Travel Cash/Card issue

Hi,

I'm leaving to travel in September and were just wondering peoples thoughts on travel cash v debit/credit cards?

If i was just going to one or two countries i think it'd be an easier solution but as i plan on going to plenty then i can't really get currency for all of them before i go.

My current bank i know charge a fee and then an exchange rate fee per transaction i think based on the size of the withdrawal. Was just wondering if anyone knew of any better ways to keep withdrawal charges down. Or is it simplest and safest to just withdraw the maximum i can each time and limit withdrawals?

I'm from the UK so if anyone has been travelling and has a good bank to recommend i would be grateful.

Cheers

Dan Reply to this

I will have to look into the Norwich & Peterborough account, i can honestly say i've never heard of it. I'm sure i could deal with the 5 transactions a month if that's all you need to do. Sounds a good deal.

Did you ever happen to use a travel pre paid card at all while on your travels? I'm wondering if having a supply on one of these may be a decent idea.

Luckily i'm travelling alone and not as 2 so i wouldnt have to have as much cash on me as you two would have done but i totally agree with your point about carrying cash. Reply to this

We used a FairFX card. No fees, and decent exchange rates. Pretty easy to top up (online). Can also use it to make purchases online. Reply to this

That doesn't sound a bad option and looking at the blogs you've produced i'm pretty much going the same locations so sounds like it might be a good idea to look at the Fair FX card. £1 a withdrawal i imagine is cheaper than nearly all banks so seems worth it as well Reply to this

I also travel with card since I can get use of the points that I will going to earn and convert it to travel rewards. Check this out to know what I mean <snip>

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That brings up another very important question. Informing your banks of your whereabours. I currently have accounts with 2 different banks and will be using both when i travel to spread the risk, will keep all money with one and transfer online as and when before i need to withdraw. Off course with the ideas here i may have another couple sources of money before i go.

If your away for say a year as i will be and don't have a specific plan of where you'll be when as i'm only setting specific dates for the first couple countries i'm going to, what do you say to the banks. Do you just get a contact of them to email or something every couple weeks letting them know where you are? Last thing i'd need is to be in the middle of China with frozen bank accounts Reply to this

we use Halifax clarity and it is great - we pay maybe 1,5 pound a month in fees and we always get the best exchange rates from them;-) really recommend it as within our 8 months of travelling we had no problems with it at all;-). Happy planning Reply to this

We both got the account so that we had two cards to use as there is a limit on the daily withdrawl of £250 instead of the usual £300

Just a couple of things to note about Norwich and Peterborough current account as my parents have one.

First - the £250 daily withdrawal limit is per account, not per card like other banks. My parents found this out the hard way when they had to withdraw money to pay for their accommodation and were left very short and we had to withdraw from our account to cover the difference for them. So if you are planning to use two cards on the same account for withdrawing to stock up for quite a while on the road this will be troublesome.

Also be aware that the only number available for contacting the N&P is an 0845 number - they do not provide another number even when you are calling from overseas, again my parents had to call them and even using the cheap Skype call credit it cost a lot to call! My Mum asked for a landline number and they refused to give her one.

My parents also have the Halifax Clarity card but as it's a Mastercard not all ATM's accept it, so don't rely on it as your only source of funds.

The only other bank which offers fee free withdrawals is Santander's Zero account, but you need to either have a mortgage with them or a minimum maintaining balance of savings/investments of £10,000 and if it drops below the £10,000 they start charging for withdrawals.

We only ever use ATM's but do have about $40 emergency money for those 'just in case' moments!
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We travelled with Halifax Clarity cards (MasterCard) and a Santander Zero Credit Card (also MasterCard). Both offer fee free withdrawals and use overseas, but you pay interest on the withdrawals, which can be kept minimal if you bank online and pay off the balance every couple of days... literally £1-£2 a month....

We found them to be perfect, apart from in Mongolia when finding an ATM that accepts MasterCard and not just visa very hard, we did find one eventually though. All other countries we've visited, finding an ATM that accepts MasterCard is easy.

We also carried 2 Barclay's account cards (where we normally bank) for emergencies as the fees they impose for use abroad is horrendous and also a Nationwide flex account card for emergencies as they used to be free but now aren't. but it's what we had.

When we left we had two Clarity cards (same account though), one Santander Zero, one Nationwide and two Barclays...

A month into our travels someone split one of the clarity cards while putting it into a machine in a hostel (grrrr) it still barely worked so we thought we'd use that as a last resort and switched to the other... 1 Down!

Another couple of months later my Nationwide card got stolen and the account cleared out (£500, refunded back by Nationwide very quickly, Bravo Nationwide), but no more card in our possession, two down!

Months later in Indonesia I left the other Clarity Card in an ATM (What an idiot). Called to cancel and as its the same account for both cards the other card which was split would now no longer work either. 3 down!

We were then left with the Santander Zero card as the only 'good' card to use. I withdrew cash in Bali at the airport before we left to pay for the departure tax, arrived in Perth 4 hours later, used it in an ATM at Perth Airport and it was promptly cancelled. 4 down!

It was 2am, there's no free WiFi at Perth Airport so we couldn't use Skype to re activate it and we didn't have any money between us to pay for a phone and no other way to get money other than the Barclay's cards. We were hiring a car though, so used the Barclay's card to secure the car, but thankfully no payment is actually taken, drove to a 24 hour McDonald's to use their free WiFi to reactivate the Santander card and then we were actually able to get some money to pay for stuff... by this time it was 3-4am.... 😞

My advice.... Travel with several cheap ways to get your money, and even take the cards you do have even if they charge stupid amounts, just in case!!!!!! Maybe even keep $100 in US stuffed in a sock, just in case everything fails!!! 😊
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Hello, when we journey we normally take enough money with us to appear that we can get a cab and maybe last a day or so, then we always take away enough money to last around 3 to 5 times, every 3 or 5 times...sort of the same as what we'd do at house. Not enough that if you missing it or it was thieved it would be a issue, but enough you can do something out of hte normal. If we're changing nations then this is normally one of the first factors we do when we combination a boundary.
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