[Closed] Travelling around Europe - how best to 'do' money

Halifax Credit Card is good for buying stuff, but not ATM use.

Caxton Card

Halifax Credit Card is good for buying stuff, but not ATM use.

Clarity Card?  Actually it's pretty good for cash at ATMs too.  Interest is charged straight away but that is relatively small and minimised if you keep paying it all off.

Money Saving Expert site has good advice

Starling app/account. Easy to set up. Great app. Zero fees (aside from those from the cashpoints you draw from).

Metro bank have no fees at all for European transactions, have used in France, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Germany and Croatia, at ATMs and in shops with no issues whatsoever. I've used their debit card, but I believe their credit card is also non-sterling fee free.

Monzo account for me, but it's pretty much the same advice as Metro/Starling above.

Only charges are if you go over £200 equivalent cash from ATM, and they are quite reasonable. Benefits are you aren't stuck with money in a euro denominated pre-paid account at the end of the holiday, and if you stray out of the Eurozone, it still just works.

Clarity Card?  Actually it’s pretty good for cash at ATMs too.

Yeah.  I've just ordered one for my next trip.  You don't get charged for using ATMs at all.  The only fees are interest, which if you pay it off in full every month is 0%.

My fallback if it doesn't turn up in time is a Barclaycard I already have.  That's 3% on cash withdrawals, everything else is free as above.

I have a Clarity card and did not know this.  Looks like that will be getting used in Portugal next week instead of taking a load of Euro with me.  Cheers STW.

TransferWise Borderless account with debit card

Yeah.  I’ve just ordered one for my next trip.  You don’t get charged for using ATMs at all.  The only fees are interest, which if you pay it off in full every month is 0%.

This is not quite correct. From Money savings expert:-

• There's no fee for cash withdrawals, yet you'll be charged interest at 18.9% representative APR even if you pay it off in full. So it works out at about £1.50/month for each £100 withdrawn (if you get this APR) if you wait until your statement to pay it off.
• You can cut this cost by paying off the withdrawal amount as soon as you can (via internet banking while abroad, or when you get home) to minimise interest.

You need the Barclaycard Platinum travel card if you want that but it's visa rather than mastercard so a worse rate of exchange in general.

Starling app/account. Easy to set up. Great app. Zero fees (aside from those from the cashpoints you draw from).

This, I’ve got an account and it’s awesome.

Another vote for Halifax Clarity and for Starling. Both Monzo and TransferWise have limits on what you can take out via ATM before you get charges.

Barclaycard Platinum Travel, even with a Visa rate vs Mastercard, is still pretty good. Key thing being foreign cash withdrawals are subject to the normal interest free period (56 days), no transaction fees and it's at Visa rate in EU.

They've also being doing a 0% on purchases until 2019, which might still be on offer, but watch out as you still have to pay the minimum each month, and I'm not sure how it works if you've used it for both cash and purchases in working out which bit you are paying off.

Plus I forgot a payment by a day, got whacked with non payment fee and now they're charging me interest despite making the rest of the payments.

With pre-pay cards, be careful as transactions at petrol stations, deposits at hotels and hire companies will put a block for that amount on the card until it's cleared (days, weeks or months later). Also some have high fees for cashing out excess back to sterling or even for non-use with a balance still on the card.

Anyway, as for cash, I've found recently in Europe and Canada, I've been using contactless for most cash situations. I'm barely using cash.

Nationwide flexplus. Debit card is free for ATM and credit card is free for purchase. Exchange rates are favourable too.

TransferWise card as mentioned above.

Account and card from these:

https://www.revolut.com

Apply for Halifax clarity card and get a Revolut card too.

Revolut for cash / day to day spending.  Normal credit card for when you check into a hotel and they pre-authorise the full amount.

Thanks all ... we've gone for Starling.  Scarily easy to set-up with a big overdraft offered.  But looks smooth and easy.

Cheers

Halifax Clarity card. You'll get Mastercard's own exchange rates and no fees on conversion. I don't think anyone else comes close.

After that interest rates are reasonable and you can top up with cash before you go if you want to withdraw cash. But interest for s month is typically smaller than fx spreads.

What's not to like?

I normally use a Sainsburys travel card. Transfer money from my phone using their nectar rate and no fees for use.

Worth checking out the Money Saving Expert's current advice, I got the Sainsburys card a few years back as it was their top pick back then.

Having just had a stint around the USA with both my clarity and revolut card. Clarity sill wins out for no declined transactions or issues.

There were various issues with the revolut card when paying or withdrawing. Couldn't use it all at the petrol pumps.

Revolut wins out if you want to lock in a better rate earlier in the year.

Basically have both if you can.

Clarity card. I had a Travelex card for years, but it was nothing but trouble, but the Clarity card has been faultless for the last year or two.

"There were various issues with the revolut card when paying or withdrawing. Couldn’t use it all at the petrol pumps."

Does clarity work at the petrol pumps ? none of my UK cards have ever worked at US or canadian Petrol pumps 🙁

Revolut card it's done me well in France, Italy and Spain over the past few weeks.  you can pay just about everything with contactless now. It doesn't work in some unattended petrol stations. You get better exchange rates and can follow your exact spending. It was fine in Geneva in a hotel for the dull deposit it just showed the €400 as pending.

It has limited cash withdrawal but then with a couple hundred euro in cash and contactless what more so you need?

As said, prepay cards won't work or will be a problem. Petrol stations reserve a chunk before you "pump" (e.g. $100) and some cards don't like that so it's refused. Even if it goes through the full reserve amount may not be adjusted to the actual amount spent for a day or two or longer.

Have no problems with Nationwide and Barclaycard Platinum Travel in US & Canadian pumps. The only issue is deciding which option to pick as some will ask for a ZIP code, which you don't have. Had some accept a PIN and a lot that don't require anything!

The only issue is deciding which option to pick as some will ask for a ZIP code,

Yes, this is happening more and more in the states. So you just prepay a 100 dollars.

Clarity works fine at the pumps if not asking for zip.

ive always been asked to put a zip in at the pump - with no other option so thats probably why my nationwide cards never work at pumps.

Clarity Card?  Actually it’s pretty good for cash at ATMs too.  Interest is charged straight away but that is relatively small and minimised if you keep paying it all off.

What I have here for overseas transactions.