Card Use USA

Scoobydooo

Hi guys, going to be holidaying in the USA this Summer for 3 weeks. What's my best option for spending money over there? I'll be bringing over some dollars with me but don't want to have too much cash on me. I believe I'll be charged heavily if I use my AIB or BOI debit card over there so what other options are there?

Thanks

Bobbilly

Revolut

/end thread

Scoobydooo

Bobbilly wrote: »

Revolut

/end thread

Yeah I've heard of Revolut. Is there other similar digital banks like them? Just want to compare and see which best suits my needs.

GerardKeating

Scoobydooo wrote: »

Hi guys, going to be holidaying in the USA this Summer for 3 weeks. What's my best option for spending money over there? I'll be bringing over some dollars with me but don't want to have too much cash on me. I believe I'll be charged heavily if I use my AIB or BOI debit card over there so what other options are there?

Thanks

A thing with AIB, sometimes first use of a card abroad will trigger an SMS alert, which one needs to respond to, othwise the card will be blocked until one phones them, which can be difficult of one does not get the text, or does not have roaming to respond

Quackster

Scoobydooo wrote: »

Yeah I've heard of Revolut. Is there other similar digital banks like them? Just want to compare and see which best suits my needs.

Unfortunately, as of now, there's nothing else remotely similar worth considering.

1huge1

Have to disagree with you in that, I use N26 and I prefer it to Revolut, both have a brilliant offering and will give you the market FX rate with zero fees. The difference being that N26 offer you a fully fledged bank account T whereas Revolut are more of a prepaid top up card.

But being honest, you'll have no issues with either, I recently did a 3 week trip in California using my N26 account and found it brilliant.

Wheety

1huge1 wrote: »

Have to disagree with you in that, I use N26 and I prefer it to Revolut, both have a brilliant offering and will give you the market FX rate with zero fees. The difference being that N26 offer you a fully fledged bank account T whereas Revolut are more of a prepaid top up card.

But being honest, you'll have no issues with either, I recently did a 3 week trip in California using my N26 account and found it brilliant.

You can get a Revolut bank account number. What's the benefit of having the N26 bank account?

1huge1

I do have direct debits working with my N26, but I imagine there is little advantage over having a Revolut account.

The only reason I brought it up was due to other posters stating that there wasn't anything other than Revolut worth considering.

They both offer a very good service.

N26 do offer a platinum card for €5 a month that called N26 black giving you travel insurance and other benefits, can't say I use it myself.

I believe there is a €5 sign up cost with Revolut, N26 has no sign up cost.

I think this article sums them. Up nicely.

https://onlyonce.today/travel/battle-travel-cards/

Quackster

1huge1 wrote: »

Have to disagree with you in that, I use N26 and I prefer it to Revolut, both have a brilliant offering and will give you the market FX rate with zero fees. The difference being that N26 offer you a fully fledged bank account T whereas Revolut are more of a prepaid top up card.

But being honest, you'll have no issues with either, I recently did a 3 week trip in California using my N26 account and found it brilliant.

N26 is a great current account offering and I use it as my main current account but it's not a multi-currency wallet like Revolut so not directly comparable IMO. To me, they complement each other well so I use them both.

N26, like other banks, gives you the MasterCard rate on foreign-currency transactions but it doesn't charge fees on top, apart from for ATM withdrawals. Therefore you don't know the exact rate you get until the transaction completes a day or two later.

With Revolut, you get the exact interbank rate (except at weekends) at the moment you perform the currency conversion. You also get unique euro, sterling (and other currency) bank account numbers which I find very useful. And the ability to instantly send and receive money to/from other Revolut users. Plus an ever-increasing number of other features.

rizzee

Just signed up for a N26 account. The only ''drawback'' for me would be the 2 euro charge after 5 atm withdrawals a month (I got the free basic account) so would limit me (but I don't think I would over use it as it would be a secondary account).

Would I be better off when going on holidays transferring money from my AIB account to this N26 account and use it for withdrawals/taps abroad to get exact rates? Or would a Revolut be better for this?

1huge1

rizzee wrote: »

Just signed up for a N26 account. The only ''drawback'' for me would be the 2 euro charge after 5 atm withdrawals a month (I got the free basic account) so would limit me (but I don't think I would over use it as it would be a secondary account).

Would I be better off when going on holidays transferring money from my AIB account to this N26 account and use it for withdrawals/taps abroad to get exact rates? Or would a Revolut be better for this?

I've become accustomed to paying for everything by card so I've never actually gone over the more than 5 withdrawals in a month.

I've done direct comparisons between N26 and Revolut when a friend and I were in the states recently, he used Revolut, there was little to no difference on the rate offered, sometimes N26 gave marginally better value and sometimes Revolut was marginally better.

Quackster

rizzee wrote: »

Would I be better off when going on holidays transferring money from my AIB account to this N26 account and use it for withdrawals/taps abroad to get exact rates? Or would a Revolut be better for this?

You can instantly top up your Revolut account from your AIB account via debit card (or via any other credit/debit card) whereas transferring to your N26 account from your AIB account can take one business day (or more if at the weekend) so Revolut wins in this scenario.