PrePaid Debit MasterCard??
 

I'm leaving for an 11 day trip to Paris, the UK and Ireland. I'm taking a LOT of money with me and I do NOT want to carry all of it around and also don't want to pay a lot of fees for using a credit card or my Bank Of America card (though they have no ATM fees for Global ATM Alliance machines, they have a LOT of other fees). I found a prepaid MasterCard from Western Union that doesn't charge for anything. Only thing I'll have to pay is a 1.95 for ATM withdraw plus applications ATM operator fees. My concern: is Debit MasterCard as widely accepted in Paris, UK and Ireland as a Debit Visa? I will be carrying around *some* cash but I plan on using that only for food. It's an educational tour that I am going on with my friend who is a school teacher so we are mainly doing the tourist places but at night we plan on doing our own thing which is when I would be using the card. I can't find a prepaid Visa that is as good as this so does MasterCard carry the same acceptance as the Debit Visa?

Visa and Master card are accepted everywhere. American Express, not so much. Personally, I would take a body safe and take cash. No fees, no exchange rate, no withdrawl fee,etc. I get cash from my State Employee Cr. Union, at the daily rate, plus .50 for the letter to request it. Money comes in about a week.

NO NO NEIN NON NYET

The hidden charges and rules on those types of cards are attrocious.

Why are you taking a lot of money? An ATM withdrawal, with fees will be cheaper than getting GBP at home.

There is no reason whatsover to carry large amounts of cash, ecepting, maybe, to pay in full an apartment rental

My last trip to England I got on the plane with 0 pounds or dollars, used ATM everywhere, CC not at all

JK,

There is no way to take cash (not $) to europe and not pay fees. Banks/credit unions are not charities, they charge for foreign exchange. No fees means nothing, they simply give a poorer exchane rate.

Plus..the security risk of carrying large sums of money...

"<i>I can't find a prepaid Visa that is as good as this so does MasterCard carry the same acceptance as the Debit Visa? </i>"

Quit looking for a pre-paid card. They are generally much more expensive than a regular ATM card through your bank or credit union. I assume you use an ATM card at home -- take the same card on your trip . . .

>>>I found a prepaid MasterCard from Western Union that doesn't charge for anything.<<<

Prepaid cards typically have some of the worst rates and hidden fees. You have to buy the card, pay to load money on the card at a lousy exchange rate and pay to withdraw the money.

Use your regular ATM card from your bank or credit union to get cash when you get to Europe. Use your regular Master Card and Visa Card to charge things while you are in Europe (don't ever get cash with a credit card as it's considered a loan with high fees kicking in).

Here's a chart of fees charged by various banks/credit unions.
http://www.flyerguide.com/wiki/index...reign_Exchange

<<I found a prepaid MasterCard from Western Union that doesn't charge for anything.>>

No you didn't. This is one of the worst deals around. Even worse is walking around with a load of cash.

Use an ATM debit card to get cash once you arrive. Use a credit card to pay for large purchases (and pay it off before interest accrues). If you belong to or can join a credit union, you'll get better rates than from a bank, but no matter what, an ATM card is the way to go.

All you need is a visa/Mastercard issued by your local credit union. They give the best rates all round and there are more than enough ATM's.

Pre Paid travel cards usually have lots of fees and an atrocious exchange rate. Correct rate today is $1.32 per
euro www.coinmill.com Visa taken more widely than MC

No fee foreign VISA CC smust give you that by law.
capitalone.com Venture Visa double miles my fav generally but
Chase.com has a 62500 point deal for Sapphire CC
that is a good one 2. Recently cashed 2 of those in for
$625 each for my wife and myself.So Visa CC no foreign fee only for me.Back up USD in my money belt just in case

ricksteves.com lots of good newbie info

I'm taking a large amount of cash because this will be the only time I'm going to Europe and I want to buy stuff to bring back w/ me that isn't a shot glass or key chain lol. I would just take my ATM card but since it's a prearranged tour I don't know if I'll be around an ATM that has an alliance with my bank. If I don't use an ATM that is in an alliance in my bank they will charge me with insane fees. I can't get a credit card from capitalone or chase (already tried that. I won't be carrying around ALL the money with me. What I don't take with me I will leave in the hotel room safe. I bought a Pac Safe purse which is like Fort Knox to get in to. The only way someone can steal my money is if I leave the purse just laying there. What is a body safe btw and where can I get one?

I have never had a problem finding an ATM that wasn't in Bank of America's network. You should be able to find out which banks to look for in every city you are visiting before you leave when you call BofA to tell them you will be traveling to those locations out of the country. We used our debit card in restaurants with out a problem. Get several hundred euros out at a time when you visit the ATM to reduce the fees BofA charges. The nice thing about Europe is that they use the Euro most everywhere so you don't have to worry about too many different currencies, except maybe £ in the UK.

