Martin Lewis has revealed that he "doesn't bother" with using cash abroad while on holiday as he shared with ITV viewers his top three specialist overseas credit and debit cards with "near-perfect exchange rates".
In the summer special episode of The Martin Lewis Money Show on Tuesday night, after sharing the benefits of these cards – which were a Chase debit card, Halifax Clarity credit card, and Barclays Rewards credit card – Martin was asked the question of whether it was worth one if you only go on holiday once or twice a year as opposed to buying actual cash.
Giving his answer plainly the money expert said: "The rates of these cards smash the pants off all bureau de change. If you're only going away once a year, if you're not spending that much, it's not going to be a big saving.
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"If we take the Chase card – Chase is really easy to get and you get 1% cashback in the UK as well. It also has a pretty decent interest rate on savings. You don't have to switch to it. And there's no credit check. Why not? Because then you've got it. And whenever you go abroad you just use that. So personally I don't have foreign cash anymore. I don't bother with it anymore.
"I have one of these cards. I never even think when I go abroad: 'What am I going to use?'. I just get my card out of my overseas wallet and I know I'm going to get near-perfect rate. 'Why not?' would be my answer."
Some of the qualities of these cards that make them the best way to spend money abroad, as explained by Martin, are interest-free spending, fee-free ATM withdrawals, and cashback on spending. While Chase and Barclaycard Rewards both offer interest-free cash withdrawal too only Chase offers an easy and limited credit check.
Earlier in the show Martin explained the negatives of using a regular card abroad. While most banks get a "near-perfect" rate abroad most will usually add a "non-sterling transaction fee" of around 3% meaning £100 worth of foreign currency would actually cost you £103.
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