CREDIT CARD ON TOUR
WHICH CREDIT CARDS WE CAN RECOMMEND ...
[letsreview]
When travelling, a big concern is always how to access or spend money by credit card without spending too much money on redundant transaction fees. Analyzing thoroughly all different credit cards that are available worldwide, will make you end up frustrated with way too much information, totally confused and very uncertain about the right choice. Actually, it is a real science to filter out the good ones and especially also those that are available in your country.
Since we live in Austria, we can wholeheartedly recommend to open an account with the DKB (Deutsche Kredit Bank) to everyone. It is completely free of charge, includes several benefits as well as an awesome credit card. Read the following review to see why we like it so much.
Deutsche Kreditbank – DKB Cash
We have been using this account and its VISA credit card for a few years now. It is great to have one common account (each of us has a debit and a credit card) for all common expenses such as rent, electricity, groceries and, of course, travelling. At the beginning of every month, each of us sends over the same amount of money. This enables us to easily pay everything from that account without having to write down every little thing including the info who purchased what. And the best thing - it is completely free. They neither charge for the debit nor for the credit card.
Benefits of the included VISA card
Savings
Especially when travelling the included VISA credit card shines at its fullest. As soon as you transfer at least € 700 per month to the account (it doesn’t matter if it is a one-time payment or transferred in several smaller amounts) you get the status of an so called “Active Customer”. This enables you to pay in any foreign currencies without having to pay the transaction fee of 1.75%. This, in the course of time, provides you quite substantial savings – apart from the card fee itself. For the time of our tour around the world, we estimate that our savings will easily be hundreds of Euros.
Safety
Regarding safety measures we especially like that online transaction with the VISA have an integrated 2nd level of protection. Whenever you want to use the credit card for an online transaction you will have to approve the transaction by the so called “Verified by VISA” program. That means that every transaction is required to be approve the transaction on your smartphone to minimize the risk of unauthorized use to an absolute minimum.
Cashback Program
Furthermore they offer great cashback programs where you can save some money along the way as well (e.g. Booking.com 2,5% / Rentalcars.com 4% / Apple 1,5% / etc...). The included websites and shops change from time to time, so just have a look on their website.
TAN Procedure
In order to receive the TANs for your online transaction you will use the so called “TAN2Go” App. After you entered all transaction details in the general banking app or online, a TAN will instantly be send to your smartphone. Perfect to use while travelling.
Opening your DKB-Cash Account
It is really easy to open an account online. They have no country restriction so no matter where you live in this world you can open an account as long as you speak German since there is no English version available. After you successfully registered online, you will be mailed the verification documents. After you completed the verification process, you will receive a few letters with several PINs and your cards. Sounds complicated – it actually isn’t, the process is very easy to follow and self-explanatory. Clock here to open an account free of charge: Get your FREE DKB CASH Account with your FREE VISA Credit Card
Santander 1plus VISA Credit Card
This credit card is especially recommended if you are a resident of Germany. We would have ordered it for ourselves already if had lived there. In addition to being completely free of charge and having the benefit that transaction fees for foreign currencies are being waived, you don’t have to pay any fees ATM machine operators worldwide may charge. Depending on where you try to get money, this fee will range from € 3 to as high as € 6 per transaction.
So if you are lucky and eligible for the card, get it right here for free: Order your FREE Santander 1plus VISA Credit Card
Revolut Credit Card
Recently, we came across the Revolut credit card in a Facebook group where it was recommended by other travelers. Since we are always open for new products we were totally into giving it a try.
With Revolut you do not only get a credit card, but actually a multi-currency account. Whenever you go to a country that has another currency than your own, you will be facing the issue with transaction fees.
Here is an easy example:
Whenever Bianca goes shopping for clothes in heavenly “Woodbury Common Outlet” near New York, she pays by credit card. At the cashier she is always asked whether she wants to pay in Euros or Dollars. She always looks at me totally lost and absolutely confused and I keep on telling her to prefer the local currency. With her credit card, however, shopping in the US is still cheap but a little grey cloud called transaction fees disturbs her shopping experience. Her credit card company will charge a fee for converting Euros into US Dollars and vice versa.
And that is the thing with the Revolut Credit Card. When you are in a country that uses a different currency than your home country, the card acts as if you were from the current country and makes all payments in in the local currency. So the RevolutCard MasterCard is a multi currency card that acts as if it was a local currency card. And, above all, it does all that without charging any transaction fees while giving you latest currency prices, meaning you get the same rate as for example xe.com is showing at the time of transaction – more precisely, the Spot Interbank exchange rate. This rate is valid from Monday to Friday. On Saturday and Sunday they will charge a 0.5% markup fee, in order to protect themselves from currency fluctuations over the weekend. As long as you don’t transfer more than € 6.000 per month the credit card is completely free, above € 6.000 they charge a fee of 0.5%. ATM withdrawals are free up to € 400 a month.
The card itself can easily be managed via the Revolut App. You can make transactions, view the current exchange rate or block and unblock your card from use with a single tap.
Setting up an account is extremely easy and done within a few minutes. Just enter your data in the app, take a photo of your passport and driving license as well as a picture of you and a few moments later you have your account with you own IBAN account number to make transfers. After you successfully transferred your first Euros to your account you can order your Revolut Master Card for € 6 (including shipping).
How do they make money you might ask? Well, for replacing your card they charge € 8 plus shipping – most likely that does not cost them that much. Express delivery is € 20 – again they probably don’t pay that much. The 1% fee they charge when you top up your account via credit card transfer, they probably have a better rate. Then there is the 0,5% markup transaction fee on weekends and generally they might earn some money by holding your money. However, these are all costs that you can generally avoid – making the Revolut MasterCard a great credit card to use while travelling.
We will let you know about our personal experiences with the card after we have used it for a while. Sign Up for your card right here: FREE Revolut account and credit card