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- The 3 top overseas cards
- Free £175 bank switch & top card
- Find top cash rates in seconds
- Beware overseas ATMs
BEST BUYS & TOOLS
13 ways to slash the cost of spending abroad & save £100s
Top cards, best cash, £175 FREE, kids' cards & more
It's time to STOP PAYING TO PAY when you go abroad. There are many hidden charges, so most people overpay every time they spend. Yet it only takes a few minutes to sort it - whether for the coming half term, or more likely the rapidly approaching summer holiday - and get peace of mind you're getting the max bucks (or baht) for your bang...
1. The easy & cheapest way is play your cards right. Spend in a foreign currency on plastic and most banks add a 3%-ish fee - technically the 'non-sterling exchange fee' - to the near-perfect exchange rates they get. So £100 worth of euros/dollars etc costs £103.
Yet some top specialist overseas cards don't add this, so you get that day's same near-perfect, bureau-de-change-beating exchange rates the bank does. Our three current top picks all also give you cashback too - include that and you're usually getting better-than-perfect rates.
All give near-perfect exchange rates in every country
DEBIT card
via app (no bank switch needed)
CREDIT card
Barclaycard Rewards Visa
CREDIT card
Not sure which to pick? A little more help...
- Chase: easiest to get, best if used at home & abroad. Just grab the Chase app*, there's no credit check, and you needn't switch bank. To max the cashback benefit, use the card at home and abroad. Its main, relative drawbacks are a) lower cash withdrawal limits, though it's still enough for most, and b) no Section 75 protection, which counts if you are making important purchases on it.
- Halifax is good if you only want it for abroad. The Halifax Clarity £20 cashback is a nice, quick, easy boost, and so it's useful if you just want to pop something in your overseas wallet and forget about it when at home. Of course, only do this if you pay off IN FULL each month though, as it's a credit card.
And it always charges cash-withdrawal interest, avoid that, and just pay for stuff on the card. Alternatively, if you want cash withdrawals and Section 75, Barclaycard comes into its own.
Are there other near-perfect rate cards? Yes, but the ones above are our top picks, mainly due to the cashback. However, if you've a First Direct 1st Account, Monzo, Nationwide (FlexOne, FlexPlus, FlexStudent, FlexGraduate), Santander (Edge, Edge Up, Zero), Starling, and some NatWest and Virgin Money credit cards, then you're doing pretty well anyway, so there's no urgent need to switch.
Apply for Chase* and you're often accepted within minutes, and can then instantly put its digital card in your Apple or Google Wallet and start paying with it. Martin's done programmes where he's stopped Brits abroad and showed them how to do it there and then to cut costs. The prepaid card Revolut (see below), also allows similar.
2. Switch bank to get FREE £175 & a top card abroad. The cards above can all be grabbed without changing your existing banking set-up. Yet two top bank accounts will pay you to switch, and give you a debit card with near-perfect exchange rates (& no ATM fees).
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Santander Edge FREE £175, 7% savings, bills cashback. Our top pick is Santander Edge*, with it you pay a £3/mth fee and get:
- 1% cashback on most bills paid by Direct Debit (max £10/mth).
- 1% cashback on supermarket, fuel & train spend (max £10/mth).
Even after the fee, we estimate a typical home is £80 to £100/yr up.
- 7% variable interest on up to £4,000 easy-access savings.
See our Santander Edge briefing in last week's email. - First Direct FREE £175, top service, £250 0% overdraft. Top for service, and fee-free, First Direct's 1st Account comes with a 7% regular saver (max £300/mth in it) and a £250 0% overdraft for many.
3. Just want cash? Our TravelMoneyMax compares 15+ bureaux in seconds. If you want a little foreign cash in your pocket for safety before you go, or more as it helps you budget, then our TravelMoneyMax comparison tool quickly compares 15+ bureaux, 
factoring in all rates & costs to find your the best.
Here's what $1,000 costs in cash vs a big high-street name (rates correct Tue 21 May):
- Cheapest for delivery (including delivery costs): £795
- Cheapest for collection: £797
- M&S... click & collect: £800, walk-up cash: £815
- Post Office... click & collect: £808
- Airport bureau de change walk-up cash: £953
- Booking: Cheap flights | Cheap hotels | Cheap package holidays
- Cheap insurance: Annual & single trip | Over-65s | Medical conditions
- Others: Cheap car hire | Cheap airport parking
4. Top children's / under-18s' overseas cards. With fewer using cash to spend abroad, it's tougher to give children spending money, so top kids' overseas prepaid cards let you or them load up money to spend (many also let you set spending limits and monitor via apps too). Better still, some of them offer near-perfect exchange rates on the day you spend. Here are our top picks...
If you have the very popular, but paid-for, GoHenry* prepaid card, it also gives near-perfect exchange rates and fee-free ATM withdrawals. As does the free (but £5 delivery) Revolut <18* prepaid card, but only on weekdays (1% fee on weekends), and free ATM withdrawals up to £40/mth.
