Hi, It depends where you are travelling and how you spend, either cash withdrawals or purchases.

Try to get a card with the same curency as the country you are in, fairfx $, euro and sterling cards are good value and give good rates of exchange when loading.

Often larger and chainstores will give good rates of exchange for dollars in the Americas as the proprietors want dollars!!! sometimes up to 15% more than the banks in mexico for example.

In Europe i would guess a euro card would be best value, although i don't have much experience there just USA and Central America

Have a good trip!!!

Thanks for advice. Also wonder why some pre-pay cards charge for ATM use abroad and some dont and what is the application charge for?

A couple that seem to get metioned here favourably from time to time are CaxtonFX and FairFX. All financial services need to make money somewhere. With currency cards, you may not pay a commission but the rate that they sell currency is never the same as the rate that they buy it so you lose a percentage (often just 2 or 3%) everytime your money changes from pounds to another currency. You should compare exchange rates for the different cards when looking at costs. Some cards use rates that are better than you would get with a bank-to-bank transfer but I'm sure there are other cards with worse rates.

There's a list of pre-paid/currency cards behind the purple "money" tab at the top. My advice when dealing with any financial institution that you've not dealt with before is to start with a small amount and see how it goes. If a service has a high minimum transaction limit, walk away.

Pre-paid cards I believe will get a percentage from any retailer that you use (and this is enough for credit cards) but, as you say, pre-paid cards see fit to charge the users as well. I suppose they do it because some people will pay it.

Hi,

Im going travelling soon and looking at the best way to manage my money! Pre-pay cards seem a good way to avoid commission etc etc but not sure which one to go for....need some advice!!!....not sure which card to go for as there are so many!!! Will be be using the card alot as i will be away along time!!! Also.....why are the application charges free on most travelling cards but not free on the everyday pre-pay cards and are they trustworthy?