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  • 6/17/2025
Martin Lewis issues warning to anyone using credit card abroad this summerMartin Lewis

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00:00Now, what happens when you spend on plastic abroad is your bank gets a near perfect exchange rate on the day.
00:06You know, the same as what's called the spot rate, the city market rate.
00:09So for converting currency back into pounds, whether it's euros or dollars or dong, if you're in Vietnam, for example.
00:15When you spend on your card abroad, though, normally the card company adds what's called a non-sterling exchange rate fee of between 2.75 or 3 percent.
00:25So your hundred pounds worth of euros costs you one hundred and three pounds with the specialist cards.
00:33They don't have that. So you get the same near perfect exchange rates that the banks or the card firms do.
00:39And that smashes the pants of Bureau de Changes of changing here.
00:43Now, as for which ones, there's quite a lot of them available now that are specialist cards.
00:47So I actually judge on the cash back that they give you generally.
00:49The top at the moment is the Barclay Card Rewards credit card that is currently giving you half a percent cash back on spending in the UK and abroad.
00:57So you get a perfect exchange rate and cash back.
01:00Of course, it's a credit card.
01:01So only do this if you'll pay it off in full at the end of every month or there is interest.
01:08That will credit score you to get it.
01:10If you want a debit card, the easiest one to get is the Chase card, which you can apply without switching banks and only does a soft credit check.
01:17So it doesn't mark your credit file and virtually everybody can get it.
01:19That doesn't give you cash back, but it does have near perfect exchange rates.
01:23And it doesn't. There's no interest because it's a credit card and there's no ATM withdrawal fee.
01:28It will give you cash back on some UK spending.
01:30Alternatively, First Direct, if you're willing to switch bank to it, will give you a near perfect exchange rate fee debit card and pay you 175 quid if you switch bank to it.
01:41So Barclay Card Rewards is the best purely for overseas spending.
01:45The easiest to get is the Chase app and you don't have to switch to it.
01:48But if you want to are willing to switch bank, then there's First Direct at 175 quid.
01:52E인 bar quid.
01:52So Barclay Card Rewards
01:53And there's First Direct at 1000 quid.
01:55And then there's Second Direct at 100 quid.
01:56Here's the Fast Direct fee.
01:57We'd take some mode.
01:57But if you want to switch bank to it, you won't have to switch bank to it now.
01:58でベґート стр of in statearch fal Bad chalala smoothie.
01:59So I think that's pretty much shrink than you should learn to switch back as well.
02:00A bit of a 잘못温'd here.
02:02It will not be amazing.
02:02Assume 1-20 quid!
02:03The Ex중에

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