West Ham Online

Anybody used it? The customer service is shocking firstly. Been on the chat for 30 minutes and I’m still waiting for simple explanation as to the best/cheapest and quickest ways to add GBP from a French bank account or visa and the subsequent charges. Getting everything other than that answer. Any other products good for this anybody uses? Just for buying stuff in the UK for a trip

At the Visa base rate? Earning air miles? You do with Curve.....

"Crypto.com card doesn't charge for withdrawals abroad, AFAIK."

Its been my go to for a pre paid card with a better exchange rate than tourist money . Its not as good as it was at first and there is more competition out there. Its not loyalty just habit that I keep it going

I use my Chase card abroad for small purchases and a Halifax Clarity credit card for larger purchases. Neither of then charge you any fees for using abroad.

Barclays debit account lets you transfer £ into wallets of foreign currency & you can just use your normal debit card. Unfortunately they only do USD & Euros at the moment When I went to Australia recently I took the Post office card version where you could top it up with AUD. Worked ok after some teething problems but they don’t let you cash it out in full all at once if you come back with a balance. Ended up switching the AUD to Euros for my next trip

And better than all of these (at least for foreign spend) is Curve. You link a card to it and it charges your card at the Visa base rate in GBP. I often get better than the official exchange rate. If anyone wants a referral ;)

Cheers Mr Ox.. I'll look into it for next time I'm abroad.

"Because you'll be stung on charges if you use a UK bank card most likely. Halifax were the only bank that didn't charge you, and I think they might have started to now. I've had my Revolut account for years. It's great. I even load it up and take it out when I'm on the piss, and don't take any other cards. That way if I get completely wasted there no chance of me spending a load of dosh and waking up the following morning not knowing anything (which may or may have not happened to me before)."

when abroad.

Why bother with all these new accounts/cards?: i just use my UK bank debit card to withdraw cash and pay for purchases.

"Matthew Holmes 11:26 Tue May 21 No problems. No plans to welly it at the moment as I'm using a local bank account for purchases, but will be going to the Netherlands/Germany in July so I may be using it to book hotels & flights (And most probably meals out for my saucepans). Loading money onto it was a breeze from my UK account (although I did have to flip between computer and phone a few times), but now I need to see if it's just as easy/free from my Thai bank account, which I'll be checking over the next few days, depending on how the exchange rate goes. It should be OK for on-line use as you can get the card number, expiry date and security code for the card from their app or if you log on via a PC."

"I've been using Wise to convert/take payments from USD AND euro and convert in GBP when needed. Cheap and cheerful. Mike Ox... Would be interested to know how this Wise card goes, please"

"I use a Chase card all the time, transfer money to it like a PAYG phone. 1% cash back on most purchases Round up to the nearest pound when buying , got over £500 for effectively doing nothing over 18 months . Bank rates when using abroad (not tourist) and all free. Recommend."

Have always used a FairFX card whilst travelling. Not the greatest exchange rate and also can’t add to my digital wallet. Have just got a Revolut card. Anyone know what’s the maximum transaction I can make contactless (with my phone) on Revolut? Am going away in a couple of months and I’m not really sure it’s worth the ball ache of moving away from ‘the devil I know’.

"Revolute has a number of positives 1. You load your home currency on easily. 2. You exchange as and when you want ( maybe when it's a good exchange rate) very easily at very good rates. 3. It works for the most part like any other debit card. Beware in Europe many bank ATMs will put on a charge even if you are using the Euro account, the cheeky bastards. There's plenty of info online about which don't. In the end it's just a better rate than most others with no or small charges."

"Heath Hammer 6:25 Tue May 21 Thanks. Number 1 daughter (link-free, sorry) has just WhatsApped me from Korea saying she is busily spending Won on her Revolut card."

"Pretty much all the same Mike in terms of core functionality. Depending on how much cash you may need to withdraw, how much fx you need to do in any given month etc some are a little better than others - but inherently, they all do the same thing."

Just opened something similar with Wise. Got a digital card on my phone and a physical card (back-up in my case) costs an extra 7 quid. Will try a few test purchases on my travels. Not sure if Wise has any more or any less bragging/zoltaneering rights than Revolut though - in the past I've always used XE for straight money transfers and had no real issues with them.

Have an account with them. Good exchange rates and I get paid in Euros. Someone tried to hack it though from the US (unsuccessfully) and another friend had his hacked.

"I always pay in the currency I am spending in. (So if in Spain, then EUR) If you have not got enough in the specific wallet, revolut will do a transfer automatically for you…."

"Cheers all, learned more on here in 30’s than an age on their website or chat. Done a test, transferred EUR to Revolut, then exchanged it to GBP. Rates work out better than transfergo and co. So… I have EUR and GBP currencies. Added card to appple wallet. If I’m in the UK do I asked which currency to pay in when I use it so it’s deducted from the right currency I have or does it default to GBP ‘account’ ?"

"Cheers all, learned more on here in 30’s than an age on their website or chat. Done a test, transferred EUR to Revolut, then exchanged it to GBP. Rates work out better than transfergo and co. So… I have EUR and GBP currencies. Added card to appple wallet. If I’m in the UK do I asked which currency to pay in when I use it so it’s deducted from the right currency I have or does it default to GBP ‘account’ ?"

"Use it all the time and in Spain a lot. To add GBP from a French bank….. Get your Euro IBAN from your Euro wallet (select the little circle that says details) Make a euro payment from your French bank to revolut. Once you have Euro’s in revolut, convert to GBP"

On the ball by name...

"A brilliant product. Or at least it was, until they realised and closed their loopholes. I managed to put over £180k through mine and Mrs OTB's cards when you could top up Revolut with a credit card and transfer into your bank account, just to earn air miles. Only just used up those miles and vouchers at Easter."