My girlfriend and I have been lucky enough to both get a year off work to go and travel the world. What are peoples experiences with using money abroad, we have a lump sum saved between us but obviously don’t want to use debit cards.
Is a credit card with 0 fees on spending and cheap withdrawals the best way or something like a prepaid travel card?
Thanks!!

What about using something abroad friendly like a halifax clarity credit card with a direct debit set that pays it off each month from the lump sum account?

The Halifax Clarity card is the one that I’ve found so far with a set up as you say. Just wondering if anyone had any first hand experience. Think this is what we will probably do!

check that there are no fees for ATM withdrawals though (abroad).
It’s unclear where the Clarity crd fits into that charging scheme.

What’s wrong with a debit card? I would have thought that was the obvious choice.

What’s wrong with a debit card? I would have thought that was the obvious choice.

I generally take cash but I use the debit card for tolls and diesel. You get charged a foreign transaction fee, but it’s a percentage, so it doesn’t matter if you making small purchases. There is a fixed fee for cash withdrawal, so if you’re going to do that it makes sense to do larger amounts less frequently.

Depends a lot on the countries you’ll visit and the facilities (and risks) there.

Cash is king in many places still. Find an account with no or minimal fees for overseas ATM withdrawals, and a credit card that’s favourable for travel too (for big stuff – flights, dive trips, etc). We took some travellers cheques too, splitting up cheques and serial numbers between us so even if we lost a couple of bags we could still get our hands on some cash to tide us over.

I thought Nationwide (for example) offered 0% foreign currency transaction fees? You may still be charged by the local bank that owns the ATM you use, but it saves you some of the costs.

Credit card for purchases and hotels, of course, but you’ll still need cash, so a debit card would be useful