Hi all I've been looking for the best way to get my hands on my cash while away without having to pay crap exchange rates and high withdrawal fees and think the fair fx prepaid card seems to be the best option. Here's the deal.


The FairFX prepaid card charges no spending or foreign 'loading' fees, and can be topped up for free by debit card or bank transfer.

There are two offers available via comparison site MoneySupermarket, the links take you there. With both, the £9.95 application fee will be waived if you top up more than €60/$75. Also, get the FairFX Euro* card and when you load more than £500 on it you'll get a £10 bonus. Or you can get a £5 bonus when loading over £500 onto the FairFX Dollar card*.

These cards are only available for euros or US dollar, so it's no good if you need a more exotic currency. If you spend in a different currency to the one you selected, you'll be hit with a 1.4% charge for every transaction.

With FairFX, it's the rate on each day you load up (not the day you spend) that counts. So if the pound strengthens after you load the card, you will lose out. Conversely, if it weakens you'd gain. You get a different rate each time you load the card.

The only cost is €1.50/$2 to withdraw cash from an ATM, less than most credit or debit cards. You get FairFX's own exchange rate, which changes daily but generally beats the other prepaid cards and cash rates (compare it with TravelMoneyMax.com's best).

The 1 euro 50 withdrawal fee at the moment is £1.20

Not a bad deal am going to go for it

Hope this helps some folks and if you know of a better deal let me know.

Cheers.

Edited by Neil101 - 09 October 2012 at 17:15

I have issued a WestStein card for myself and have been using it for a long time. This is a convenient service. Favorable terms of use, and it is easy to open such a card. Try it and you will discover for yourself and be able to appreciate all its advantages.