Using a bank card abroad

jackynutmeg said:
T&C's have changed for Chase.
You have to be paying in £1500 per month now to get the 1%.

For the OP - i use Chase and Starling and they are spot on.
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I was reading you can just transfer the money in and then straight back out and still qualify.

Can anyone confirm if this is the case?

I'm away to Prague next week, planning on just taking my Chase card
 


humbug said:
i know that but like i said, it depends what he's likely to be using it for surely? we use our portugese bank account card for shopping and to put petrol in the car but that's about it. it's cash just about everywhere else.
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A lot of these cards allow free cash withdrawals from ATMs abroad.
 
SAFC_Marc said:
I was reading you can just transfer the money in and then straight back out and still qualify.

Can anyone confirm if this is the case?

I'm away to Prague next week, planning on just taking my Chase card
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The 1500 is just for the 1% cashback. Don’t think it effects use abroad
 
r@mside said:
A lot of these cards allow free cash withdrawals from ATMs abroad.
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i was actually wondering about that. i know there's a lot of euronet one's that have high fees and rubbish rates and multibanco ones that are loads better. the euronet ones are always in popular locations and must catch a few out.
 
humbug said:
i was actually wondering about that. i know there's a lot of euronet one's that have high fees and rubbish rates and multibanco ones that are loads better. the euronet ones are always in popular locations and must catch a few out.
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Yes, you need to be careful but the online banks explain the restrictions.
 
Going to get some currency too but always like to have the option of card.

I also want an account for savings, starling sounds pretty good for that.
 
D.A said:
Going to get some currency too but always like to have the option of card.

I also want an account for savings, starling sounds pretty good for that.
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Get a revolut card / account

The app is great. And you can buy crypto. Also got loads of investment funds and stuff

There's actually little mini training courses you can do on the app on loads of subjects , you need to be able to answer all the questions correctly to move onto the next level. It's canny interesting

Obviously fuck all to do with the thread
James said:
There's no need to exchange any money in the app. Load pounds onto it, spend as you would at home. Let the card do the exchange.

If you're ever asked by a card reader or ATM to pay in pounds or local currency, always select the local currency.
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Yeah I thought that like, but I like to exchange a lump, say £200, so I know where I am..if it runs down I put another £200

Then exchange the remaining back to pounds when I get home

Also, I always take out some local currency in cash when I arrive
 
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SAFC_Marc said:
I was reading you can just transfer the money in and then straight back out and still qualify.

Can anyone confirm if this is the case?

I'm away to Prague next week, planning on just taking my Chase card
Click to expand...

Yes it is the case, and the case for every single bank that has these minimum pay ins. But it's just to qualify for the 1% cashback. If you don't fund it, it's just no cashback & that's it.
 
I've used revolut loads since 2016.. probably ran 20k+ through it in that time.

Just be wary of doing conversions on weekends these days as there is a small surcharge

I rarely convert these days anyway. Used to do some hedging if rates were good with a few hundred quid but now just leave in sterling and let the app do the hard work.

As said. Always pay in local if machine asks
..
Just looked at mine.. spent a total of 33,400 through it.. ouch
 
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No problems at all with using Starling abroad. Instant notifications on your phone when a payment goes through. Frighteningly quick actually, often less than a second. I was in Spain a few weeks ago and spent less than €20 in cash the whole weekend.

Also have a HSBC Global Money card with a few hundred quid on as a backup and a Halifax Clarity credit card for bigger non-Sterling transactions (flights, hotels, car hire etc)
 
Still have my Santander Zero which got used a little when we were last abroad, normally use a Hyperjar prepaid card now (also have one for the child, which is free unlike naff Go Henry)
 
D.A said:
Looking at getting a Starling account for using it abroad and the savings account is better than I currently have.

Are there any other accounts you can recommend? I currently use a Halifax charity card.

(Yes, look at me going abroad etc etc...)
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If it is euros then you can swap money into a Euro account in the app. You get the rate that is used when swapping.
 
We always use our Virgin credit card in the Eurozone countries as it is fee-free. Just pay it all off when we get home to avoid paying interest.

It charges fees for use in Turkey, so I opened a Starling account before we went there last year - put about £700 in it and used it to pay for meals etc. Worked a treat - almost instantaneous notifications telling you how much you had actually spent in Sterling. Mind, when you viewed the transaction, some of the locations of the businesses were a bit off - one was in Sliema, Malta and another was in South Carolina, USA. One little mini-market even showed as 'Tesco'.
 
monkeytassle said:
Revolut
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You probably know much better than me but is revolut not a bit dodgy as they aren't a bank but just an online money storage or something? I have both starling and revolut but never leave money in revolut as I heard a few stories a while back that you weren't covered as much. Could be totally wrong though.
 

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