5. Want a card to lock in an exchange rate? All the cards we've discussed so far give you the rate on the day you spend. Yet some prepaid travel cards let you get currency at the rate on the day you load it up, thus locking it in. Then you use it when abroad with all spending at that rate.
The cheapest is Revolut* (£5 card delivery fee), it gives near-perfect rates Mon to Fri on up to £1,000/mth (1% fee on weekends or £1,000+). The first five ATM withdrawals are free each month (up to £200), then there's a 2% fee after (min £1). For more options, see top overseas prepaid cards.
Of course, locking rates in can move against you too, and anyone who says they know what currency markets will do is telling porkies. So you could hedge bets and buy half your spending money now at the best rate, and the rest at the best rate on the day you spend (see points 1 & 2). This means...
- If the rate gets worse: you've locked in half at the better rate.
- If the rate gets better: half your money is at the improved rate.
If really nervous, ask yourself: "Would I be content with today's rate?" If the answer's yes, and your real fear is further rate falls making your holiday unaffordable, play safe and buy more now.
6. What should you say when they ask: "Do you want to pay in pounds?" These days, buy most things abroad and the store will pressure you to pay in pounds (as will overseas ATMs), but is it the right thing to do?
In short, the answer's NO. See Martin's 'Pay in pounds?' video & blog for full info, but the main reason is if you say yes, the overseas bank does the conversion and the rates are poor. Yet say pay in 'local currency', and it's your card doing the conversion, and especially if you've a specialist card, that means the rate is near-perfect.
7. Beware overseas ATM charges, don't think they're all the same, and watch for scare tactics... It's becoming more common for the actual cash machine to charge you when abroad. There's no way around this, but don't assume all ATMs charge the same. Over to Martin:
Martin: "I did a cash machine experiment when I was filming abroad (ah the glamour - some are sent to Cannes, others the Oscars, I do an ATM crawl) and as part of it, often found ATMs within 200m of each other with withdrawal fees ranging from €2 to €7."While the €7 fee machines did sometimes offer better exchange rates, that's irrelevant, as you should SAY NO to the foreign bank doing the conversion - you want your UK card to do it (especially if you've a specialist card).
"Foreign ATMs don't like that. They'll push and try to scare you to let them convert for you, with an 'are you sure?', or 'are you really sure?' if you select the option they don't want (as they make less money). Yet still say no to currency conversion. Do that and the only thing that matters is the fee, so go for the cheapest one of those."
8. Santander or Chase card-holder? Check its ATMs. If you've a Santander debit or credit card, then as long as it's a good one for spending abroad, use its overseas ATMs in Spain, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Uruguay or the USA and, even if the machine itself usually charges a withdrawal fee, it usually won't with that card.
Similar is true for Chase card-holders using its card in the US.
9. Travelling outside the EU? Beware the debit card bad boys... Most debit cards add a 3%-ish load on the exchange rate, but a few ALSO add a charge on top each time (though it's free in the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway). So buy something for a fiver and you can pay £6.65 for it. These are the spending fees...
Bank of Scotland (50p) | Halifax (50p) | Lloyds (50p) | TSB (£1)
Use our card-by-card charges tool to find out.
10. Is it cheaper to wait, and get cash at a bureau de change once I'm away? We're oft asked this, so here's Martin view...
"Personally if I need cash, I tend to use my specialist card to withdraw from an ATM as I arrive at the airport. Yet if we focus only on bureaux...
"In general it's a safer bet to get cash beforehand, as you can research the very cheapest rates here (use TravelMoneyMax), but you're blind to what's out there, and especially in tourist resorts you may find poor rates and limited competition.
"Though I'm not saying overseas bureaux can't undercut UK ones, but they'd need be very cheap to beat the UK's cheapest, and it'd be rare to randomly stumble on that. The exception is if you know of a specific super-cheap bureau, for example, you go to the same place every year. Then absolutely, if you know what you're doing, wait."
11. Don't use a credit card to buy cash or load a prepaid card. Most credit-card providers count these as a cash transaction - so charge withdrawal fees and interest. It's always better to use a debit card if you can. More info in don't buy travel cash with a credit card.
12. Will withdrawing cash on a credit card abroad impact my credit rating? It's a question we get a lot, as we warn against credit card ATM withdrawals in the UK, as it risks high interest and many lenders see it as a debt-problem indicator. Yet a specialist card abroad can be the cheapest way to get cash - so it's not so bad, just don't overdo it, and pay it off in full. More details in credit card ATM withdrawals credit score impact info.
13. I'm going to... is it still OK to use a UK card? In most countries commonly visited by Brits, certainly in Europe and North America, you're fine to use a card for almost all spending, and if not, it's usually easy to find an ATM to get cash out of. Yet to find out if people have problems elsewhere, Martin asked for experiences on Twitter and Facebook (feel free to add your comments). If you're visiting a specific country, it's worth looking through for that, but the three we saw repeatedly reported were...
- In Japan, occasionally you need special ATMs to use international cards.
- In China, hotels take cards, but elsewhere Alipay is easier.
- In India, some shops & restaurants won't take international cards, use cash.
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