8 ms·
I wish they would issue credit cards soon. Every time I pay with credit card while travelling, my bank charges 1.5% for each transaction, in addition to bad con
by alexee 9y ago
I wish they would issue credit cards soon. Every time I pay with credit card while travelling, my bank charges 1.5% for each transaction, in addition to bad conversion rate.
- tomseldon 9y agoIf you're in the UK, have a look at Monzo. Not a credit card, but very useful to use abroad. They don't charge a transaction fee when abroad, and the currency conversion is tracked to the MasterCard rate (whereas other providers tend to do card issuer + their own cut on top). Result is it's very cheap to use abroad. :)
- marcosscriven 9y agoUnfortunately, from the 18th December, that's stopping: https://monzo.com/blog/2017/10/17/atm-limits-announcement/ https://monzo.com/blog/2017/10/17/atm-limits-announcement/
- richardknop 9y agoIt's only for ATM withdrawals. If you are in first world country where card payments are well integrated this is not issue for you. Granted, in many developing countries you need cash so this will be issue.
- marcosscriven 9y agoMy use case is frequent trips to Sydney for work - a surprising number of cafes and restaurants there are cash only.
- richardknop 9y agoHmm, that's surprising. I have traveled a lot in Asia (never to Australia though) and from that experience I know a lot of Asia is still cash based but Australia I'd expect every coffee / convenience shop to accept Visa/Mastercard.
- cknight 9y agoThat is fascinating. As someone who lives in Sydney's outer suburbs, I simply never need cash. For anything. It's almost the exact opposite of Germany, where I lived for most of the last 5 years. Was your experience all within the inner city?
- marcosscriven 9y agoMostly yes - around George St. for work. For sure many coffee shops and convenience stores accept card, but I definitely find myself having to pay cash quite often (just for instance, the laksa place on Hunter street).
- TulliusCicero 9y agoHaha, have you never been to Germany? Tons of places still don't take credit cards.
- richardknop 9y agoI'm from EU (Slovakia) and not that far from Germany but surprisingly I have never been to Germany (not counting transit when I traveled through Germany in a train/bus or had to change flight) for some reason. I have always wanted to go but somehow I find places I want to go to more all the time so my travel to Germany keeps getting pushed down the list :D
- thesimon 9y agoMaybe 2-3 years ago, but at least in the cities the card acceptance is quite good. Berlin in particular and cafes in general being the exception.
- spIrr 9y ago… and bakeries, my god. I haven't seen a single bakery that accepts cards (EC or credit). Wanna buy €30 worth of cake to bring to work for your birthday? Nope, cash only.
- thesimon 9y agoMost Kamps do, some are franchise though.
- TulliusCicero 9y agoI live in Munich and it still feels pretty hit and miss to me.
- koyote 9y agoATM withdrawals is the main selling point though. There are plenty of cards in the UK that do not have a foreign transaction charge on purchases (nationwide, lloyds avios, for example).
- richardknop 9y agoFrom my experience though, Monzo has been much more reliable when traveling. It works in much more places in Asia for example. I traveled around Asia for a while before with my TSB UK debit card and it was getting declined almost everywhere, even in big cities like Hong Kong or Taipei (and yes I called TSB and told them I will be traveling Asia for few months in case they have some restrictions on debit cards in place, didn't help at all). It got to a point I had to open local bank accounts and do wire transfers from my UK bank account to local bank accounts and use the local debit card. I just couldn't get my TSB/Lloyds card to work anywhere except high end western shops like Apple Store.
- urbanj 9y ago> ATM withdrawals is the main selling point though. No, it's not.
- richardknop 9y agoFrom Dec 18 Monzo will start charging fees for cash withdrawals abroad though. Which is relevant for people traveling to cash based countries (many in Asia) where cards only get accepted in high end stores and restaurants.
- Numberwang 9y agoI was considering them until they changed their name. I just can't get over it.
- chrisper 9y agoAnd what was their old name?
- richardknop 9y agoMondo. But it turns out there were some copyright issues (some other Mondo already existed) so they changed their name to Monzo.
- graystevens 9y agoMondo -> Monzo
- JoeMalt 9y agoMondo, they had some trademark issues with it and had to change it.
- andy_ppp 9y agoThey actually plan to start charging for this because ATMs charge them: £200 free allowance per month, 3% charge for withdrawals thereafter everywhere outside the UK From here: https://monzo.com/blog/2017/09/13/atm-fees-abroad/ https://monzo.com/blog/2017/09/13/atm-fees-abroad/ I would have just transparently passed on whatever the ATM charges rather than this weird 3% fee.
- mcjiggerlog 9y agoI'm a Monzo user and really unhappy to find this out. I spend most of my time in mainland Europe and the free transactions and no ATM fees are the only reason I am a user. Can anyone comment on how Revolut compares? One pain point is that I always get asked if I want to pay in GBP or EUR, or even the cashier selects without asking me, in which case I get massively ripped off if they select GBP. With Revolut will the card look like a EUR card whilst travelling in the Eurozone?
- chris_overseas 9y agoI just used a Revolut card during a two week trip around Iceland. It worked fantastically well. Iceland's interesting as some places charge in Krona, some in Euro, but in either case I was charged the live mid-market rate to the GBP with no extra spread or fees. You're also allowed to withdraw roughly £200/month worth of cash (any supported currency) without any fees. Beyond that there is a charge, I can't remember how much offhand but it's not too crazy. The one problem I had with the card was at their petrol stations. Most are self-service and require the card to be pre-authed before the fuel will start being pumped. Revolut doesn't support this so I had to use another card or find stations where I could pay in store.
- cjrp 9y agoSame problem with petrol stations in the USA. Most were pay-at-pump and didn't accept the card.
- NetStrikeForce 9y agoI've got money in GBP, EUR and USD in a Revolut debit card. I've used it on ATMs in mainland Europe and continental US without problems.
- TulliusCicero 9y agoIf you're American, there are cards that don't have a foreign transaction fee, like the Capital One Quicksilver Visa or Chase Amazon Visa. Schwab's checking accounts are also great for this, the ATM card reimburses ATM fees and has no foreign transaction fee for pulling out cash.
- dboreham 9y agoPretty much all the airline cards have zero foreign currency fees. They still have less than perfect exchange rates though.
- ForHackernews 9y agoCapitalOne doesn't charge any foreign transaction fees on their credit cards.
- vilmosi 9y agoYeah but they charge on atm withdrawals and the exchange rate could be the banks rate depending on the card.
- ForHackernews 9y agoAFAIK, all credit cards charge high fees for cash withdrawals. You should never do a cash advance on your credit card. Use a debit card for that.
- narak 9y agoCapitalOne for credit cards, Schwab Bank for ATMs
- chillydawg 9y agoUse Revolut, if you're in the UK.
- dnohr 9y agoDepending on where you are from there might a better alternative. In Europe, you have Revolut, N26 and Monzo which gives you a prepaid or debit MasterCard. Instead of the higher foreign transaction bank fees you will get either Mastercard’s or interbank rates, which is so much better than your traditional bank exchange rate. I have tried to list some options here: https://globalmoneyapp.com https://globalmoneyapp.com
- dazc 9y agoRevolut have appalling customer service. I have let a couple of rogue transactions go because it's such a hassle dealing with them.
- dionys 9y agoI've heard they are planning on adding those fairly soon (in the spring of '18)