The best prepaid multi-currency cards

Lock in rates and stick to your budget

Spending overseas without fees is now pretty easy thanks to a number of readily available debit and credit cards. But using a prepaid card, even if it has a small fee, could give you an advantage on getting the best rate or keeping it separate to your other spending.

Here are some of the best options.

Some articles on the site contain affiliate links, which provide a small commission to help fund our work. However, they won’t affect the price you pay or our editorial independence. Read more here.

Types of prepaid cards

Multi-currency cards explained

When you use a normal fee-free debit or credit card overseas you’re spending in pounds and getting that day’s exchange rate. Most of the time that’s not an issue.

But you are at the mercy of exchange rates, meaning holidays can cost more than you intended. If you happen to be away when the pound crashes, as happened to me during the mini-Budget of 2022, then it can add hundreds of pounds to the cost of your trip.

However, some banks allow you to lock in rates at any time by converting money when you choose rather than when you spend. These are known as multi-currency accounts.

This can be great for budgeting as it has the advantage of helping you know exactly what things will cost on your holiday.

You can even lock in rates much further ahead of travel if you think they are particularly good. Though there’s also the strong possibility that rates could improve further and you’ll miss out on better rates from live exchange rates.

Some cards might be restricted to the main international ones such as dollars and euros, but others give you the option to select currencies as far afield as Uganda or Uruguay. We’ve listed those available for each of our top picks at the bottom of this article.

Pre-loaded sterling cards explained

The other type of prepaid card remains in pounds and are fee-free to use overseas. These are probably the type you’re most familiar with.

These are good for those who want something separate to their normal account (a handy security measure if you lose your card) or an account you can add money to for others, particularly children.

For the most part it’s best to avoid traditional prepaid cards. They’ll set their own exchange rates, add on ‘load fees’ and often charge you ‘inactivity fees’ that can eat up any cash left on cards after your holiday.

These prepaid cards are still available, with Post Office and Sainsbury’s Bank among providers. But I’d avoid them unless you want to avoid using an app.

Instead, there are digital banks and apps you can treat in the same manner. You add the money you want to spend, and use them solely for overseas spending. The key here is to find ones which are fee free for spending and ATM withdrawals. In effect they’ll act like a prepaid card if you do this

Best multi-currency prepaid cards

The following cards have the lowest exchange rates or other features worth considering. We’ve more details below the tables on each one.

Provider	Revolut Standard	Trading 212	Wise	iFast
Rate	Interbank (+ 1% on weekends)	Interbank + 0.15%	Interbank + min of 0.39% (varies by currency)	Visa rate + unknown
Free cash withdrawals?	£200 limit per rolling month / max 5 withdrawals per rolling month	£200 limit per month	£200 limit a month / max 2 withdrawals a month	Unknown
Card charge	£4.99	£4.95	£7	Free
Extra info	Capped at £1,000 exchange per month			Currently not able to add to Apple Wallet
Smart Money People customer score	4.92 out of 5	4.75 out of 5	4.71 out of 5	4.88 out of 5

Best sterling prepaid cards

If you don’t want to use the likes of Chase, Monzo or Starling, this option is closer to the old school prepaid cards, but without the hidden charges.

Provider	HyperJar
Rate	Mastercard
Free cash withdrawals?	No cash withdrawals
Card charge	£4.99
Extra info	Must use it once every 12 months to avoid a £3 monthly fee
	10 free top ups over £10 a month
Smart Money People customer score	4.88 out of 5

More on each prepaid card

Revolut multi-currency account

Though you can operate Revolut as if it were a bank account, including spending abroad for free from your Pound Sterling account, you can also hold more than one currency.

It’s free to exchange up to £1,000 per month into one of 30 plus different currencies from across the world – as long as you do it Monday to Friday. So if you plan ahead, then you can avoid an extra 1% charge. You’ll get the (often slightly better) interbank rate with Revolut, rather than the Visa or Mastercard rate.

Spending is free (you’re already in the local currency), though there’s a £200 ATM limit a month before a 2% charge is applied to cash withdrawals.

You can add your card to Apple or Google Pay straight away, though you’ll need to pay £4.99 to get an actual debit card delivered if you want one. Here’s our full Revolut review.

