The best travel debit and credit cards

Monzo, Starling, Curve, Halifax Clarity and more compared for overseas spending.

If you’re heading out of the UK then one of the best ways to spend money is to use a specialist card. Use the right one and you could be getting near-perfect exchange rates. Use the wrong one and you could be hit with extra fees on every transaction. Only a handful of accounts offer fee-free spending abroad, but it’s worth having a look online to see what your bank charges.

If you do need a new account to use abroad, here are the best ones.

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Our top travel debit cards

The cheapest cards are usually specialist debit cards – and they have the added benefit of not being credit cards! That means you can’t spend what you don’t have and credit checks will be easier or non-existent.

Another benefit is you won’t get charged interest to take cash out of an ATM, though as you’ll see a couple do have monthly limits on your fee-free spending or withdrawals.

Here are our top ones. If you already have one of these then you probably don’t need to open up another account.

Chase Bank

Why get it? No fees and 1% cashback

This digital-only account has no fees to use abroad. Plus you’ll get 1% cashback on all purchases (though this is capped at £15 a month), interest on savings and 5% interest on ’round-ups’ (though this latter one probably won’t add up to much). You won’t be hard credit searched. Here’s our full Chase Bank review.

Starling Bank

Why get it? No fees and the best banking app

Starling has become Editor-in-Chief Andy’s main card to use overseas. There are no limits for spending abroad or taking cash out (other than the daily cap you get with all debit cards), making it the best of the new breed of digital banks. There’s also only a soft credit check. Read our full Starling review.

Other fee-free current accounts

If you already have these accounts then you might be fine to just stick with them, and they might have extra benefits such as higher interest on savings.

• First Direct: Frequent bank switching offers, 7% Regular saver, £250 0% overdraft. Hard credit search
• Cumberland Building Society: Fully fee-free but requires a £750 a month deposit to the account. Hard credit search
• Kroo: £200 cash withdrawal limit each calendar month. 4.35% interest on savings. Soft credit check only.
• Monzo: Another with limits on cash withdrawals. Soft credit search and 4% interest.
• TSB Spend & Save Plus: Fee free and the potential to earn £5 cashback a month, but has £3 monthly fee.
• Virgin Money: Completely fee-free, and can be opened in branch, but still requires the app. Hard credit search.

Our top travel smart debit cards

These cards aren’t technically debit cards, though they works just like one. Instead you get a smart card which links to your bank and credit cards in the same way you’d use PayPal or Apple Pay.

The benefit of this makes it cheaper to spend overseas through other bank accounts that would normally be very expensive.

This makes it a great backup card, or even your primary travel spending card if you really can’t be bothered to go through the hassle of opening new accounts. There’s also no credit check.

With both these cards you’ll want to go for the free plans, though they do have a few restrictions.

Currensea

Why get it? A decent backup card

Currensea does a similasr thing as Curve but you connect to your current account rather than add a card. It has a 0.5% fee on top of the exchange rates every day of the week, so it could work out more expensive.

However there’s no monthly limit on spending with the card, and a higher £500 monthly free ATM withdrawal limit. Plus the card itself is free.

The bigger issue could be the limits on which banks it works with. Right now that list is only the bigger banks:

• Barclays
• Bank of Scotland
• Couts
• First Direct
• Halifax
• HSBC
• Lloyds
• Nationwide
• Natwest
• RBS
• Santander
• TSB
• Ulster Bank
• Virgin Money

Curve

Why get it? A good back up and the ability to change your underlying payment card

Curve used to be our top pick because of its high fee-free spending allowances abroad. However, in a recent update to its fees, these were cut. This could still be a helpful backup for emergencies, but not for regular use.

Curve has a few helpful extra features, such as the ability to change which card you want to charge after purchase. It also allows pretty much all Visa and Mastercards, whether debit or credit.

Read our full Curve review for more details.

Our top travel credit cards

Specialist credit cards can be great for overseas spending as long as you pay off the debt before any interest is charged.

Credit cards are particularly handy for things like hiring a car or putting deposits down on hotel rooms. The money can be held on these without leaving your account. You’ll also get Section 75 consumer rights protection.

With all credit card applications do make sure you check your eligibility first if you can.

Barclaycard Reward

Why get it? Earn cashback on all spending abroad

This Visa card from Barclaycard offers fee free spending and ATM withdrawals – and there’s no interest on cash you take out.

There’s also 0.25% cashback on purchases at home and abroad. That’s great for holiday spending but there are better alternatives for spending in the UK.

Halifax Clarity credit card

Why get it? If you want a credit card but can’t get the Barclaycard Reward

This is the card I’ve had for years and I only stopped using it when slightly better options came along . But it’s still a decent card and comes with me as a backup.

The downside is you will get charged interest on cash withdrawals straight away. This can be avoided or minimised If you clear the balance on a daily basis to avoid these extras. If you can’t get online then you can set up a standing order before you go. 

It’s a solid card and well worth sticking with if you already have it.

Best prepaid cards

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

However they can be useful if you want to lock in at a set exchange rate, and if you want to do this the following cards are cheapest:

Revolut

It’s free to exchange up to £1,000 per month into a different currency if 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.

HyperJar

HyperJar is another option when spending abroad. It’s a prepaid Mastercard that gets added to your Google or Apple Pay when you sign up. You can load money onto the card, which could stop you from overspending. Plus, it’s fee-free — you get Mastercard’s best foreign exchange rate when you spend without a fee on top.

This is slightly different to Revolut, where you convert the currency in one go, so if something drastically happens to the foreign exchange rate while you’re abroad, you wouldn’t be able to “lock in” the rate in the same way.

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.

Wise

Though there’s a fee on top of the interbank rate with Wise, there are more currencies you can convert to.

Free cash withdrawals are capped at £200 a month

The best ways to spend when abroad

Cards aren’t the only way to spend. his article breaks down how our editor Andy spends when he goes away