Travel cards offer good options for avoiding fees when withdrawing cash from ATMs. The three types of travel cards are prepaid travel cards, debit travel cards, and credit travel cards.
Tip: Spread your travel money across a couple of accounts so you won’t be caught without cash if a card goes missing. Travelers to Spain will be surprised at how easy it is to get by without spending a fortune. Read on for a few more travel money tricks to make your trip to Spain more enjoyable.
Prepaid Travel Cards
You can load prepaid cards with your home currency via a bank transfer. Innovative providers even convert that sum into Euros at the market rate and charge a competitive, one-time service fee. You’re then able to manage the limited balance from a mobile app and can use it to pay in the local currency like a local.
Although you save on conversion rates you’ll end up spending on fees. You will be charged fees each time you load the card, withdraw from an ATM and sometimes even an inactivity fee.
Tip: When you get a travel card, you’ll get two for the same account. This can come in handy if your first card is lost or stolen, so make sure to keep the second card in a safe place.
Debit Travel Cards
Some innovative digital banks, like Wise, N26 and Revolut offer travel debit cards that have the same advantages of paying like a local. They’re debit cards directly tapping into your current account balance. While you can’t spend more than the balance you have in your current account, companies like N26 or Juno, allow you to activate an overdraft (between €1,000 or €10,000 for N26) in case you need it – an added service with an additional fee.
WISE
Wise is a multi-currency product that allows you to load euros onto your card at the real mid-market exchange rate — that means no hidden exchange rate margin fees.
If you’re a frequent traveller, you should check out the borderless multi-currency account from Wise. You can keep your cash in any one of dozens of different currencies, and there’s no monthly fee to maintain your account. If you set up your debit card for the account and spend using that, you might even be able to avoid ATM fees, and rip-off exchange rates, entirely.
N26
With an N26 account and their debit Mastercard, you get three ATM withdrawals in the Eurozone for free per month — plus never get hit with foreign card transaction fees.
Revolut
Revolut charges no foreign transaction fees on the first €1000 spent per month and no ATM fees on first €200 per month.
Juno
For US residents, Juno’s debit card will not only give you free ATM withdrawals within its network but will send one ATM fee reimbursement per month too. This reimbursement policy applies outside of the US. With no foreign card transaction fees, Juno is a cost-effective way to travel.
Tip: Make sure your debit card has a chip to avoid situations where your card won’t be accepted.
Credit Travel Card
There are a number of competitive credit card products designed for travelers, and the best for travel to Spain won’t charge foreign transaction or international ATM fees. Carrying a credit card gives you the added benefit of travel insurance and discounts, depending on your provider. For added savings, take advantage of the interest-free period by paying your balance in full each month.
We don’t advise using your credit card to get cash from an ATM. Cash advance charges and interest can add up quickly and eat away your available credit.
Tip: Some credit cards offer complimentary international travel insurance when you charge the cost of your travel ticket to your card.
Use a Digital Wallet
We have witnessed how technological innovations have transformed the way we live our everyday lives from how we stay in touch to how we pay for things.
With the introduction of digital wallets, we no longer need to carry a physical wallet to complete financial transactions.
Tip: I personally love the convenience but, for security concerns, I always have NFC disabled except for when its time to pay.
