Prepaid Travel Cards or Travel Money Cards represent one of the most popular ways of spending money on your holiday safely and securely especially when you are abroad. But what exactly are these prepaid travel money cards and why are they so useful?

Well, prepaid travel cards work just like regular prepaid cards in all respects. This means that you load cash onto these travel prepaid cards and can only spend as much money as you have loaded and is available on the card. However, there is one significant difference between prepaid travel credit cards and a normal prepaid debit card being that travel money cards are typically available in foreign currency which ideally should match the currency of your holiday destination.

In other words, if you are a UK resident, you can buy prepaid travel money cards in currencies other than Sterling, typically being Euros and Dollars if you are travelling to a destination where the transactional currency is Euro or Dollars respectively.  So if you were travelling to Europe, you would probably like to get a Prepaid Euro Card but if you were travelling to the United States, you would be much better of getting a Prepaid Dollar Card. However, if you were travelling to a destination that accepted neither Euro’s nor Dollars, then you may as well get a Sterling Prepaid card to avoid having to pay foreign exchange twice.

Here are the 7 Reasons Why You Need a Travel Money Card for your Next Trip Abroad:

1. Much better exchange rates than exchanging cash at the airport
   Many airports have foreign currency exchange booths that offer terrible exchange rates. It is not uncommon to get exchange rates at airport travel money booths which are over 10% worse than the rates offered by leading travel money cards.
2. Better exchange rates than the majority of credit or debit cards
   Credit or debit cards will commonly charge you anywhere between 2.00% – 4.00% on foreign currency transactions, and a further ATM fee for cash withdrawals. This means that leading travel money cards can beat your existing debit or credit card by around 4% or more.
3. Zero point of sale usage fees
   Unlike most debit or credit card which will commonly charge you a 2.75% foreign exchange fee on all transactions, most travel money cards offer free transactions at point of abroad if you use your card in a region which has the same transaction currency at your card currency. This means a whole lot of extra savings for using your prepaid currency card in restaurants, shops, hotels etc abroad.
4. Low ATM fees
   ATM fees on Prepaid Travel money card are consistently lower than those charged on debit and credit cards and some providers even allow for free ATM. However, most charge a small fee. This is more than made by the excellent foreign exchange rates that these currency cards provide.
5. Load and manage your travel card online
   With your prepaid travel card, you can usually check your current balance and recent transaction history online free of charge. Some travel money cards even offer you the facility to check your current balance and top-up your cash using SMS messaging from your mobile phone.
6. More secure and convenient than cash
   A few prepaid travel card providers also offer consumers the facility to have multiple cards on the same account. Although you should check with your travel money card issuer first, if you are able to take a spare card with you and keep it safe and away from your main card, then your card issuer should be able to cancel your main card and transfer any existing funds to your spare card without too much hassle. An extra level of safety and security and should you be targeted by fraudsters, you know that your exposure is limited to the fund son the card as your prepaid travel card is not linked to your bank account.
7. Lock-in exchange rates when they are high
   Another great thing about travel money cards is that when you top them up, you lock-in the currency exchange rate which you get on the day that you load the card. That means that you can hold-off exchanging your travel cash if you think that the rate is going to get better before you travel. You can also buy now if you think that the rate is going to go down.

Prepaid Travel Cards are easily replacing cash, traveller cheques and credit cards as the most popular way of carrying holiday money abroad. It is no wonder that prepaid travel cards such as the PocketCurrency prepaid MasterCard has rapidly established itself as one of the leading products in the market.

Read the PocketCurrency prepaid travel card review and find out more about why you should get a prepaid currency card at Prepaid365.