Euro Trading card?

[BB3Lions]

Ola, has anyone used one of these? Monarch | Travel Money, Currency Cards, Great Exchange Rates | Home if so any good or pointless.

 

[jenam93]

Nope, but along the same lines and in case it helps we got a Halifax Clarity Credit Card for our recent French trip. Interest is charged daily on cash withdrawals from ATMs, but not for credit card spending, so we just preloaded the Credit Card with our expected spending before we went.

 

[qwerty321]

I've used a similar one which is the Caxton FX card. Have taken it on two holidays now but they were outside the EU, the best card depends on location. Worked fine. Caxton have an app so you can topup your balance with your debit card if you need. I generally split the money as half cash with me and half on the card. I found you get a marginally lower rate via Caxton than using the money counter abroad but it's something like £15 over £1000. For the peace of mind of not carrying all that cash, it's worth it to me.

 

[johntheexpat]

How does the total cost add up though? There are lots of interest/commission free deals available but if your exchange rate is rubbish then the deal is rubbish, end of story.

For, say, £200 into euros its better to pay a fiver and get nearly the exchange rate than have no costs and get 10 centimes to the pound or more lower than the exchange rate.

 

[jenam93]

How does the total cost add up though? There are lots of interest/commission free deals available but if your exchange rate is rubbish then the deal is rubbish, end of story.

For, say, £200 into euros its better to pay a fiver and get nearly the exchange rate than have no costs and get 10 centimes to the pound or more lower than the exchange rate.

I trusted MSE in this instance.

 

[SanPedro]

I've used a similar one which is the Caxton FX card. Have taken it on two holidays now but they were outside the EU, the best card depends on location. Worked fine. Caxton have an app so you can topup your balance with your debit card if you need. I generally split the money as half cash with me and half on the card. I found you get a marginally lower rate via Caxton than using the money counter abroad but it's something like £15 over £1000. For the peace of mind of not carrying all that cash, it's worth it to me.

I have the Euro card and found it very handy. Just use it as you would a debit card in the UK. So no more £1.50 every time you use it like you would with a regular credit/debit card. And if you load it up daily and it gets nicked there's only whatever is on the card that could potentially be stolen if they had your PIN.

 

[qwerty321]

I have the Euro card and found it very handy. Just use it as you would a debit card in the UK. So no more £1.50 every time you use it like you would with a regular credit/debit card. And if you load it up daily and it gets nicked there's only whatever is on the card that could potentially be stolen if they had your PIN.

When you have the app set up, you can block the card if it has been stolen so no need to worry about keeping it topped up.

 

[MrSossidge]

I had a Caxton fx card for our Spain trip this year. Got £5 quidco from it and got a decent exchange rate when I bought my euros. Got an extra card for the wife aswell tied to the same account.

 

[BB3Lions]

Thanks all. I will load the monarch card up & take that. Zero charge to use & can take cash out of the cashpoint with no transfer rates.

I got a decent rate too.