it's worth it.

Why are the Post Office reviews dreadful? I’ve got one and it’s fine.

We just take cash and then put some spending on our normal credit card if run out.
Never used a prepayment card.

We went to Amsterdam 3 weeks ago - all our spending was via Apple Pay using our phones.

We just take some cash and use our normal debit/credit cards.

Revolut fan here, so easy to top up, exchange, withdraw cash etc

We mainly use Google pay or debit cards, just take a bit of cash in case it's needed.

Same here! Very happy with it. Used for 2 10 days trips over the last 2 years and it only didn't work once!

Last few times I’ve been to Europe I never bothered with cash. One was a city break the other was two week summer holiday. Just used debit card (Chase) or ApplePay

Thumbs up here as well for PO one - used in Amsterdam 2 weeks ago. You may have to use your pin instead of contactless first time you use it. Really easy to transfer money in from your regular bank a/c if needed. Also no charges.

Take some cash as could be handy depending where youre going. Assuming you're asking because your usual debit/credit cards charge foreign exchange fees, then maybe consider a Currensea card. No need to load money on to it (you link it to your bank account), great reviews and they only charge 0.5% in fees (could be more for withdrawing cash). You apply online and your card should arrive a couple of days later.

We’ve just used the Post Office one in USA for two weeks and it worked great! Really easy.

Just spent almost 3 weeks in Spain and paid for 95% of things using my iPhone. Only cash needed was a couple of Sun loungers whether they didn’t take card and now I have €35 in my purse that I didn’t use and couldn’t even spend on the flight home on duty free.

Another revolut fan here. I used the virtual one on Apple Pay most of the time. I think it's a better exchange rate than Apple Pay but don't know for sure.

I used post office but rates are dreadful. Particularly for outside Europe.

I now use Starling which I love, great exchange rates but if you don’t want that then Revolut is a great alternative.

Just go use your normal debit card and if you need cash, go to a cash point. Exactly as you’d do at home.

Who do you bank with now? Barclays have a travel wallet option which is easy to set up. I also set up a Starling and a Monzo account - dead easy but forgot to make a note of my PIN so couldn't use that often😩

@BitOutOfPractice And usually incur fees each time

This is expensive as most debit card providers charge fees on each transaction in another currency.

I have a Halifax Clarity credit which charges no fees. I don't know how long it takes to apply for though.

I use Monzo, I've got about €30 left over from old holidays so take that with me to Europe but always end up bringing it back again.

There are no fees for the Chase debit card - they also currently have 1% cash back for using abroad for the first 12 months.

The problem with a lot of high street bank debit cards is that they charge a fixed fee of £1 or so for every transaction, possibly plus an exchange rate loading, which means that if you use it for every last coffee, ice cream, round of drinks etc it racks up really quickly.

Check your card on your providers website or here:

www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/travel-credit-cards/

We have Starling cards which are jointly used for overseas spending, plus general day to day personal spending. You can open one in a few days with little hassle. Or Chase is also good for the linked 1.5% interest savings account.

My bank doesn't charge for debit card transactions abroad - Starling. Excellent bank. Would recommend.

Not sure about all banks but NatWest have removed all transaction charges abroad until 2nd September (except for cash withdrawals)

Thank you OP for asking for this as I have booked a holiday for Sept and was thinking about this

• for those who are recommending POffice - is this a card you preload and then when you use it it deducts amounts ?

I am going to France and Spain -at moment think either PO card or get a Starling card

We've got Monzo accounts (took about 3 days for the cards to come through - super quick), no overseas charges on withdrawals, can use on Apple Pay, or contactless itself (or normal chip and pin), easy to navigate on the app.

We've also got a Creation credit card which we use for overseas transactions only.

We tend to get a small amount of cash (approx €100 or so depending on where we are and what we're doing) when we arrive at a convenient cashpoint.