Pre-paid € cards (1 Viewer)

JeanLuc

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I know many Funsters have the Caxton Card and having just returned from 4 weeks away and totted up the transaction fees on our credit card we are tempted to get a pre-paid card. According to Money Saving Expert, the two best options are FairFX or CaxtonFX (the former tends to offer a better FX rate apparently).
Before taking the plunge, I would be interested to know Funsters' experience. For instance, are the cards generally accepted at fuel stations? (Particularly the unmanned variety where the only way to fuel is with a card.) Fuel would probably be our main use as that is what the credit card gets used for most at present.
I understand the benefit in terms of accessing cash from an ATM, but want to know whether the pre-paid cards are accepted by merchants as freely as standard credit cards. Most of our travelling is likely to be in France, Belgium, Germany, Holland and Italy, although we may venture further afield with more time available now.

Many thanks.
 

icantremember

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We have the CaxtonFX cards which are great for normal chip &pin purchases but find they are often not accepted at auto tolls and unmanned fuel pumps .
 

hilldweller

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Caxton FX -- Mostly good but don't go without backup.

What is good on Caxton is Text Top Up. Send a text to Caxton, which has debit card details logged and you get a top up, or you can request a text of current balance.

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Bailey58

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We were looking at pre-paid options before our trip in May but got turned down for the Saga card we applied for. Other threads suggest the reason was we don't borrow money, so we went on our credit card but won't do that again. £1.50 plus a percentage of each transaction, even though we had euros and Swiss Francs, petrol, tolls, food all took their chunk on the card. :Angry:
 
May 23, 2008
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Used a Caxton card this year if France for the first time. No problems anywhere even at unmanned fuel stations in the mountains. After returning in July at least two hefty diesel purchases haven't been drawn on, yet.
Speak as you find but it is ideal for us and it's nice not to be ripped off by the bank cards.
 

lorger

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Just back from our holidays and used Caxton card in 7 different countries with no problem. This is our second time abroad with it, we tend to top it up every now and again when the rate is good.

We also have one for the USA and encountered more problems there with some supermarkets not accepting it.
 
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JeanLuc

JeanLuc

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Thanks all for the information. Particularly useful link from Techno100 to the CaxtonFX guidance page. I had not found that when researching earlier. Apparently not always a good idea to use it at unmanned fuel stations then!

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Techno

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Thanks all for the information. Particularly useful link from Techno100 to the CaxtonFX guidance page. I had not found that when researching earlier. Apparently not always a good idea to use it at unmanned fuel stations then!

It is fine if you have plenty of funds pre loaded. The ring fencing of funds is the only problem but this is the same with all cards, you just don't notice.
 

Floydster

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Looking into one of these, what exchange rate do they use, is it the bank rate, tourist rate or their own? can't see any reference to it on their site.

Paul
 

treetops1

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We use fairfx never had a problem anywhere with it .the rate you get is the rate you purchase for .We use ours in France mainly fuel.sites ect .I still have a good bit left from last year i took a chance when the euro was 1.25 to the pound and it has saved us a lot of money .highly recomended.
 
C

Chockswahay

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With my recent fiasco with Halifax Clarity (sorted now) I purchased (?) a FairFX card ready for out trip to France next month.

According to MoneySavingExpert it is now the 'top' cash card :Smile:

The order process was easy (online), I just bought £100 worth of Euros. If you do this through MoneySupermarket they waive the £9.99 joining fee :Smile:
 

normanandsue

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Looking into one of these, what exchange rate do they use, is it the bank rate, tourist rate or their own? can't see any reference to it on their site.

Paul

The only conversion rate is when you load the card, so it will be the rate they offer you,

We used Thomas Cook prepaid card - this is Visa and was accepted. However I bank with Nationwide and their credit card does not charge for overseas transactions and they use the current exchange rate so we often found we got a better rate on our Credit card than we would have got if we had done a cash exchange.

Norman

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callumwa

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Just use a Halifax Clarity......... No fees, good rate.... Chocks (wye aye) has one too......:winky:

No need to worry;

Did I put enough cash on it:Doh:
Did I top up it at a "good" rate,:RollEyes: hope it won't improve now.....:cry:
Will it get accepted at unmanned fuel stations late at night or on a Sunday...:Doh:
If I have an unexpected "crisis" is there enough on the FX/Caxton card to cover it. :RollEyes:


Halifax Clarity for us, worked now in 8 countries over the last 5 weeks (and many more over 2 years) including unmanned fuel stations. :thumb::thumb::thumb:



::bigsmile:
 

s7ev0

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The only place we couldn't use our Caxton cards in Europe this summer (we got one in Euros and one in pounds) was when shopping in Lidl, but then I think I'm right in saying you can only use cash in the UK Lidls too.

