Holiday spending... best way?

[TwigtheWonderkid]

I travel abroad about 3 times a month, and Revolut has been a lifesaver. So quick and easy. I love the way, unlike say Halifax Clarity (which I also have and used pre Revolut), you buy your foreign currency on the app pre trip, so your day to day spending is actually in dollars/euros/whatever.

My only issue is that in Argentina you couldn't buy the currency on the app, but I soon realised that you wouldn't want to anyway because by changing up pounds sterling cash for Argentinian pesos in cash at a non govt cambio, everything is half the price than paying by card. You get 1100 pesos to the £ instead of 400 pesos to the £ on your card.

[Scarletpimpofnel]

C69 said:

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.

I do have a FD debit and credit card. I see the debit card is all free but the credit isn't and I prefer to use a credit card abroad. Shame as using my existing FD credit would have been perfect.

[Scarletpimpofnel]

mikeiow said:

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

Good point. I just tried it and it looks like my existing Creation credit card is all free so have queried that with them to be sure. OS this might be my easiest answer.

[Scarletpimpofnel]

Many thanks for all the advice; I can see there are a few options. Really helpful.

[chip*]

Scarletpimpofnel said:

C69 said:

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.

I do have a FD debit and credit card. I see the debit card is all free but the credit isn't and I prefer to use a credit card abroad. Shame as using my existing FD credit would have been perfect.

Fee on FD Credit card only apply to cash withdraw (as with almost every CC exc Clarity I believe).
As most have found, you hardly need to carry cash these days. Maybe order a small amount via the PO if you really want physical cash.

[tight fart]

I’ve been using either a Post office travel card that you pre load or the Halifax Clarity card.
Now I’m using the 212 card, you preload it but the Rates seem much better, I put £500 on to try (last week)
It gave me €590, the post office only offered €560. You also get a tiny cash back.
It’s got the Mastercard logo and has so far worked seamlessly.

[carreauchompeur]

Apparently First Direct debit cards now fee-free too.

[Scarletpimpofnel]

carreauchompeur said:

Apparently First Direct debit cards now fee-free too.

Ooooh excellent; I'll check that out as I use both FD debit and credit. TY.

[craig1912]

carreauchompeur said:

Apparently First Direct debit cards now fee-free too.

Yes as you would have seen if you had read the thread.

Currently in Greece and use cash 100% of the time. Locals prefer it and we get a much better deal on the accommodation costs.

[carreauchompeur]

craig1912 said:

Yes as you would have seen if you had read the thread.

Deep apologies for not having scoured the thread in detail, but thank you for helpfully setting me straight.

[DonkeyApple]

Scarletpimpofnel said:

carreauchompeur said:

Apparently First Direct debit cards now fee-free too.

Ooooh excellent; I'll check that out as I use both FD debit and credit. TY.

Make sure to check the small print. 'Free' normally just means they don't charge an explicit commission but bury it in the spread.

For holiday use one of the new junk bunks such as monzo, wise or Revolut usually work best for forex. Personally, I wouldn't let Revolut know a single thing about me. I know enough about them to know they shouldn't know anything about me. I just have a Wise card on my phone.

[carreauchompeur]

I think it’s just on the normal Mastercard rate. Is this wildly different to the “best” exchange rate?

[mikeiow]

DonkeyApple said:

Scarletpimpofnel said:

carreauchompeur said:

Apparently First Direct debit cards now fee-free too.

Ooooh excellent; I'll check that out as I use both FD debit and credit. TY.

Make sure to check the small print. 'Free' normally just means they don't charge an explicit commission but bury it in the spread.

For holiday use one of the new junk bunks such as monzo, wise or Revolut usually work best for forex. Personally, I wouldn't let Revolut know a single thing about me. I know enough about them to know they shouldn't know anything about me. I just have a Wise card on my phone.

Indeed. Still suggest https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/tra... will be more accurate and up to date than here!
Chase wins for me…

[tight fart]

Just a thought, how about a real time comparison of rates, see what £500 gives in Euros?
My phone app shows today rate is €593.
Post office is €568.8
212 card is €594
Cash back on 212 is 0.5%

[Cats_pyjamas]

Any credit card which is fee free for international transactions. Remember to always pay in the local currency!

There are various debit cards which allow free cash withdrawal. However it depends on the atm whether there will be a fee.

I personally use nationwide credit card for spending and flex plus debit card for cash. We haven't bought travel money for years, it's just a rip off. Including when we've travelled to the US, Kenya and Mauritius.

I always carry backup cards with me. I once lost my credit card in Canada so ended up using a Santander debit card, charges weren't even that bad.

[DonkeyApple]

carreauchompeur said:

I think it’s just on the normal Mastercard rate. Is this wildly different to the “best” exchange rate?

