travel money cards

Check local credit unions - mine offers them. But there is no advantage to using one of those over just using your regular debit card to get money from an ATM. Prepaid cards tend to have high fees for setting up and loading (and possibly getting the rest of your money off once you get back), and the exchange rate is usually bad.

My mom does not have an ATM card and got a "Key Possibilities" prepaid card from Key Bank before our trip to Switzerland in June. I was skeptical but the only fee was a $3.95 initiation fee and the exchange rates she got were comparable to the ones I got with my credit-union-issued ATM card. There was no hassle and no fee involved in putting all the remaining money back in her account when we got back.

The Key Possibilities card also has a $2.50/month maintenance fee, a $1 per withdrawal ATM fee, and a $9.95 "refund processing" fee. Nowhere does it talk about the conversion rate for European withdrawals. I assume, if you have to ask, you can't afford it, or at least, they don't want to disclose it because if you knew, you wouldn't want the card. In the past, I've check AAA Visa Travel card and they have had very unfavorable rates.

@Lee, all those fees are only for cards issued before August of last year (2010). My mom experienced NONE of those fees in the use of her card, otherwise I wouldn't be on here telling people there aren't any fees other than the activation fee. This has come up a couple of times so I googled "Key Possibilities Fees" myself and the first link is to the FAQ which explains the Aug 19 date and the fee structure.

OK, Kari, I see the Aug 2010 date on the top of the fee chart, but nowhere on their website do they state what the for exchange rate discount (or fee) is. I've been to Key Bank this morning, and no one there could tell me the rate. And when I called the number on their site, no one could tell me the rate. They don't seem to want me to know. All they would tell me was that the information would be revealed after I bought the card. Another source on the web, said that their rate is 3%. That's a little better than 3% + $5 from WF, it's the same as most major banks, and not as good as my local bank which charges 1% + $2 (about 1.4%). At the bank this morning, they said the rate for purchasing Euro from them today is $1.505/ Euro. Oanda's rate for yesterday was $1.42 so Key's fee for buying Euro at the bank is 6% (vs 5% at Wells Fargo banks). Up date: Why August 2010? Fed rules based on the Credit Card Act of 2009, which prohibited certain "fees" on gift cards went into effect Aug 22 of 2010. Key is just following the law. I finally got in touch with someone at Key Bank who knew something. She said that, for European ATM transactions, either a Key Possibilities Gift Card or a Key Debit Card just pass along to you the 1% Network charge they pay. So until I hear otherwise, Key debit card and Key gift cards rates are about as good as you can get. Some banks are as good, but most a worse. A few banks offer "zero" fees, but in most cases they are "eating" the 1% fee as a service.