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Which free UK credit cards have 0% foreign exchange fees?

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What are the best FREE credit cards with no foreign exchange fees?

As the Lloyds Avios Rewards Mastercard is no longer available to new applicants, there are no travel rewards credit cards which offer fee-free overseas purchases.

If you use a rewards credit card when travelling, you will incur a fee of 3% on everything you buy. This can never be justified by the miles and points earned on the transaction. It may be justified if you need to hit a spending target to trigger a sign-up bonus or a voucher such as the British Airways American Express 2-4-1.

Over the next week or so we are looking at a few no and low FX fee options. We reviewed Tandem a few weeks ago (click here). Here is our review of the WeSwap Mastercard travel money card, here is our updated review of Revolut (with a special offer for HfP readers) and here is our review of Starling.

All of these products have different features – there is no ‘right’ answer. Some are more fiddly than others, some are prepaid cards and some are credit cards, some have added benefits such as 0% interest on purchases.

Mainstream free credit cards with no foreign exchange fees

In this article I want to run through some mainstream credit cards which offer 0% foreign exchange fees and have no annual fee.  I haven’t included Virgin Money or Aqua as I want to cover those separately.  We looked at Tandem here.

None of the cards in this article let you earn rewards.  Aqua and Tandem, not covered here, offer 0.5% cashback on foreign spending on top of having 0% FX fees.

If you DO want to earn miles and points from your foreign spending, one option is Curve Card. Curve is free and has no foreign exchange fees up to certain limits. It recharges your purchase to any other Visa or Mastercard you own in Sterling. This means you earn miles and points on the underlying card without paying the usual 2.99% foreign transaction fee. Curve Card will pay you £5 for trying it out – read our article here.

Another option is to get a free card from Currensea. Currensea is a simple but clever idea. You pay abroad with your Currensea Mastercard debit card. Currensea translates the cost to Sterling with just a 0.5% fee (83% less than most cards charge) and withdraws the money from your bank account. You can find out more by clicking here. Currensea is free so there is no risk in giving it a try.

Option 1:  Halifax Clarity Mastercard

Core USP:  Nothing, but it does all the basics and is well established

Fee on overseas cash withdrawals?  No (but no interest free period)

Clarity is the daddy of 0% FX credit cards.  Details are on their website here.  You will see that Halifax is offering a £20 statement credit if you apply by 31st August and make a foreign currency transaction by 30th September.

There is no requirement to have a Halifax current or savings account to apply.

The card ticks all the key boxes – it is free, it has no foreign exchange fees on purchases and it has no cash withdrawal fees abroad.

The representative APR is 18.9% variable on both purchases and cash withdrawals.

Post Office Money Platinum credit card no travel foreign exchange fees

Option 2:  Post Office Money Platinum Mastercard

Core USP:  0% for 18 months on balance transfers – but let down by the charge on ATM withdrawals abroad

Fee on overseas cash withdrawals?  Yes

This is another long-standing 0% card.  (The benefit of picking a card which has a long-term record of 0% FX fees is that you can be more confident that the benefit will not be taken away overnight.)

Details are on the Post Office Money website here.  The issuer is actually Bank of Ireland UK under licence.

The card is free and has no foreign exchange fees on purchases.  It DOES have a fee on cash withdrawals of 2.5% (minimum £3).  There is no charge if the card is used to buy travel money at a Post Office.

An extra benefit is 0% interest for 18 months on balance transfers.  A transfer fee of 2.89% applies.

The representative APR is 18.9% variable.

Option 3:  Creation Everyday Mastercard

Core USP:  Lower interest rate (Clydesdale is lower but has fees on cash withdrawals) which is important because you will be charged on cash withdrawals even if you settle your bill in full at the end of the month

Fee on overseas cash withdrawals?  No (but no interest free period)

This is a newer entrant to the market.  Creation also issues the IHG Rewards Club card and will also (re)launch the Marriott Rewards card in August, so you may want to be wary – I’m not sure how Creation treats multiple applications for different cards from the same person.

This card is an excellent package.  It is free, it has no foreign exchange fees on purchases and it has no cash withdrawal fees abroad.

It also has the lowest interest rate of any card here.  The representative APR is 12.9% variable on purchases and cash withdrawals.

Details are on the Creation website.

Option 4:  Santander Zero Mastercard

Core USP:  Free UK cash withdrawals

Fee on overseas cash withdrawals?  No (but no interest free period)

Santander tends change its benefits packages more often than most issuers, so this may not be a card for life. However, the package as it stands is impressive.

The package is excellent.  It is free, it has no foreign exchange fees on purchases and it has no cash withdrawal fees abroad.

There is a USP that no other card here matches – it also has no cash withdrawal fees in the UK either although you will pay daily interest on the amount withdrawn.

