Travel money card?

[tangerine_sedge]

My daughter is heading off to the US for 1 year. She has a couple of UK bank accounts and normally when she travels (for short breaks) she uses her UK bank card and takes the hit on currency conversions when she purchases stuff.

Can anyone advise on a more efficient method for day-to-day use in the US?

I'm currently thinking the best option might be something like the Post Office "Travel Money Card" ( link here ) which seems to be a card you pre-load with money, but is there a better option that I'm missing?

Edited by tangerine_sedge on Saturday 16th July 09:46

[K77 CTR]

Revolut tends to get very good reviews. Another I heard of was currensea but not looked into it.

[Carbon Sasquatch]

Revolut is very good. It's a pre-pay card with a phone app. So you just use the app to load up some GBP from your UK account & can then either switch it to USD so that you now have a USD balance, or it will do the FX for you when you spend.

I prefer to have the currency balance for where I'm spending, so I know exactly what is on there.

FX rates are usually better mid-week, so thats when I typically load money & exchange it straight away.

[tangerine_sedge]

Thanks, I'll investigate

[Alorotom]

I have Revolut and Starling cards … personally I prefer the Starling as Revolut have limited certain elements more than their challenger bank competitors.

I did also have an Monzo card for a while but after a fraud issue that tbh et washed their hands of I closed it down and frankly wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole.

[pincher]

Heard good things about Revolut from friends who travel a fair bit.

Personally, I have a Caxton card. Also has an app where you can add funds - daughter been using it for the last year whilst she was in America. Never had a problem as far as I am aware. And she would definitely have told me!

[dmahon]

I have a Wise.com card. I don’t think it makes much difference rate wise to my normal bank Starling, even when moving £thousands, but it’s a nice product and works well.

[CharlesElliott]

Revolut for me. They can hold balances, so you can think of it as a bank, or as a 'pre-paid' card. But they will automatically convert currency on demand, as well as holding EUR / GBP / USD accounts if you have income in those.

[Armitage.Shanks]

I use FairFX card which seems to offer reasonable exchange rates and you can now load up multiple currencies at the same time. Currently in Spain using the loaded up Euros (currently £1/€1.15) when I’m in the states next month I can load up USD from sterling or buy with my remaining Euros. Control it through the App.

One thing to note on preloaded cards. If the payment machine is not able check the balance to authorise the sale it won’t work. I found this out on a road trip a few years back where out of hours fuel pumps that allow credit card purchase don’t do pre authority checks Anything counter/cashier based is fine.
Contactless also works.

[snoopy25]

Currently on West Coast of France, we have been using our Chase debit cards. Almost exact conversion rate plus 1% Cashback as well.

Big winner in my book!

[V8mate]

Alorotom said:

I have Revolut and Starling cards … personally I prefer the Starling as Revolut have limited certain elements more than their challenger bank competitors.

I did also have an Monzo card for a while but after a fraud issue that tbh et washed their hands of I closed it down and frankly wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole.

Starling makes travel easy and great value - I recommend their current account and card wholeheartedly.

I guess the only possible reservation may be if the OP's daughter needs - for local, cultural business reasons - a credit card to fulfil some transactions in the US.