Taking all your money in cash is just asking for trouble, not to mention the fees to change dollars to pounds *and* euros. Unless things have changed very recently, Bank of America's alliance in the UK is with Barclays, and there are Barclays ATMs all over the place. It's like finding a BOA ATM here.

I use BOA and my international travel is infrequent enough that I haven't bothered with a Capitol One card or anything like that. I just use my debit card to make ATM withdrawals, at partner banks if possible (otherwise I think it was a $5/withdrawal fee last time I traveled), and use my regular Visa for everything else. There is an international conversion fee. It is not enough for me to stress over, and carrying hundreds or thousands of dollars' worth of cash would cause me a lot of stress. I try to get a decent amount of cash with each withdrawal for whatever I'll need.

For an 11-day trip where your main out-of-pocket costs will be souvenirs, the cost of the PacSafe purse will probably be as much or more than the combined total of your ATM and conversion fees.

Great Blog on the subject of money

http://irelandyes.wordpress.com/2011...10-money-tips/

<B>SarSophie:</B> definitely DO NOT take all that cash -- really bad idea/dangerous, and not the least bit necessary.

And if you think you'll avoid fees that way, just wait until you see how much extra you pay to get those €€€ from your bank. (and IF you meant taking $$$, believe me, finding ATMs will be a LOT faster than trying to exchange currency.

A 'body safe' is just a money belt really . . .

PLEASE don't take a lot of cash (or any cash for that matter)

Put the money in the bank and get a debit card. Why would anyone take cash? This sound "off" to me.

If you are a first time traveler to Europe, it's kind of hard to wrap your head around the whole money exchange thing. Please take the advice of experience from janisj and Michael_Paris. I followed their expert advice several years ago on my first trip to Europe, and now that I've been back many times, I know they were spot on! Do some research on exchange rates. Have a great time and be safe...do not take tons of cash.

I would assume that the students on the tour will also need to be accessing ATM's for their spending money. Any good tour director/guide will be helping the participants find ATM's as needed, including before leaving the airport perhaps. If you follow all the (good) advice above and just go with an ATM Debit card, remember these things: Be sure it's tied to a CHECKING not a savings account; be sure you know the pin and have used card successfully here before trying it overseas; and look into a credit union to set up an account as they often charge less for "stuff" than banks. When we travel, we take ATM cards from two accounts, one a bank and one a credit union, so that if for some reason we can't use one at a particular ATM we can probably use the other. You just look for the type (Cirrus, Plus, Pulse, etc.) of network for your card--the logos on the back--and find that type of ATM. Trying to figure out all the different fees and hidden charges and exchange rates and such can be daunting, but in general the cheapest way to get cash is to have an ATM card (from a credit union) account and withdraw a sizeable amount as soon upon arrival as you can (and then secure it safely). Don't get Euros or pounds before leaving the states, and don't take dollars with you planning to exchange them there. Just have dollars in your account/s available and let the ATM's do the exchanging for you. (for a fee of course but less than other options.)

>>>I would just take my ATM card but since it's a prearranged tour I don't know if I'll be around an ATM that has an alliance with my bank.<<<

What makes you think you will be somewhere to exchange the cash you take? ATM's are much more readily available than exchange businesses.

>If I don't use an ATM that is in an alliance in my bank they will charge me with insane fees.<<<

Those fees will be less and the exchange rate better than the fees and rates to exchange cash.

I'll jump on the don't bring a ton of cash or get a pre-paid bandwagon. I have been traveling in Europe for a very long time and to be honest I cannot think of anyplace I've been that doesn't have ATMs. From little Irish villages, to almost every corner in Rome. Firenze may be one of the few places I've seen that has maybe more of the rip-off currency exchanges than ATMs, but then the American students in Florence are crazy anyway (ha ha), but there were still a ton of ATMs. If you work with any decent bank, they will be part of a global ATM network.

Oh and another negative on pre-exchanging money. Say you have your bank get you 1,000 euros which would cost you maybe 1,380 dollars where the ATM rate might be 1,320 dollars. You also get whacked on the return exchange, where you give up 1,000 euros and only get back maybe 1,200 dollars (or less), so that double-ended transaction just cost you about $160.

dave

Yeah taking cash wasn't my first choice at all. It was just a last resort. The reason I was thinking prepaid was because the EF Tours had their own prepaid card that my friend said students in the past used. Unfortunately, EF Tours isn't offering the card anymore until after I leave lol. She was going to get the card too but now is just taking cash and storing it in the hotel safe. I really didn't want to carry a lot of cash so from reading everyone replies; the ATM is the best way to go even if I have to use an ATM that isn't a Barclays or Paribas and pay the $5.00 fee. I'll bring some cash with me though but probably just 200 euro and 200 GBP. I'd really rather not deal with cash at all (thus the beauty of getting a prepaid card) because if I don't use it all by the end of the trip I have to exchange it (like Daveesl stated) but I don't see any way of getting out of that.

