FairFX.com currency card
Spending money on holiday can be an expensive business - the problem is you often don’t know how much you’ve been charged for those cash withdrawals from the hole in the wall until you get home. Typically you get stung twice - first with a transaction charge (why?), secondly with a poor exchange rate. Alternatives to now have been travellers’ cheques (a nuisance to change and not very flexible), or changing all your money before you left home (not a good idea to wander around Naples with a thousand euro in your back pocket. The new generation of currency cards is a much tidier idea, and the FairFX.com currency card
is hard to beat.
Here’s how it works. The FairFX.com currency card is a debit card, but one you charge up with currency before you leave home. You can get one for euros or US dollars, and it will cost you £9.95 to sign up (though moneysupermarket.com are doing a deal where you get the card free if you sign up before 31 August. FairFX says it delivers savings of 10 per cent against cash bought from a bureau de change and 5 per cent against ATM withdrawals or buying things on your debit or credit card. Cash withdrawals cost €1.50 or $2. Another bonus - exchange rates are fixed when you load the money on, not when you spend it, so you can lock in a good exchange rate if you’re smart on your timing.
The reason we like it is that FairFX says it aims to undercut major rival CaxtonFX at all times. Not written in stone, but the FairFX.com currency card is certainly cheap compared to the competition, some of whom run rates of 4 per cent. Of course you could get burned by exchange rates turning against you, and note that the money on the card doesn’t earn interest, so you’re losing on money that could have been ticking up interest on deposit. Beautifully simple and secure though, chip and pin protected, and a good option for youngsters setting out on their gap year travels perhaps?
