FairFX Currency Card
FairFX Currency cards are prepaid MasterCard backed cards that work just like debit cards. The biggest difference is that with these cards you save up to 10% on your travel currency and up to 5% on the cost of using a UK debit or credit card abroad.
To use your card, you pre-load it with money either online, or via an SMS text service using your existing UK debit or credit card, or via bank transfer. It is easy to top up, and because the card is MasterCard backed, it’s accepted world wide at any store, ATM or online shop that has the MasterCard acceptance mark.
There are three different cards available, the Euro Card, the Dollar Card, and the new Anywhere Card:
The Euro Card
The FairFX Euro card is great if you’re travelling around the Euro Zone, using this card means that within this region of the world, you will enjoy 0% transaction fees and 0% management fees, and at the same time you’ll get market leading exchange rates so you’ll always know what you are spending. ATM withdrawals on this card cost a fixed E1.50 in the UK and overseas, and it’s easy to load money on to it.
The Dollar Card
The FairFX Dollar card is designed for use when you are travelling in the USA and any other country where dollars are accepted. As with the Euro card, there are 0% transaction fees, and 0% management fees, as well as excellent market leading exchange rates. If you wish to use an ATM to withdraw money in the UK or overseas, you will be charged a fixed fee of $2 per ATM withdrawal regardless of the amount you withdraw.
The Anywhere Card
The FairFX Anywhere card is the newest card in the FairFX range, and it works very much like the other two cards except that it can be used in any country and for any currency as long as the seller displays the MasterCard acceptance mark. The Anywhere card essentially keeps the balance in Sterling, with funds being converted to the appropriate currency at the point of sale. One good thing is that with this card, there is no mark up on the prevailing interbank exchange rate. Instead, a 1.5% charge is made on all usage anywhere, whether it is via ATM or point of sale. There are no other charges or fees regardless of where you use it anywhere in the world.
You can make up to 3 ATM withdrawals per day and a maximum of 10 over a 4 day period with any of these cards. If you exceed these limits the card gets locked for ATM useage, and in fact with the Euro or Dollar cards, it’s actually cheaper to pay with the card rather than to draw money via an ATM and pay with that because of the ATM fees. With the Anywhere card, the fee is the same for ATM withdrawal as for card payment because it is a percentage, therefore there should be no need to worry about this maximum number of withdrawals that are allowed.