What is the best way to take money for an extended foreign cruise?

[ferroboat]

We are at last setting of to cruise Spain and Portugal but how to safely have access to our cash? Does anyone have any views on Visa cash passport cards that the likes of Tesco and others offer that are pre-loaded at a fixed rate? or is it better to just use a debit card. Thanks in anticipation.

 

[ITH]

We are at last setting of to cruise Spain and Portugal but how to safely have access to our cash? Does anyone have any views on Visa cash passport cards that the likes of Tesco and others offer that are pre-loaded at a fixed rate? or is it better to just use a debit card. Thanks in anticipation.

We are on extended passage from UK to Turkey (currently in the Ionian), and spent some time navel-gazing about cash access before setting off. Our experience, based upon a variety of countries, is to use a combination of:

1) Enough ready €cash to cope with people who won't take plastic - taxis, cafes, bars, small shopkeepers etc

2) A pre-loaded € cash card, which you can top up as needed from your UK bank account. Ours is a FairFX card but there are lots to choose from, and they are one of the cheapest ways of drawing cash from ATMs and paying bills, plus the £/€ exchange rate is good.

3) A currency exchange facility, again linked to a UK bank account, which you can use to pay eg yard or marina bills or large unexpected amounts, directly into someones account. We use CurrencyFair, but again there are other commercial options. It is a much cheaper way to settle bills than using your UK bank to make an IBAN transaction, which is typically £25 to £30 in most cases. CurrencyFair charges a flat 3€ per transaction, regardless of the amount transferred, and they offer a good exchange rate - pretty close to MasterCard.

 

[capnsensible]

Typically in Spain it costs a couple of quid to use the cash machine on my debit card. Sometimes use it weekly, happy.

 

[Tomahawk]

Agree with ITH.. a prepaid eurocard.. we have Caxton..

You load it from your bank in whatever.. then use it like electronic cash... Load it little and often... If someone nicks it the is a limit to what they can pinch...

We also bank with Handlesbanken... Transfers to euros are easy and in house.. We also have a direct telephone number to our bank manager and we can talk to him on first name terms instead of a call centre.. The account has already made itself worthwhile when we needed to shift some cash about... Just phoned him and sorted everything without hassle...