Holiday spending... best way?

I've not travelled abroad for many years but will be doing so several times a year from now on.

I've heard that certain cards are more advantageous to use when paying for meals, trips, cars etc abroad as they have lower exchange rate costs or some such. I've heard Revolut or Monzo are good.

Have I got the wrong end of the stick here and I should just use my usual MasterCard overseas?

Many thanks.

Ive been very happy with Monzo both in Europe and the US

The account I have mandated a few months of activity before giving good rates for overseas transactions, apologies but I cant recall how long

What I do know is that I have a regular £500 direct debit to it which I move back to my current account the day after which gives me a decent deal overseas

If Im being picky its frustrating they wont let me park the card with Google Pay, I admit having to carry the card isnt exactly arduous

Cheers

Halifax Clarity credit card - otherwise look at Wise,com.

I think the Post office used to have a fee-free card as well

I use Revolut and find it very good. Good exchange rates and easy to add money.

I don’t use it in the UK much.

On our recent trip the now card only airline announced they don't accept Revolut or Monza

That very much depends on which bank your Mastercard is with.

First Direct recently scrapped foreign currency payment fees for its Mastercard debit card, for example. Furthermore, the exchange rate is calculated without any additional charges.

However, if your bank imposes high fees, then you could consider something like the Currensea Mastercard debit card. It's linked to your existing current account via Open Banking.

Am I the only person here who would check at https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/tra... for the best travel cards?

We got Chase cards before a 2 month Interrail adventure a year ago….I see it is still recommended there.
Also have Monzo and Starling as backups.
For a credit card (for larger things like booking accommodation, for example), we have a Barclays Reward card….which I also see is up there with the Halifax Clarity as a top card to use. Took our old Tesco Mastercard as backup.

Watch for the devil in the detail, especially if you need cash out - there can be limits per month. Frankly we had virtually zero cash (maybe a hundred or so in euros), & only got more cash out I think once.

That's interesting. Only issue I've seen with my Revolut card is a transaction being declined because I was abroad. But that was just a switch in the app to turn off location-based security (which is a per-card setting) - I was able to use the same card immediately afterwards to complete the transaction.

I did that, though it turned out I already bank with one of the better options which (at the time) was Virgin. My wife also set up a Wise account for a longer trip and that worked well.

I did make a mistake of using a credit card to draw some cash out (local train only accepted cash or local cards to top up travel ticket), so I immediately paid it off to avoid getting charged interest. I should have realised when the pin was wrong, but I carried on and put the other number in not thinking I was using the wrong card.

Funny that you mention having little cash as we've found the same: Hardly used any in Singapore or Australia and more recently in Spain...even coffee shops/ice cream parlours seem to prefer cards now. Only place we needed cash was Thailand which nearly became a problem as we'd got used to using cards almost everywhere, so it pays to check before the trip incase cash is still king.

Just had a week in Spain and took 35 Euros left over from the last trip and came back with 15 Euros. Wouldn't have used that either if my wife's Wise account had topped up quicker (sometimes seems to take an hour or two before it arrived in her account).

Use Chase. 1% cashback as well.
Revolut is a waste of time, it is not a bank and loads of places have stopped accepting it. There are no benefits either, so what's the point.
Starling is a good backup and has IMO the most slick app