Steve :Smile:
 

autoswan

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Hi we have fair fx card good exchange rate loading it and post office cash card both with mastercard logo ( will get 2 different next time ).no good at carrefour 24hr unmanned deisel pumps or on toll road machines but fine everywhere else.

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Feb 9, 2008
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Caxton cards will not be accepted at unmanned fuel stations in France. If you talk to Caxton they will explain why. Something to do with authorization of the payment between Caxton and the Wholesaler I believe.
 

Chris

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I think it's all a bit of a con.

We have got one but I am not convinced there are any great savings to be made.

Whilst the banks charge you commission they will give you a better exchange rate than Caxton.

I would wager that on say a £200 purchase, the difference between a Caxton card and a Barclaycard would be pence.
 

Whatton

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Just back from three weeks in France and used a Hallifax Clarity Mastercard as mentioned earlier in this thread, for purchases, fuel, tolls, campsites etc. It worked in all the machines, tolls and petrol pumps.

The big plus is theres no transaction fees at all on purchases and when we got back we found out they'd given us 1.15 point five Euros to the pound exchange rate, try getting that for cash in the UK or abroad. Plus if you spend £300 a month on it and then pay the balance off they credit you with £5

Only catch is you have to have a Halifax current account to get one, but if you have one of them and stay in credit and pay in £1k a month you get £5 credited to that as well.

I wouldn't use it for getting cash from atm's as although theres no transaction fee you'd still be paying interest on the cash until you'd paid it off.

I really can't see the point of these pre-pay ones. If any credit cards get nicked a phone call cancels them and your not liable for any transactions.

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Chris

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A £200 purchase ?

£200 !

We're not going aboard to buy another van, one is quite enough.

£200, I didn't get where I am today by spending £200.

::bigsmile:

It's too late to edit my post now but I should have added " (or £50 for those North of Watford)"

:hardhat::hardhat:
 

Steve101uk

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we used caxton in France this year and my wife used it on a business trip to Finland. Did not attempt to use it at tolls or automatic fuel stations but paid for fuel at the cashier where caxton was accepted. Otherwise we found caxton was accepted everywhere. Had one issue where I drew E60 from a atm and it didn't clear on the account for a week or more, made it seem as if I had E60 less than I did for some reason that they did explain to me. Phoned caxton who sorted it in about two minutes.

advantages I see are, no extra fees such as £1.50 per transaction because you are spending in euros. Very easy to track and monitor your spending while away. No carrying of large amounts of cash necessary.

disadvantages are getting the best exchange rate is a gamble as it changes daily but is in line with everywhere else. Not always accepted at automated machines when paying on aires by card. We had a problem at Ouistream aire where it was only accepting French cards so no non French could pay. Caxton was accepted at Le Treport aire. It was not accepted at the Honfluer aire but neither were any of my other UK cards so I had to pay cash.

I took credit cards as emergency back up and my debit card but never needed to use them

I will use Caxton next time I am in europe

Steve

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callumwa

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Just looked at today's Caxton € rate = 1.1460, Interbank rate = 1.1745
A difference of €0.0285 or approximately or almost 2.5%

Just checked my Clarity statement online, on fuel purchases in Spain on the 14th this month they applied a rate of 1.1645, the actual Interbank rate at the time was 1.1647, pretty close methinks...:thumb:

So with Clarity, you do get a better rate, so could save approx £50 on a £2000 spend....:Cool:

... and no worries about preloading, being accepted at tolls and unmanned fuel stations, topping up whilst travelling, etc etc.

I pay it off in full each month, so I have not had to part with a penny yet for our tour, which started a month ago, so it's like an interest free loan, unlike prepay where they have your cash in their account before you spend it....:Angry:


::bigsmile:
 

callumwa

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Jan 16, 2011
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Just back from three weeks in France and used a Hallifax Clarity Mastercard as mentioned earlier in this thread, for purchases, fuel, tolls, campsites etc. It worked in all the machines, tolls and petrol pumps.

The big plus is theres no transaction fees at all on purchases and when we got back we found out they'd given us 1.15 point five Euros to the pound exchange rate, try getting that for cash in the UK or abroad. Plus if you spend £300 a month on it and then pay the balance off they credit you with £5

[HI]Only catch is you have to have a Halifax current account to get one[/HI], but if you have one of them and stay in credit and pay in £1k a month you get £5 credited to that as well.

I wouldn't use it for getting cash from atm's as although theres no transaction fee you'd still be paying interest on the cash until you'd paid it off.

I really can't see the point of these pre-pay ones. If any credit cards get nicked a phone call cancels them and your not liable for any transactions.


I agree with you on all the positives of a Clarity Card.:thumb:

I have one too, but I do not have a Halifax current account......

::bigsmile:

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