How do you take your money ?

[LanaBear-ox]

I haven't been to WDW so I can't comment on that but when me and my fiancé went to New Zealand for 3 weeks, we had my Santander Credit Card which we used in Dubai but we used the Post Office Pre Paid card. I thought it was really good, could see how much we had on our phones. However, my only problem was that you could only withdraw money from a bank atm, not a free standing one. Other times when there was money on the card, it didn't even let a transaction go through i.e. Mcdonalds. In the end we withdrew money (large chunks as there was a fee). I'd probably use it again for our USA trip, otherwise I'd use Fair FX or another type of pre paid card (along with money which would stay in my handbag).

 

[1andrea]

We took cash this time as our friend had some $$$ left over from a previous visit.

I much prefer cash as its easier to keep track of our daily spending and budget. Next trip it will more than likely be all spends on our post office card BUT i find it harder to keep track of the spending and the budget AND i hate logging in online. I don't want to spend holiday time on the laptop if I can avoid it!

 

[Jon84]

We took cash this time as our friend had some $$$ left over from a previous visit.

I much prefer cash as its easier to keep track of our daily spending and budget. Next trip it will more than likely be all spends on our post office card BUT i find it harder to keep track of the spending and the budget AND i hate logging in online. I don't want to spend holiday time on the laptop if I can avoid it!

Does the PO card not have an app to go with it?

With the Wifi in both WDW and UOR being widely available, my current Caxton card (and new Revoult card) have a really good app that updates the balance instantly.

We try to budget roughly by dividing our total spending by the number of nights, carrying over any underspend and re-calculating every morning to know where we are

 

[ROMNEY]

Thanks for all the advice, we ended up going cash and Thomas Cook prepaid used card, leave Guernsey tomorrow for our trip.

 

[1andrea]

Does the PO card not have an app to go with it?

With the Wifi in both WDW and UOR being widely available, my current Caxton card (and new Revoult card) have a really good app that updates the balance instantly.

We try to budget roughly by dividing our total spending by the number of nights, carrying over any underspend and re-calculating every morning to know where we are

As far as I know there is only a website and that looks like it hasn't been upgraded since the Internet was invented. It's so basics so I assume there's no app.

We take $500 extra for the first day shopping and divide our spends by the number of days too. X

 

[wayneg]

Post office website is in real need of updating. Not great if you need to keep track on spending. Thankfully we can spend what we want and pay off on return without thinking about it thru the holiday.

 

[scottishgirl87]

I took the plunge over the weekend and went with Halifax Clarity. Hopefully receive it this week and get used to using it before May!

 

[BagOLaughs]

I took the plunge over the weekend and went with Halifax Clarity. Hopefully receive it this week and get used to using it before May!

You won't regret it! Sign up for internet banking when you get it.

 

[scottishgirl87]

You won't regret it! Sign up for internet banking when you get it.

See I already have internet banking with my Bank of Scotland current account and my Halifax mortgage shows up on that so was hoping the Clarity would too? Answered my own question....just logged in to my BOS account and it's already showing on there

 

[BagOLaughs]

just logged in to my BOS account and it's already showing on there

yey! That makes it super easy for you

I purchased something in France earlier this year for 450 EUR...

I did the calculation and by using my Clarity card vs. if I'd exchanged notes at the post office. I save £38 by using the card.

Here's hoping you get the same savings!

 

[bex7583]

You don't really have much of an option then, unless you want to risk taking silly amounts of cash. You don't have to carry your phone with you all the time if you prefer not to. All I'm saying is that you can check your accounts every few days, perhaps in the evening when you are back in your room.

i think i will top up my travel passport currency card with some money , take about £500 in dollars and the my post office credit card , im thinking maybe leaving the rest of the spending money in my mums safe and she can maybe pay it on as we are away or at least escort me to pay it all on the card when we get home lol

 

[ROMNEY]

We arrived yesterday, Thomas Cook card has been great so far

 

[ChrisLyne]

We tend to take about $400 in cash (for tips and in case of emergencies) and then our Halifax card as it has no foreign transaction fees and generally offers a much better exchange rate than the high street.