The way a comm free deal usually works is that the entity saying they don't charge a commission insert a third party who do the transaction on a widened spread and who kick back a share of that widened spread (commission) to the client entity. What is actually meant is that they don't add an extra, explicit commission on top of the commission that the transacting agent collects in the widened spread and shares with them. It works well as very few customers look further than a couple of decimal points on the rate so never at the actual numbers that matter.

A much more aggressive trick but I'd hope not done by any U.K. licensed entity is to have two different spot rates. Fx has no central exchange so the term 'spot' is pretty worthless anyway but the key with this trick is that the client tells you in advance whether they're buying or selling so instead of having to offer a bid and offer pair of rates around a valid market spot you know which side the client wants to transact on so just have a buyer's spot and a seller's spot and gauge them without them ever realising.

None of this truly matters with holiday money but if crossing large sums then one must never reveal whether one is buying or selling until the broker has given a bid and offer and you've taken the mid from those figures and checked them against the spot rate being offered by an OTC broker such as IG. That's the simplest way to check that you're getting an exchange rate that's 25-50 pips from a true spot.

[balise]

DonkeyApple said:

Make sure to check the small print. 'Free' normally just means they don't charge an explicit commission but bury it in the spread.

For holiday use one of the new junk bunks such as monzo, wise or Revolut usually work best for forex. Personally, I wouldn't let Revolut know a single thing about me. I know enough about them to know they shouldn't know anything about me. I just have a Wise card on my phone.

Curious about your thoughts on Revolut DA. Could you give some pointers?

[LooneyTunes]

DonkeyApple said:

carreauchompeur said:

I think it’s just on the normal Mastercard rate. Is this wildly different to the “best” exchange rate?

The way a comm free deal usually works is that the entity saying they don't charge a commission insert a third party who do the transaction on a widened spread and who kick back a share of that widened spread (commission) to the client entity. What is actually meant is that they don't add an extra, explicit commission on top of the commission that the transacting agent collects in the widened spread and shares with them. It works well as very few customers look further than a couple of decimal points on the rate so never at the actual numbers that matter.

A much more aggressive trick but I'd hope not done by any U.K. licensed entity is to have two different spot rates. Fx has no central exchange so the term 'spot' is pretty worthless anyway but the key with this trick is that the client tells you in advance whether they're buying or selling so instead of having to offer a bid and offer pair of rates around a valid market spot you know which side the client wants to transact on so just have a buyer's spot and a seller's spot and gauge them without them ever realising.

None of this truly matters with holiday money but if crossing large sums then one must never reveal whether one is buying or selling until the broker has given a bid and offer and you've taken the mid from those figures and checked them against the spot rate being offered by an OTC broker such as IG. That's the simplest way to check that you're getting an exchange rate that's 25-50 pips from a true spot.

True, but you will struggle to get a much better rate on general holiday spending than MasterCard’s mid-point via the likes of Starling.

What you absolutely must never do is fall for the option that is sometimes given overseas to be billed in Sterling (instead of their local currency). The FX rate if you chose that option can be truly outrageous.

Fwiw, I have a separate Starling account that I use exclusively for travel. Means that there’s no risk to my regular account if the card gets cloned or fraudulent transactions processed etc. Having been hit by fraud on my Amex some months after a trip, the Starling card sits there locked whilst not travelling.

[snuffy]

I just use my normal debit card. How much are people spending for a week or two in where ever?

Say you spend £1k a week, how much are you actually going to save by using card x compared to card y?


It's a few quid at best.

[DonkeyApple]

tight fart said:

Just a thought, how about a real time comparison of rates, see what £500 gives in Euros?
My phone app shows today rate is €593.
Post office is €568.8
212 card is €594
Cash back on 212 is 0.5%

The post office is a good example of the 'comm free' delusion. The PO can legitimately say they don't levy an explicit charge on their client but the transaction isn't done by the post office but pushed over to a different license who levies a wider spread that incorporates the comm which is then shared back to the PO.

Now the legitimate argument the PO has is that their customers are wanting actual physical, paper currency which costs a lot more to have in tills and hand over to customers and their main competitors are the other physical bureau de change firms but it shows how the gig runs.

Always scroll to the bottom of the web page to read the small print as in the U.K. it is a requirement to show who you would be transacting with: https://www.postoffice.co.uk/travel-money/foreign-...

What you see here is that it is an entity called First Rate Exchange Services which in turn executes via Mastercard International. So the commission mark up via spread widening will be occurring legitimately within First Rate Exchange Services most likely or if it is just a wrapper of a Mastercard International service then Mastercard will be marking it up and paying a flow rebate to that shell which goes to the PO.