Not Worth the Hassle

“Not Worth the Hassle”

Written on: 07/06/2012 by nick_jessie (0 reviews written)

I recently used a cash passport multi - a variation of the Travelex card - on a 2 week trip to the US. The exchange rate was reasonable and the fixed rates were appealing to me and my partner. The cards initially worked well for allocating money for the trip.

The only way to reload the cards we had was by using BPAY, which takes up to 5 days to go through - very annoying.

When we arrived at our first hotel, we understood the main problem with these cards - they do not have your name on them. You cannot use them for any pre-authorisation which every US hotel requires even though we prepaid all our travel arrangements. When renting a car - similar problem. It is frustrating when you have so much money in one place but cannot use it for simple transactions.

Another attractive function of the prepaid cash card was no ATM fees. Sadly in the US, this is not true. We were paying a minimum of $2.95 to withdraw money - up to $5 at some institutions.

My advise? If you have a debit or credit card use that. All you have to do is notify your bank of your travel arrangements - simple.