The representative APR is 18.9% variable on both purchases and cash withdrawals.  You can find out more here.

Option 5:  Barclaycard Platinum Travel Visa

Core USP:  0% interest on purchases for 12 months, 0% interest on overseas cash withdrawals if settled within 56 days

Fee on overseas cash withdrawals?  No, until 2022 (overseas cash withdrawals get 56 days interest free credit)

Barclaycard states that it will withdraw the 0% deal on this card in 2022.  Until then, however, it is worth a look because it is the only card on this list to offer an interest-free period on overseas cash withdrawals.  You WILL pay interest immediately on any UK cash withdrawals.

One other benefit of the Barclaycard option is 0% interest on purchases for 12 months.

The representative APR is 19.9% variable (27.9% on cash withdrawals).

Option 6:  Clydesdale B Mastercard

Core USP:  Lowest interest rate of any free 0% FX credit card, no balance transfer fee although 9.9% APR applies

Fee on overseas cash withdrawals?  Yes

The Clydesdale B Mastercard has a very low interest rate – the representative APR is 9.9% variable.

The trade-off is that, whilst purchases abroad have no foreign exchange fee, there are fees on cash withdrawals abroad.

You can transfer a balance from another credit card to the B card for free.  You will pay interest at 9.9% variable on the transfer, but if you pay off the balance quickly this may be cheaper than taking a ‘0% interest on balance transfers’ card with an upfront fee.

Conclusion

If you trust Moneyfacts, these are all of the free UK credit cards with 0% FX fees, excluding Tandem (we reviewed Tandem here) and Virgin Money and Aqua.

There is no definitive ‘best’ choice.  If you have decided to go with a 0% fee credit card instead of a debit or pre-paid card, you need to decide what is important to you – free cash withdrawals, 0% balance transfers, 0% on purchases, cashback (offered by Aqua and Tandem), whether or not you already have a card from a particular bank – and then pick the one which suits you best.

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Comments (92)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Bagoly says:
    21 May21 May 05:54

    Comments earlier in the series established that there are some countries where one does still need cash.
    One technique to deal with the no-interest-free-period on cash withdrawals is to prepay the card.
    If one is using the same card for cash and purchases, the amount needs to cover the purchases as well.

    Do any of these cards operate in a way that that does not work?

    • Graham says:
      21 May21 May 06:13

      You can manually load a credit card but it’s usually against their terms and conditions. I’ve been a very long time holder of the Clarity card and usually send a payment immediately should I withdraw cash.

      We have a joint current account with Nationwide flexplus which as part of the fees allows withdrawals with no charge and essentially Visa’s market rate. The downside is that Visa has minutely worse exchange rates than Mastercard. We make use of the account and it’s free insurance so it’s worth it. Tend to stick to the Halifax for the purchases and Nationwide for the withdrawals. Although tempted to take on a Tandem card.

      • Frenske says:
        21 May21 May 09:52

        You can get Nationwide Select Credit Card for purchases. Flexplus debit card is good for withdrawls; no longer for purchases.

    • Lumma says:
      21 May21 May 06:40

      Didn’t the Starling review and the positive comments on it make bothering with pre loading a credit card pretty pointless? Especially with the potential negative impact to credit that withdrawing on credit cards may have

      • callum says:
        21 May21 May 07:39

        The negative impact on the credit report seems somewhat marginal. It’s certainly never prevented me from getting decent cards.

        • Lumma says:
          21 May21 May 09:03

          Indeed, but it still seems unnecessarily complicated when there’s a completely free current account that allows free withdrawals

        • callum says:
          21 May21 May 09:16

          Very true – though only if you’re happy for it to be your main current account.

          I prefer to keep my money earning interest elsewhere, in which case it’s pretty much the same concept. Instead of transferring money to the credit card I’d be transferring it to the current account.

        • John says:
          21 May21 May 10:13

          No need to have starling as main account. Direct debits needed for interest – the more credit cards the better! I take a tfl contactless trip on each card once a month now that Tesco savings no longer does DDs.

        • Genghis says:
          21 May21 May 12:13

          @John there are a few other savings providers where you can pay into the account by DD on a monthly basis. I’ve just set up for Tesco. MSE is a good resource

        • callum says:
          22 May22 May 08:05

          @John – I’m not saying Starling will insist it’s your main account. If it’s not your main account then you need to do manual transfers to it when you want to spend – which means it isn’t any different to just using the Clarity card.

    • Andrew says:
      21 May21 May 10:04

      Quote:- “There are some countries where one does still need cash.”

      And some of them are surprising. Germany was a farce! I’d made the assumption that it was like most other civilised countries where I’d just use plastic. I can go for weeks without using cash in the UK in the US a few weeks back I didn’t spend a single cent in cash – but Germany, that was repeated trips to an ATM.

