Travel money cards?

[Guest]

Hiya,

Im trying to budget for our family trip to DLP on 6th Dec, and am keen on these travel money cards. I dont want to carry alot of cash, but i have heard that I will be charged everytime I use my debit card, is that right?
If so, I thought that I could get 2 travel cards, and budget one for food and one for spending. Apparently you can top them up which would help me with the saving, if its in Euros on a card I wont spend it? Budgeting is really important because its close to xmas and weve three youngsters.
What is everyone's thoughts on these cards? I only know of two, the Post Office Electron and the Fair fx Mastercard. Has anyone used them? are there any problems or disadvantages to them? Would anyone recommend them?
Not sure what to do, it seems a good budgeting tool but Id appreciate anyones thoughts on them?
thanx

[JamelUK]

Yet again I have to delete posts from the DISNEYLAND PARIS PLANNING FORUM as they refer to WDW and not DLP.

Please can everyone be sure to take care to read where they are posting and replying to threads.

Thanks,

James

[JamelUK]

Hey Lynz,

The preferred card by DIBBers is the FairFX card.

You can actually get an offer on FairFX by using this link...

fairfx/dibb

DLP will happily accept FairFX.

However - at DLP we have never used them.
We always just pay cash in €'s

The way to budget is to work out your average daily spend.
Put this amount into an envelope for each day of your trip and ONLY take taht with you each morning.
Any you have left at the end of the day can either be rolled-over to the following day or stuck back into the pot for use at the end of your trip for a last special meal or to buy that nice souvenir you spotted along your way.

The other alternative, if you are staying onsite at one of the Disney hotels, is to ask for to setup a Disney "Charge Card" whilst checking in.

They WILL take your credit/debit card details from you, but in return you get a little pink card that you can just carry with you around the resort. It can be used to pay for anything at the majority of the shops and restaurants and its all charged back to your room account.

You can then pay this off at the end of your holiday - only incurring ONE card charge.

[Guest]

Hi James,
Thanx for that advice, Im a rubbish saver, so I think topping up a card will be a good way to save, but I like the idea of the envelopes, I think ill encourage the kids to do that as theyl have a small budget for treats each day! Ill check out fairfx

Thanx so much!
Lynz

[Hannikins]

although this doesn't help with saving I prefer the post office credit card. It doesn't charge you a fee for using it in europe (and the exchange rate is pretty fair) and if your staying on property you can link to it your room card and pay once at the very end. I considered a fairfx card but after reading some trip reports where charges have gone through twice or not at all etc I've been put off

[Hannikins]

another good idea i've seen on here for kids is to give then a voucher per day which they can trade in with the bank of mum and dad. once its gone its gone then

[Guest]

Hi Hannikins,
Thanx for your advice, Ill have a good look at both cards small print before I decide. Thats a great idea for the kids, they will want everything, but I neither want to deny or ridiculously indulge them, so I could get imaginitive and print off some vouchers with a set amount on them to try and curb their demands by adding that fun element..cue tantrums, feet stamping and extra baggage charges on way home...
thanx again
lynz

[Guest]

Hi Lynz

We have just returned from a trip in Europe, including DLP where we used the Fairfx Mastercard. We had no problems using in any of the locations we visited. You won't get charged on any purchases made using the card but you will be charged E1.50 for cash withdrawals from ATM's. Fairfx have one of the better exchange rates, we were lucky and topped up the cards when it was E1.21 for £1, however it's hovered around that figure since, so you can't go wrong.

The only thing I will say is if you use the card to purchase fuel at a Pay@Pump station is that it will authorise the card for the maximum amount, in our case it was E130.00 but within 24 hours it was adjusted to the actual amount we spent. So it's always worth taking that into consideration (however it seems in your post that you're flying as you mentioned baggage allowance). We also had no problems with amounts being taken twice but if you're concerned you can always check your account online (easy if you carry a smartphone), which is very easy to read and understand.

[Guest]

Is it better to take cash or a travel card?
Have always used travellers cheques when travelling abroad before.

[Guest]

We are going in October and after much deliberation we are opting to take a Euros travel card and a small amount of Euros in cash.

We opted for the CaxtonFX Euro card as you have the option (for a £5.00 fee) to have an additional card linked to the same funds. So we have a spare card in case of disasters!

There are loads of these travel cards on the market now, and I think the 2 most popular seem to be FairFX and CaxtonFX.

Not really much to choose between them though.