Sending money to Spain

[harbinger]

DD is going to Spain in September, for her 'year abroad'. This is required for her degree.

We,as parents,are required to top up her loan as she does not receive a full loan. What is the best way of doing this when she is in Spain?

In the UK we do a weekly DD. How should we change?

What about a visa electron ?

You can get one that has two cards. You keep one to top up with cash (about a euro in costs per top up) and she keeps the other for spending and withdrawals.

That sounds quite good. Can you top up in Sterling and withdraw in Euro?

She has to open a Spanish bank account.

Oh yes.

And you can use it in a cash machine.

I use it to pay my sons school fees in the UK. I load it up here in Italy, drive home and and after a whole ten minutes has past since the transaction in the post office I can then give them the go ahead to process the payment. Total cost, one whole euro for charging up the card my end.

I orginally paid from bank to bank, but fell over in shock at how much that cost.

It is a nifty little thing. When in the future DS goes to the UK for uni (fingers and everything else crossed) I'll be getting the "two card" option for him. It means you can get cash to them in a matter of minutes and as long as they can get to a cash machine or a shop that takes the card (most bigger ones do) then they have access to funds. Whereas it's not quick at all trying to do anything via an Italian bank (mutters darkly).

Sounds a lot better than the normal banking set up. The cost is extortionate.
It sounds very similar to a travel card that was used in her gap year. We could put money on the card in GB if needed. Like a pre loaded CCard IYSWIM.

Would we be thinking of the same thing?

Exactly! Visa Electron is a pre paid CC basically.