In the past I have mentioned Wise as a company that supplies a great FX rate and small charges.

My bank has gone one better…

HSBC now have a global money debit card , available via their app. The plastic bit arrived within three days.

FX rate is excellent
Can be used for many currencies
No charge.

Load the card with cash from your current account , spend , load more. Draw out currency locally via the slot machines (ATM)

They will wipe out Wise and other new comers … I’m sure the other big banks will follow if they haven’t already done it. The American banks were offering something like this a year of two ago.

I must stress the FX rate was wonderful, near interbank rate. you will need to check if your bank is the same. Filters are in fact so good that in certain circumstances, when the ambient air is already polluted, a diesel car will tend to extract more particles from the air than it emits. Emissions Analytics worked with........etc etc

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#2

I got one of these the first day they came out, to visit family in Africa at Xmas.
No local African currencies available, but great to have a balance available in USD for immediate spending locally.
Rates are no worse than others in my experience.  “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” -where’s the fun in that?

Trouble with it is you need to be uk based, cuts their potential market right down...

I've always used a Halifax Clarity card (credit card), I only use it on holiday and I always pay in full Geoff

I used our bank's (ANZ) Visa debit card and a Qantas debit card we pre-load. Ron B. VK2OTC
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It sounds like they are trying to catch up. Revolut have been offering the same thing for years.

Revolut will also allow you to maintain a balance in multiple currencies, or it will do the FX for you at the time of transaction. It also does lots of other occasionally useful things like allowing payments to foreign accounts from said balances so you can take advantage of the great FX rate.

I have to agree - Revolut is the absolute best option for foreign currency payments either by card or by transfer through the Revolut account. No charges, excellent exchange rates and immediate transfers even to international accounts

Banks typically charge heaven and earth for a same day transfer from a UK bank to a European bank and will not always arrive on the same day if you miss the cut off time. Revolut transfers to another Revolut account in another country are immediate.

I do have both a Revolut business account and card, as well as a private Revolut account. The monthly charge for for the business account is £25, but bearing in mind that I transfer funds to and from the Revolut account several times a week, AND use the Revolute card extensively for fuel and other payments in Europe and the UK, all without charges at excellent exchange rates, the £25 Revolut monthly business account fee is an absolute bargain. 2012 4.4 TDV8 Vogue SE Current
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Last edited by 4434Morrison on 10th Feb 2023 11:07am. Edited 1 time in total

halifax credit and virgin debit, never had problems with these two.. ... - .- -.




Y. O. L. O.
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I will stay with Wise. Also has a great App and simple to use. 2018 SE SDV8 4.4 Byron Blue

Revolut is a British financial technology company that offers banking services, but as of December 2022 does not have a UK banking licence.
Since Revolut does not have UK bank status, it does not reimburse victims of authorized push payment fraud etc. 2018 SE SDV8 4.4 Byron Blue

[quote="Bill"]In the past I have mentioned Wise as a company that supplies a great FX rate and small charges.

My bank has gone one better…

HSBC now have a global money debit card , available via their app. The plastic bit arrived within three days.

Thanks Bill I wasn't aware of this and have just set it up in a few minutes on my phone, hopefully this will cut out all those excessive foreign transaction costs.

However, you can turn on or off the card in the app which activates or de-activates it instantly. You can also apply settings like whether to accept contactless, online transactions, do GPS based security (so if a transaction occurs away from your current location, it will be denied).

Have never encountered another card issuer with that level of control of the card - you can even instantly generate a unique one-time-usage card for making online transactions with. Very happy Revolut customer here!

1JBS wrote:

Thanks Bill I wasn't aware of this and have just set it up in a few minutes on my phone, hopefully this will cut out all those excessive foreign transaction costs.

Kot wrote:

Revolut is a British financial technology company that offers banking services, but as of December 2022 does not have a UK banking licence.
Since Revolut does not have UK bank status, it does not reimburse victims of authorized push payment fraud etc.