Post Office Travel Money Cards. Any good?
Written on October 7, 2009
Post Office Travel Money Card
It’s not everyday you get asked to test out a product so the opportunity to explore this new offering from the Post Office was quite a pleasant surprise.
The Post Office is often the place i’ll go to change money before a trip away, because it’s convenient and because there’s no commission taken from the exchange. Trying out their new Travel Money Card is something that I would probably have got around to eventually but being incentivised to write about the experience here by the Post Office certainly sped up my interest in it.
The idea is that you preload the card with currency and use it whilst you’re abroad instead of your bank account. It’s good for ATM withdrawals, in-store payment, all the tasks that a regular VISA Electron card can manage. I picked mine up from the Post Office, loaded it up with some US dollars, activated the card over the phone the next day and I was ready to go. The card does deduct a fee for withdrawing money from ATMs but using the card in-store to pay for items is free, this is how I decided to use it. It was on my recent trip to Miami that I gave the card a try and it worked perfectly. It was only declined once in a supermarket, the rest of the time it was fine. I brought my card home with some dollars still on it but they will sit on there happily until my next sojourn. If you do run out whilst you’re away it is possible to top-up over the phone.
On my last big period of travel I carried a Nationwide Debit card which allowed me to withdraw money from ATMs around the world with no charge. This has since changed slightly and there is now a small fee involved, a fee that Nationwide previously absorbed but decided they could no longer afford. This makes the Travel Money Card a great option for carrying money abroad from my experience, I’ll be using it again.
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Post Office Travel Money Cards. Any good?
Post Office Travel Money Card
It’s not everyday you get asked to test out a product so the opportunity to explore this new offering from the Post Office was quite a pleasant surprise.
The Post Office is often the place i’ll go to change money before a trip away, because it’s convenient and because there’s no commission taken from the exchange. Trying out their new Travel Money Card is something that I would probably have got around to eventually but being incentivised to write about the experience here by the Post Office certainly sped up my interest in it.
The idea is that you preload the card with currency and use it whilst you’re abroad instead of your bank account. It’s good for ATM withdrawals, in-store payment, all the tasks that a regular VISA Electron card can manage. I picked mine up from the Post Office, loaded it up with some US dollars, activated the card over the phone the next day and I was ready to go. The card does deduct a fee for withdrawing money from ATMs but using the card in-store to pay for items is free, this is how I decided to use it. It was on my recent trip to Miami that I gave the card a try and it worked perfectly. It was only declined once in a supermarket, the rest of the time it was fine. I brought my card home with some dollars still on it but they will sit on there happily until my next sojourn. If you do run out whilst you’re away it is possible to top-up over the phone.
On my last big period of travel I carried a Nationwide Debit card which allowed me to withdraw money from ATMs around the world with no charge. This has since changed slightly and there is now a small fee involved, a fee that Nationwide previously absorbed but decided they could no longer afford. This makes the Travel Money Card a great option for carrying money abroad from my experience, I’ll be using it again.
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