Over at our sister site Smart Money People, customers have rated Revolut 4.92 out of 5. You can read their reviews here.

Trading 212 multi-currency account

Trading 212’s card is linked to the uninvested cash in your investment account. This can be converted into one of 12 additional currencies, the majority of which are in Europe.

Despite Trading 212 adding 0.15% fee to the Interbank rate, it could actually be better than Revolut’s rate. That’s because there aren’t limits and no extra charges at weekends. Plus, you also get 1.5% cashback on your spending with the Trading 212 card until September 2025 (then 0.5%), even when you spend abroad.

You can add virtual cards to Apple or Google Pay. We have more about the Trading 212 card, including how it works and all the fees involved in our full review. And don’t forget new users can get a free share worth up to £100.

Another perk is you’ll be earning interest on your uninvested cash held in Trading 212, whatever the currency.

Over at our sister site Smart Money People, customers have rated Trading 212 4.75 out of 5. You can read their reviews here.

Wise multi-currency account

The biggest selection of currencies you can lock in is via Wise. There are 40 plus available, so if you’re going somewhere beyond even Revolut’s large list of countries, Wise could be your best bet.

The mark up on the exchange rate varies by currency, starting at an extra 0.39%. So it could be better than Revolut on weekends, but more than both Revolut and Trading 212 at other times.

For those that want an account to use for more than just the odd holiday, Wise stands out as for many of these accounts you also get account details, so you can easily pay in and pay out cash in those currencies.

It pays interest on Euros and US Dollars, and the card can be added to Apple and Google wallets.

iFast multi-currency account

Another option is iFast. This only has eight currencies, including British Pounds. A good feature is you’ll earn 2% cashback on spending abroad, but only until the end of August 2025.

Frustratingly, their FAQs are massively clear on what rate you’ll get. They say it’s a blend of the Visa rate and “rates from our correspondent banking partner(s) involved in currency settlement”.

Using the calculator on their website it doesn’t seem too different to the live rate, so it doesn’t seem like too much off a mark up.

Their website also doesn’t share things like spending and ATM withdrawal limits, pointing you to check in your own account on the app. You can add the card to Google Pay, but at the moment it won’t work with Apple Pay. One perk is you can earn interest on your foreign currency holdings.

Over at our sister site Smart Money People, customers have rated iFast 4.88 out of 5. You can read their reviews here.

HyperJar prepaid account

HyperJar is a prepaid Mastercard that gets added to your Google or Apple Pay when you sign up. There are both adult and kids versions. There are no charges for spending, and the exchange rate is Mastercard.

This holds your money in pounds, so you wouldn’t be able to lock in the rate as with the other cards on the page. So really it’s similar to fee-free debit cards.

The first ten top-ups each month are free, as long as they’re over £10 each time. There’s also a fee added if you don’t use it at least once in 12 months.

You can’t make cash withdrawals with HyperJar, so either ensure you have an account that lets you make withdrawals too, or make sure you’ve got as much physical cash as you need ahead of the holiday.

The card can be added to both Google and Apple Pay.

What currencies are available?

Provider	Revolut Standard	Trading 212	Wise	iFast
Currencies	Australian Dollar Bulgarian Lev Canadian Dollar Chilean Peso Chinese Yuan Renimibi Columbian Peso Czech Koruna Danish Krone Egyptian Pound Euro Hong Kong Dollar Hungarian Forint Icelandic Krona Indian Rupee Indonesian Rupiah Israeli New Sheqel Japanese Yen Kazakhstani Tenge Mexican Peso Moroccan Dirham New Zealand Dollar Norwegian Krone Philippine Peso Polish Zloty Qatari Riyal Romanian Leu Saudi Arabian Riyal Serbian Dinar Singapore Dollar South African Rand South Korean Won Swedish Krona Swiss Franc Thai Baht Turkish Lira United Arab Emirates Dirham United States Dollar Vietnamese Dong	Bulgarian Lev Czech Koruna Danish Krone Euro Hungarian Forint Norwegian Krone Polish Zloty Romanian Leu Swedish Krona Swiss Franc United States Dollar	40+ (full list available in Wise app)	Chinese Yuan Renimibi Euro Hong Kong Dollar Japanese Yen Singapore Dollar Swiss Franc United States Dollar