Which are the best to use without fees?
Avoiding Starling (left them) or Chase (American)
HSBC Global money? This new iFast bank?
Revolut. Monzo.
Who’s approving these threads 
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Which?: “The Best Debit Cards To Use Abroad”
Depends where. Edited to remove part around FX fees, do your own research.
It used to be Wise didn’t it?
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I believe First Direct, Chase, Revolut, Monzo and Wise are all free to use abroad and will all have similar rates. The former 2 also have free cash withdrawals, the latter 3 charge after withdrawing ÂŁ200.
Chase was my pick when they included overseas purchases in the 1% cashback, but now arguably not as good as First Direct with their unlimited overseas fee-free ATM withdrawals (Chase caps it to ÂŁ1500 per month).
But Chase doesn’t do a full credit check to open their account, if that’s important to you.
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Edit: @JIMMWX has now retracted the comment below, but I am leaving the rest of my post as valuable commentary on the fees situation generally.
No offence is intended towards @JIMMWX.
This is a pretty misleading generalisation, I have to say!
Most fintechs now do fee-free foreign currency transactions, but certainly not all traditional banks. I appreciate you followed this up with a caveat, but the reality is that only fintechs generally don’t have extra fees, and some products from other banks might not have fees but you have to be careful to ensure you are using the right product.
The exception is First Direct, and I think that’s because they are now trying to market themselves as something like a fintech, despite not actually being a fintech.
A few examples:
- HSBC Global Money (an extra account you need to open first)
- TSB Spend & Save Plus (but there is an account fee)
- Club Lloyds - soon (but there is, again, an account fee and you may or may not qualify to have it waived)
- NatWest & RBS Premier accounts (but not mass market accounts; most of these also have associated fees and all have qualification criteria).
I think this is important to point out because the vast majority of current account market share will, still, be account types which charge some kind of fee which the customer should go away and check before travelling!
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Right now, iFast is actually the best option as you pay no fees on non-GBP purchases and cash withdrawals and still collect 2% cashback on almost everything you buy.
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Edited to remove.
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Fair enough!
I wasn’t trying to criticise you at all, but rather raise a valid point that in our fintech and “banking aware” bubble, it can feel that all/most accounts offer this feature - but in reality, when Joe or Jane Bloggs gets out their regular Lloyds, Barclays, HSBC or whatever bank card abroad, without thinking or planning ahead, they are likely to be charged fees!
I didn’t see it it as a criticism, I edited to remove the part as you’re correct, a number do charge a fee and perhaps I should’ve been clearer that in a number of cases there are easy ways to avoid the fees.
Indeed 
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Ah good, I just wanted to make sure because, on reflection, my own post did come across as a bit strong and perhaps overly focused on what you had said!
Thinking about this, we could perhaps compile a useful list of accounts/services which are fee-free.
I left off the Barclays & NatWest, RBS and Ulster Bank “Travel Wallets” from my initial post, for example.
You’ve also got the technicalities around whether it’s better to have the Visa or Mastercard rate or, as services like Revolut and HSBC Global Money do, some kind of separate “interbank rate”.
Then there is the fact Revolut charge weekend markup fees, for example, whereas Visa & Mastercard simply freeze the rate while markets are closed. HSBC freeze the rate between New York close on Friday night and Hong Kong open on Monday morning. Mastercard and Visa calculate a daily rate, others such as Revolut or HSBC have a constantly-adjusting “live” rate while markets are open.
I could go on, but I won’t if it’s a boring topic to others!
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I think the problem is, which I poorly eluded to in my first post, it’s it’s very much down to when as to what’s available. And appetite for it.
There was a time when monzling et al were a super great choice for free fee spending abroad. But now, I’m not so sure. I say this because for those who actually care to notice and avoid the fee, there are many ways to do this. I haven’t banked with Monzo for over four years and haven’t paid fees once in that period.
That’s because I’ve either used Global Money or now Clib Lloyds.
For my wife she didn’t even really bother to check this and just paid the fees. I suspect for the vast many people this is what they do.
It’s a complex and I agree interesting topic, but likely for the few not the many.
Thanks for this, I’d never heard of it before, but am downloading the app now to apply!
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Vrgin is free and gives you ÂŁ500/day. Nationwide Flexplus is ÂŁ18/month.
Chase 100%
Any ideas how good the Santander Edge rate is for using the debit card abroad? I have used it but just wondering how good it is compared to other options
The Santander website says they use the Mastercard-set exchange rate, so it’ll be the same rate as any other GBP Mastercard that does the same (like Monzo, Starling, Chase, First Direct, Virgin, etc.).
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Someone showed in another thread recently that often Wise ends up being cheaper than banks using the Mastercard exchange rate even though they charge fees, just because that better exchange rate offsets them.
We’re probably talking pennies though.
I’ve read anecdotes going both ways for Wise being better or worse. Mastercard sets a daily exchange rate, afaik Wise’s can vary throughout the day. So it’s a bit of luck of how the rate market has moved as to which will win. I think it’s also a similar situation for Visa vs Mastercard rates.
Like you implied, it’s pennies and not worth worrying about.
I think Curve might work as you can use any card / bank you want and they remove all FX fees.