travellers cheques, cash or pre pay card

[DaveH]

Hi All

we are going to florida for 3 weeks in late July 09. I have been looking at the different options for money

- travellers cheques that can be used as cash in shops etc
- dollars(cash)
- pre pay cards
- credit cards(best foreign option)

I am thinking of taking a combination of the four but was just wondering if anyone had any tips or good experiences with any certain type of the above

Many thanks
Dave

[Katys Grandad]

Been discussed many times and I think it's fair to say that everybody has their own preference. I'd say your intention to have a mix makes a lot of sense.

A credit card is virtually essential in the US and having a few dollars in cash will be needed on arrival for tolls and small necessary purchases. Pre-pay cards are useful if you want to limit your spending but if you have a credit card, I'm not sure they have a lot of value on that point (their exchange rate isn't that brilliant). Personally I haven't used Travellers Cheques for many years because, for me, they don't offer anything that the others don't.

[becbecs]

We take Cash and Pre-Paid $ Visa Electon Card so we get face value and no exchange rate to work out and be charged for. Works really well and no huge Creditcard bills to be paid later.

Only charge you would get is for re-loading the card and drawing from ATM machine

[steph_goodrum]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Katys Grandad
Been discussed many times and I think it's fair to say that everybody has their own preference. I'd say your intention to have a mix makes a lot of sense.

A credit card is virtually essential in the US and having a few dollars in cash will be needed on arrival for tolls and small necessary purchases. Pre-pay cards are useful if you want to limit your spending but if you have a credit card, I'm not sure they have a lot of value on that point (their exchange rate isn't that brilliant). Personally I haven't used Travellers Cheques for many years because, for me, they don't offer anything that the others don't.
[/quote]

The Fairfx one offers virtually the commercial rate as opposed to the tourist rate. As it allows youu to load as little as £10 then its quite a good way to build up your spending money. You can transfer it free of charge from your debit account. You can get them free at the moment from thisismoney website instead of the usual £9.95 so you know exactly how many dollars youu are getting and dont have to wonder if the exchange rate will bo up or down before youu go or spend the money.
My only worry is that these days it seems to be a bit of a gamble entrusting your money to anyone in advance of you needing it so tend to get dollars or travellers checks when the exchange rate is ok.

[sammibabe]

Only charge you would get is for re-loading the card and drawing from ATM machine
[/quote]
We take a small amount of cash (tolls and small purchases), TC and Nationwide CC (usually first 'big' shop and my trip to Jo-ann's[msnwink]) When the TC are used you get the change in cash to top that up without the need to take more cash than necessary.
We haven't used the pre-loaded cards before as I don't know how you get the cash topped up unless you draw from the ATM which you pay for.
We get them when the rate seems good which worked really well last year.

I know a lot of people don't use TC anymore but we still like them.

[steph_goodrum]

Sammibabe
With the Fairfx card you can top it up online. You can get cash from the ATM which is around $1.50/$2 cant remember exactly. The only crafty thing is that you have a limit of $300 cash so you couldnt take all your money out at one time by going to the bank but if you took out one withdrawal and used the card (chip and pin) to pay for most of the things then it would be ok.

[DaveH]

steph

I have looked at the fairfx card and it looks really good. Have you used this card before? and if so was it accepted at most outlets/eating places

Cheers
Dave

[becbecs]

We use the Travelex Pre Paid Card and you can also top up on line. Most of these prepaid cards work in the same way.

We have a Travelex Euro Card for Traveling to Europe and Travelex Dollar Card for the US.

You just transfer the funds over here and you get what ever the exchange rate was at the time. But where ever you may be in Europe or USA you just pay face value with no charges.

Is it true that Nationwide are going to start charging for CC use abroad ?

[sammibabe]

Thanks for that. We will probably stick with TC - it works for us. Nationwide have changed their cc charges abroad and I can't remember how but the last time I checked it was still the best one to use abroad.

[MJG]

We go a week on Saturday and we will be going with £500 in Dollars and the rest of our spends on a Travelex pre-loaded Visa card.

Seemed the best way to compromise between the security of travellers cheques and the convenience of cash.

[steph_goodrum]

Dave
Havent got one yet but as its Mastercard backed there shouldntbe a problem with them being accepted unlike the Electron ones which some places wont accept.


If you buy the Fairfx one through thisismoney.co.uk you dont have to pay the £9.95. Am thinking of getting one this week, even if I only load a few hundred dollars then its also useful for online shopping.

