Dear All,

I have a 15-year-old traveling to Copenhagen, Hamburg, Berlin, Vienna and Budapest with a tour group for two weeks in June-July.
What is the best pre paid card that I can send with so the child can spend without any transaction fees or conversion rates and easy to add cash to from US. It also should be accepted by the majority of businesses in the regions the child is travelling in.

Thanks in advance for your help.

AAA has a prepaid visa card that can be loaded from 100-5000 USD. I recall them having a prepaid euros card as well. It has been a few years, but I did this with one of my daughters for a trip. Also, it comes with their names printed on it so better than an anonymous card. At AAA you can also get a 100 euros pack in small denominations for her so she has some spending money, but not a lot.
You can also get her a secondary card on one of your credit card accounts for the trip as a back up.

https://midatlantic.aaa.com/travel-money

This is from my local AAA. There is a travel visa preloaded and a travelex mastercard preloaded in euros and up to six denomination and can be reloaded from phone or online by the AAA member

>>without any transaction fees or conversion rates<<

Any card, will have some costs whether it be currency conversions or transactions, or both. They don't do it for free. AFAIK the AAA card charges 3% conversion and a $3 transaction fee.

All the prepaid cards I have looked at are targetted to non-finacially-savvy people. They can play with words like fee and conversion rates and bury their money manking scheme where they hope non-financially-savvy people don't notice. They make it very hard even after the fact. How one closes account without losing a lot of money. In my opinion, more sensible way is to open another checking account just for this purpose, make it joint with you as a minor cannot open an account alone. Turn on every alert possible so you can monitor card usage in real time that goes beyond what your 15-year olds should have used the card. If the account comes with an online lock feature, it is even better. This is what I did when my daughter spent a semester in a language program in Europe.

Thank you Greg.
initially, that is what we thought, but with the group's schedule, my kid may not have time looking for ATM to withdraw cash.

Thank you girlonthego! I will look at the AAA card. I like the idea of Euros in small denominations.

Janisj, thanks for pointing out the charges on the card. The $3 fee seems to be unavoidable no matter what.
At the same time I do not want to overwhelm the kid with lots of cash. I think if the fees are unavoidable, the
ease of reloading the card will be the priority for me.

If the kids won't have time to find an ATM, it doesn't matter whether you have the regular debit card or the preloaded AAA card. For purchases, either card would work.

Also, it's a big waste of money to get a card preloaded with euros. You can use it anywhere even if it's preloaded with dollars, and you would get a much better exchange rate. But the regular checking debit card would be a much better choice.

Finally, tell your child to always make purchases (or withdraw cash) in euros. Often in shops or on ATMs, you're given the choice to pay (or withdraw) in dollars. If you agree, you'll get a worse exchange rate.

I agree there is no way you will ever find a prepaid card without a fee of some kind, those are for-profit companies, they aren't doing that for charity. So that will never happen. It isn't a matter of just the ATM usage flat fee ($3 or whatever), it is also that there is a markup to the conversion. You can't avoid that unless you have your own bank card.

BUt a lot of those cards also charge you to load it, to initiate it and there is a monthly maintenance fee, also, and some charge you to cash it out.

That Travelex card looks ok given there are no ATM fees and it doesn't appear monthly upkeep charges. The rate they charge is 7% though, you can figure it out from the amt. they give you versus the real interbank rate. That isn't surprising, a lot of banks in the US charge around 7% if you order foreign currency and I think AAA does also. The problem is they do not allow you to buy it in USD and then have a regular bank convert it after it is sent (which is kind of like if you had a debit card). You'd have to compare their regular prepaid VISA card to that Travelex one to see which is better. The website doesn't seem to easily give you terms on the regular one, terms for withdrawals at foreign ATMs.

Here is a recent cmparson chart
https://advocacy.consumerreports.org...reports#page=8

I think the AMEX Bluebird card could be the cheapest at their terms claim there is only a $2.50 ATM fee (nonnetwork) and that there is no foreign transaction markup. Now the only issue is whether this is tied into regular ATM networks internationally so would be easy to use abroad. I've never heard of that card.

A lot of prepaid bank cards have really high fees (like BB&T, $5 monthly maintenance, $5 foreign ATM fee PLUS a 3 % foreign transaction fee, etc), so maybe that 7 pct markup isn't that bad in comparison. At least it would be easy.

I'm not sure what difference the brand makes unless you plan to use it like a debit card, for an ATM, it depends what network it can use. I think there are only a couple international banking networks for ATMs, but not sure of the details. I think some prepaid Visa would be a good idea if it is competitive.

Even travelling in a group where presumably most of the costs are covered, a 15-year-old in Europe can and should take on adult financial responsibilities. Your young adult should have her own chequing account with an ATM card linked, plus a full-fledged credit card. She should help in shopping for the best deal on fees, almost all of which will be charged by the issuing bank.You can be co-signer on the account so you can keep an eye out and add cash if she exceeds her deposits. Stay in touch by e-mail. Lots of Internet info on this stuff, which she can find and implement. Worrying about finding an ATM machine should be the visitor's problem, not yours. She should also figure out security, how to protect the cards and use them so they don't go astray. Expect her to come back a more sophisticated young woman.