You regular credit cards and ATM are going to be less expensive than any prepaid cards - which absolutely soak you with fees and a really bad rate of exchange.

(NO FEES mean nothing when they charge you 10% over the Interbank rate versus the 2 or 3% over that regular cards charge. You would just be shoveling money out the window.)

The way out is to have an account that has the funds you have allocated for the trip and have an ATM/Debit card to that account. Then you can use it to get cash and you may also be able to use it as a debit card there. I have traveled with EFTours twice; each tour is of course different and what happens depends slightly on the tour director, but I would say again there's no reason to take much foreign currency. You should be allowed time to find an ATM upon arrival. You could even get your friend to ask this specific question of the tour director. In my experience, foreign ATM's, even with some fees, were cheaper than getting foreign currency from my local bank. In my 4 trips to the UK, I never had trouble finding an ATM (although, as I mentioned in an above post, we did always carry cards from two different accounts so we had several options of ATM networks) and I only had my debit card refused once, at a little gift shop (and never had my CapitolOne MasterCard refused--and we did use cash a lot for smaller purchases.) And unless you get confirmatation from the tour director, I wouldn't assume that hotels would have a safe. They might; they might not. Also you may want to look at the specifics, and I do mean picky specifics like exact addresses, of your accomodations and itinerary. I am using EFTours again in 2013 so I obviously think they do a good job for the money, but their accomodations are sometimes not in places where it is easy to "do your own thing" in the evenings. Since 2 meals a day, transportation, and admissions are included in the price, you may be overestimating how much actual cash you need. But that does depend on the specifics about your tour--and you--so get your friend to ask. (If the tour is in the summer, you won't find this out until closer to departure, but you can let the tour consultant know now what you want to know.)

You're going to see charges whatever you do. The question is how you can get money cheaply. For me, the cheapest way to pay in Europe is to get cash from an ATM.

The second cheapest way (for me) is to use my credit card and pay it off before there's any interest. Don't use a cc to get cash, as the interest starts as soon as you get the money, whereas the ATM card charges just the single fee.

As others have said, if you get euros at home, you'll get a poor exchange. If you bring dollars and change them at your destination, you'll get a poor exchange. If you use a pre-paid card, you'll pay fees.

My bank (Wells Fargo) charges $5.00 per transaction. That's not an "insane" fee, but it does ensure that I withdraw the maximum amount, which in my case is $500 worth of euros (because I asked my bank to raise my daily limit to that amount). If I get the max, the bank charge amounts to 1%. My cc charges 3% per transaction.

There are ATM's everywhere.

Ah, yes, the safe. I well remember the time I was 100 miles from Heidelberg when I remembered that I'd left credit cards and passport in the hotel safe.

And the cash. My friend had $200 American in her money belt, which got tangled up with her bedsheets in our hotel in Madrid. She remembered the belt later, in Cordoba, but needless to say, she never got it back.

I'd certainly advise you to follow the advice you see on this thread. We are all experienced travelers, and we know the ropes.

<i>I'd really rather not deal with cash at all (thus the beauty of getting a prepaid card) because if I don't use it all by the end of the trip I have to exchange it (like Daveesl stated) but I don't see any way of getting out of that.</i>

I always find that I use cash more often while traveling than I do at home, for various reasons: I'm splitting a dinner check rather than just getting separate tabs, or more stores have a minimum price to use a credit card, or whatever. So you'll need some cash regardless. There's just no point to using a prepaid card for the rest - it's more expensive than your regular debit card, and adds a layer of hassle. Just make SURE to call your bank(s) before you leave and let them know you'll be traveling.

You'll almost certainly have a few euro/pounds left over at the end. The trick is to plan ahead enough to where you don't have a <i>lot</i> left over. If you only have a day or two left in the UK and are about out of cash, don't get very much at the ATM (or don't buy anything you can't use a card for, or work out arrangements with someone in your group who has a lot of cash left - you buy dinner on your card, they buy whatever with their cash). Five or ten euro isn't worth exchanging when you get home, but fifty euro is more of an issue.

>>>I'm taking a LOT of money with me and I do NOT want to carry all of it around and also don't want to pay a lot of fees<<<

You keep saying you don't want to pay a lot of fees, but the two things you keep talking about doing (changing cash and prepaid cards) have the highest fees. They are hidden fees, but still fees.

Why ar eyou taking a LOT o f monmey with you. Ayone carrying a lot of cash anywehre is just setting themselves up for problems - never mind the extra cost of chaning it all into euros or pounds or whatever.


There is no way to completely avoid paying fees - since hte international banking system is not set up to do yuo a ot of services for free. You will pay fees no matter how you do it. the idea is to minimoze the fees - which means using credit cards for whatever possible and pulling cash from local ATMs for walking around money.