[des]

we have been using the fx card and had no problems apart from at the gas pumps cos it asks u for a zip code and wont accept just anything so best just to go inside and pay. The advantage is the rate is much greater than any other sites would recomend to anyone.

[steph_goodrum]

Des
If you're staying in a villa will it accept that zip code? We always pay cash for gas so that shouldnt cause us any problems.

[Katys Grandad]

I have tried to just put a token zip code in the past and, sometime ago, was once successful. Since then, nothing doing.

[gpullan]

Ok, just about to buy a currency card from FairFX. What i am planning on doing is buying it now and loading say $200 dollars on to it then everytime i see that the rate is looking good then i will keep adding.

Q's i have:

Is the money loaded onto the card in $ so that always stays the same? That might be a silly question thinking about it.

Can i keep topping the card up at anytime until we go (Feb 2010)??

What charge is made for withdrawing from ATM's in USA??

Looks like it's a mastercard so no problem with being accepted everywhere??

Best place to buy from??

Thanks in advance

[davealsop]

I was "umming and arring" about what to do as we've always taken travellers cheques on european holidays. I decided this year to grab a pre-paid mastercard from Thomsons - I believe they've just recently introduced them

[website link edited]

I'm grabbing £500 dollars cash and sticking the rest of the spends on the card. I've topped it up 3 times since getting it and got a decent exchange rate of 1.57 today at Thomsons.

Can't comment on the fairfax card but for the thomson card:-

Yes, the money is exchanged at whatever the rate is when you pre-load and put on the card in dollars

Yes, you can top up as many times as you like (think there is a limit on how much the card holds tho)

The charge for ATM withdrawal is $3

It's a matercard so you can use it wherever you can use a standard mastercard

Think you can also check your balance via text which is quite handy!

We go a week Sunday - can't wait! [msncool]

[steph_goodrum]

I think Thomson has a minimum reload amount, I think it is £100.

I dont think there are any links which will prohibit this link but it so i can send it.

[website link edited]

There is a link to the Fairfx but as always its best to read the small print yourself and make sure youu are happy with it.
I would prefer to be ableto take more than $300 oout a day in cash as then could avoind paying more fees than necessary but since I will use it for purchases mainly can live with that.

Just checking out the Thomson one and it says
5. TOPPING-UP YOUR CARD
5.1 You may top-up your Card up to a maximum balance of €5,000 for a Card issued in Euros or US$7,500 for a Card issued in US Dollars. 5.2 You can only top-up your Card in First Choice or Thomson Travel shops with currency purchased in those shops by using cash or a debit or a credit card. Fees may be charged by your credit card provider for purchases made using a credit card. 5.3 We reserve the right to suspend or terminate the right to top-up your Card at any time with

So it looks as though they sellyou the cash and then load it on there, I liked the idea of being able to top it up online from my uk debit card. It also means you get the high stree exchange rate rather than just under the commercial rate which Fiarfx give.

[gpullan]

Just registered for 2 FairFX cards using the link provided (Thanks Steph!!). These were indeed free instead of £9.95.

I started each one with £50 and got a rate of 1.62. I have registered one in my name and one in my wife's name to add some security in case we lose one of them. I'm planning to keep topping these up as and when the rate looks good and also quickly if it seems to be dropping off. It will also act as a really good way to save up holiday money as we won't miss the odd £50 here and there.

I got $80 dollars on each card to start with. We don't go to highlands Reserve until next Feb so plenty of time to load the cards up.

Thansk for the advice guys.

[nicklangdon]

We have also got the thompson/first choice mastercard to try out in october but will have a mixture of cash and travellers cheques from previous holidays.
We tried a card once before but had trouble getting a balance where this new one you can also log in online and check your balance which i think is a great feature.
$3 for withdrawls at atms can add up - i am going to test whether you can get cashback say at walmart as this is processed as a charge (like for a product)and avoid paying the $3.I don't see why its not possible so long as the store offers cashback but wont know until our october trip unless anyone here knows the answer to this?

Ali

[davealsop]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:$3 for withdrawls at atms can add up - i am going to test whether you can get cashback say at walmart as this is processed as a charge (like for a product)and avoid paying the $3.I don't see why its not possible so long as the store offers cashback but wont know until our october trip unless anyone here knows the answer to this?

Ali
[/quote]

That's a good idea - I hadn't thought of that. Will maybe test this when I head off next week and post back to let you know.

Dave

[sammibabe]

I know I wouldn't pay the $3. When you used to have to pay at some cash machines here I wouldn't do it. Let us know if the cash withdrawal at somewhere like Walmart works; fingers crossed