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It is really easy to use your bank cards when paying for goods and services whilst abroad. The down side is that more often... Supercard from Travelex Erases Charges Abroad

It is really easy to use your bank cards when paying for goods and services whilst abroad. The down side is that more often than not, you are going to return to a few charges in the way of additional fees and charges that have been bolted on by your bank. You could just opt for taking take cash, but that carries its own risks, or you could use good, old fashioned, travellers cheques.

This is where the guys at Travelex have you covered. Travelex wants to cut the UK charges completely from the equation with the launch of the “Supercard.”

Basically it’s a pre-paid Visa debit card that comes with a brilliant advantage: you don’t have to top it up. All you have to do is connect up to five of your own account. Then travel to wherever the mood takes you and the Supercard will automatically deduct your value of your purchases using Visa’s own exchange rate.

The Supercard and companion app (available for iOS and Android) launches next month. The app logs all of your transactions in real time and although you won’t be charged any transaction fees, Travelex is probably making their money by scooping a share of the transaction fees which Visa debits from the firms that actually take the payments.

If you want to, you can also use the card in the UK, but you will pay 50p for each transaction and a massive £1.50 for each ATM withdrawal.

Supercard Key Features:

  • No international fees when spending abroad. Ever*.
  • See savings and transactions in real-time on your iOS or Android phone.
  • Accepted everywhere you see the Visa Brand Mark.
  • One payment card for all foreign transactions.
  • Backed by foreign-exchange specialist Travelex.
  • View real-time savings: See your savings instantly and manage your account via the app.
  • Link cards to Supercard: Link your existing debit or credit cards to Supercard through the app.
  • Pay with Supercard: Use Supercard to avoid foreign-transaction fees when you spend money abroad.*

*Supercard will not charge you a fee when you spend abroad but look out for other fees such as ATM charges.

At the moment Travelex is allowing people to “pre-order” a card, but warns that they are only going to offer a “limited rollout” of Supercard at the moment. If you travel a lot and this sounds like it may suit you.

[image via supercard]

SOURCE: Engadget