With the magic bands this year I found that I just charged pretty much everything back to the room which I've never done before. It was so much easier but you really have to keep an eye on what you're spending or you could get a bit of a shock when you get your room bill

 

[Jon84]

We tend to take about $400 in cash (for tips and in case of emergencies) and then our Halifax card as it has no foreign transaction fees and generally offers a much better exchange rate than the high street.

With the magic bands this year I found that I just charged pretty much everything back to the room which I've never done before. It was so much easier but you really have to keep an eye on what you're spending or you could get a bit of a shock when you get your room bill

One day your total spent will be built into the MDE App!

 

[jothp]

We've ordered a revolut prepaid card. There is some more info about it on the MSE website.
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/prepaid-travel-cards

It sounds good but my card hasn't arrived yet and so I obviously haven't used it! It seems to have been very popular and they have a backlog of orders so if you did decide you wanted it allow plenty of time to get the card.

I just wanted to update with how we got on with the revolut card. We had no problem using it to pay in shops and restaurants at Universal, to buy petrol, to pay for food at universal and to pay off our room balance at both Universal and Disney. It was very good to be able to log into the app to see exactly what we had spent and it meant we were able to just top up the card and convert money to dollars as we needed extra. For us not wanting to get another credit card to get good rates it worked well.

Be aware though that the app does log you out on a regular basis and needs a code sent to your phone to allow you to log in. We had put three sim cards in our phones just for our holiday and had a little panic the first time it logged us out because we didn't have access to the phone number used to register to get the code they sent by text. Luckily we were able to contact customer services and after a few quick security checks they changed the phone number temporarily to the number we had in the US so we could access the app.

 

[Jon84]

I just wanted to update with how we got on with the revolut card. We had no problem using it to pay in shops and restaurants at Universal, to buy petrol, to pay for food at universal and to pay off our room balance at both Universal and Disney. It was very good to be able to log into the app to see exactly what we had spent and it meant we were able to just top up the card and convert money to dollars as we needed extra. For us not wanting to get another credit card to get good rates it worked well.

Be aware though that the app does log you out on a regular basis and needs a code sent to your phone to allow you to log in. We had put three sim cards in our phones just for our holiday and had a little panic the first time it logged us out because we didn't have access to the phone number used to register to get the code they sent by text. Luckily we were able to contact customer services and after a few quick security checks they changed the phone number temporarily to the number we had in the US so we could access the app.

I'm taking one to Germany in December to try it out, it sounds good.

I've had the App for a while, and been logging in regularly to check rates etc. Had no issues with PINs at all.

Thanks for the update!

 

[jothp]

I'm taking one to Germany in December to try it out, it sounds good.

I've had the App for a while, and been logging in regularly to check rates etc. Had no issues with PINs at all.

Thanks for the update!

I think the issue came when the app updated one night and then wanted to do a security check when we logged in for the first time after the update. To log in we needed to use a code sent to the registered mobile number but we had changed our mobile numbers for cheaper calls in the US so couldn't get the code. Customer services were great though and had it all sorted within about half an hour.

 

[Jon84]

I think the issue came when the app updated one night and then wanted to do a security check when we logged in for the first time after the update. To log in we needed to use a code sent to the registered mobile number but we had changed our mobile numbers for cheaper calls in the US so couldn't get the code. Customer services were great though and had it all sorted within about half an hour.

I see, well, it seems good for something that to date has been untested really!

 

[jothp]

I see, well, it seems good for something that to date has been untested really!

Yes we were very pleased with how well it worked. It was so easy to top up money from our current account as we needed it and to convert it to dollars knowing that we were getting the full interbank rate with no fees. We will definitely use it for our future trips without a 2nd thought

 

[ROMNEY]

Came back last night, Thomas Cook card was great, easy to check balance online, transactions showed up straight away, first time I used card, they slid through card reader and gave straight back, I looked to sign, but they said under 50 dollars no sig needed ( so don't loose it ), some shops like target have chip and pin, at universal where the entrance tickets cost 624 dollars (ouch), they accepted no probs, just wanted passport as I'd.

Will def use again.