What Makes International Prepaid Cards the Consummate Travel Ally

Regardless if you’re planning a much needed trip to exotic Bali or just a quick tour to a country nearby, keeping your money safe and adhering to the budget you have set are deemed travel basics.

Fortunately, with an international prepaid card, achieving both objectives is a breeze. International prepaid cards function almost similarly to the conventional ones used locally but they have extra perks that can make life easy and convenient for you as you travel.

Two Types of International Prepaid Cards

International prepaid cards are designed to make spending easier for those who travel abroad regardless if it’s business or pleasure. There are two primary kinds of international prepaid cards:

General travel prepaid cards

These kind of prepaid cards have certain features that can be very helpful when you’re outside the country. Some of the beneficial features include emergency cash, card replacement, and chip and PIN capability.

However, prepaid cards often only allow loading of currencies to a handful. The 6 currencies available include Australian Dollar, Canadian Dollar, Mexican Peso, Japanese Yen, British Pound, and Euro.

Multi-currency prepaid cards

These cards provide users the opportunity to load cash in the currency of their choice before leaving the country, thereby allowing them to lock in the exchange rate as opposed to paying the current rate at point of sale or at the ATM.

What Makes International Prepaid Cards the Ultimate Travel Companion

It can help you with budgeting. Whether you admit it or not, adhering to a vacation budget can be difficult. Come to think of it, travelling often encourages fun and letting loose so it can be easy to spend more than you intend to.

There’s no denying it’s easy to overrun your credit card when you’re on vacation and you’re not really strict about how you are spending and how much. Ideally, it is recommended that you set aside a specific amount for spending while on a trip. A prepaid card can help you achieve said objective.

It can protect you from fraud. If you’re a prepaid card user, you’d be delighted to know you can get almost the same level of fraud protection that’s given to other cards. This means that if the card is used without your authority, your liability is limited to only $50 given that the incident is limited within two days.

Some prepaid cards however go beyond this and provide a zero-liability policy that protects prepaid cardholders from losing money even if unauthorised use is not reported within 2 business days.

It can serve as a buffer for your accounts. For those who are wary about using their debit or credit card on their trip overseas, an international prepaid card can be the best alternative possible. While all different plastic cards offer some level of fraud protection, it’s easier to recover when you lose your prepaid cards compared to other cards.

Case in point: if a shady character gets access to your savings or checking account (granting you took your credit or debit card with you), they might also gain access to your personal information as well as the balance available on the accounts.

It is likely that with credit and debit cards, reimbursements as well as card replacement might not be provided as fast as you would prefer. On the contrary, when you lose your prepaid card or when it’s used for any unauthorised transactions, the stakes are way lower.

It is accepted and honoured by many merchants abroad. Users of international prepaid cards would be delighted to know that they can use their cards to pay for hotels, air fares, and food. Some even get a few discounts as well as freebies when they use their cards.