The Advent Of Currency Cards

Traveler’s checks have long been the best way to do it, but that is all changing.  Credit cards have their advantages of course, but what do you do if you haven’t got one?  And even if you have, you may not feel comfortable taking it away with you, especially if you are on a budget.

This is why the prepaid currency card has been invented to make life easier for you.  There is no doubt that carrying cash around on your person isn’t the safest way to take money abroad, no matter where you might be going. 

You should always have a small amount on you just in case you should need a few coins for something, but in general it’s not the done thing to do any more.  Why risk losing the lot if you are unlucky enough to be robbed?  And even if you keep your currency locked away in a suitcase in your room, there is no guarantee that the room is secure when you leave it behind. 

Websites everywhere have been reporting that more and more providers are starting to offer the currency card as an alternative to cash and credit cards.  One of these is MarketWatch, which can be viewed at www.marketwatch.com, which is connected with the Wall Street Journal.

So how do these cards work?  Well, you can buy them from an ever increasing number of outlets, and you basically choose what currency you want to put on them.  Once you’ve decided how much to load the card up with, you will receive it to use as and when you wish. 

One of the best things about these cards is that they can be refilled - something that never applied to the rather more cumbersome Traveler’s checks.  You don’t have to think about signing and exchanging them for cash; all you need to do is hand your card over and use it just as you would any other card.  And once the Traveler’s checks have been used, that’s it.  Not so with the currency cards, which you can top up whenever you like.  You can only hold the one currency on each one though, so you might have to have more than one if you frequently travel to more than one country.

The downside is that many of them can only be loaded up with a limited range of currencies.  The US dollar, the British pound and the Euro are some of the choices, but the range doesn’t often extend much beyond these.

With that said though, these most popular of currencies are often accepted in many countries beyond the ones they are generally used in.  Clearly we can probably expect more currencies to become available for this purpose in the future, but for now the limits are not likely to undermine the potential popularity of the cards.

So could we envisage a point in the future where we are all using these cards?  It could well happen.  The biggest attraction is that even if the worst happens and your card is stolen, most providers will replace it (complete with the balance remaining on it at the time it disappeared) within minutes.  So you get the minimum of hassle even if you do get unlucky.

If you like the idea of getting hold of one of these cards it’s worth shopping around to see what rate you can get before you actually buy it.  The exchange rate will be changing all the time anyway of course, but aside from that you will get different offers from different sources.

Some places will also mail the card out to your home, although not all of them will charge for postage costs.  Work out whether the higher exchange rate and free postage option works out any more expensive than the place that offers a lower exchange rate but charges you for mailing it out.

In the end we are all looking for peace of mind, and while you will probably still take credit or debit cards on vacation with you, it’s good to know you have another option ready and waiting as well.  And why wait in a queue to get your holiday cash when you can have it sent to you at home?

This is one creation that seems to be here to stay, so don’t forget about it next time you go abroad.