      • Rob says:
        21 May21 May 10:06

        Germany is great. Amazon still accept payment by bank transfer IIRC – you create a basket, place your order then they wait until you’ve transferred some money over to them before they post the stuff. This is all a throwback to the 1930s.

        • Lumma says:
          21 May21 May 12:49

          4 trips to Germany last year, I think the only thing I paid for with a card was public transport tickets.

          Strange thing is my German friend that lives in Berlin has to find an ATM from her bank or she gets charged a fortune in fees, whereas my Starling and nationwide accounts are free in all machines

      • John says:
        21 May21 May 10:15

        I don’t think being in thrall to commercial banks and payment networks is necessarily a sign of civilisation.

        • Rob says:
          21 May21 May 11:03

          There is a bit of push back in Sweden now, because it is very possible they will dump paper money within 5 years and that has various privacy issues if you don’t want every transaction you make visible (probably more a risk from your other half seeing what you’re up to than the long arm of the state, but still ….)

        • Heran says:
          21 May21 May 11:17

          What makes you think cash is not being in thrall to commercial banks and payment networks? Unless you save all your cash at home, you would still need banks and ATMs (which are largely owned by commercial banks or other financial companies) to store and make withdraws.

        • W says:
          21 May21 May 19:13

          It is a privacy thing. With all the data mining that’s possible now, do you want an insurance company refuse you your coverage 30 years down the line because you had too many pub transactions, or binged on chocolates? Or determines that your frequent flying might have increased your cancer risk?

        • Heran says:
          22 May22 May 15:13

          W: how is it different that the insurance company look at how frequently you withdraw cash in a pub, or at airports? There is also a limit of amount of cash you can take through the custom if you go outside EEA anyway (5000 USD if you go to China which is not very much)? Unless you always carry a large amount of cash (which is a security nightmare) or always go to an ATM far away to avoid the data mining. And then one has also lose section 75 or chargeback protection if using cash.

      • Lumma says:
        21 May21 May 12:51

        To be fair, two of the most civilised developed countries in the world, Germany and Japan are largely cash based societies. So maybe it’s ourselves and the Americans that are wrong

    • S says:
      21 May21 May 10:45

      If you do that you’re no longer covered by Section 75

      • John says:
        21 May21 May 11:15

        and if you transfer the money to the card immediately after a cash withdrawal?

      • Callum says:
        21 May21 May 19:51

        Section 75 surely doesn’t cover cash withdrawals anyway?

  • filipino_chino says:
    21 May21 May 06:06

    FYI the Santander Zero you can withdraw cash free abroad without any interest, you have to pre-pay for what you are about to take out… It is a loop hole currently.

    All you do is pay your bill in advance, say transfer £2k over and when you take money out, as yours in credit it does not charge any interest….

    I have this just as i have a Santander account…

    • Trevor Gardiner says:
      21 May21 May 06:14

      I have done this but sometimes Santander will not let you overpay the account. Seems hit and miss.

    • John says:
      21 May21 May 06:53

      Paying it by the UK working day after the withdrawal works too. If you preload then you kind of commit yourself to making some cash withdrawals.

      • Frenske says:
        21 May21 May 09:53

        Do you need to pay the whole balance? I assume you cannot specify that want to pay for just the withdrawals?

        • John says:
          21 May21 May 10:18

          If your previous statement was cleared in full, then any payments to unstatemented transactions will be allocated to cash withdrawals before purchases. If you don’t understand what you’re doing then best to just pay everything.

  • Trevor Gardiner says:
    21 May21 May 06:12

    Have used the Zero card for many years. Excellent exchange rate. It was withdrawn for new applications for a few years but has returned. Customer service good.

    • johnny_c-l says:
      21 May21 May 11:20

      +1 I’ve had Zero since launch and it was my go to card before getting the Lloyds Avios one. Still hanging on to the Zero as it’s useful to have a backup.

      Originally found that the Zero was terrible for being declined when travelling but this seems to have been sorted in the last couple of years. Was slightly surprised that they approved a cash withdrawal in Albania for me once when there had been no account activity for the previous 18 months.

  • MattC says:
    21 May21 May 06:31

    +1 Zero.
    If I take out cash then log in with the Santander phone app and pay the card before any interest accrues. This is easy within the EU as my mobile internet is free in EU too, if using the app on hotel WiFi then I think it should be safe from attack due to the encryption, plus log in seems to be on the phone (with fingerprint on mine) so I think the phonebank handshake is one off encryption keys.

    Purchases I use my Capital One Aspire Elite card (no new apps). No fees, and 0.5% cash back, plus £10 per year for paying on time (doh direct debit does that).

    • John says:
      21 May21 May 06:51

      I didn’t get the £10 for Cap1 last year. Not sure why, only thing I can think of is that it was the first year I didn’t use the card every month, and payment of £0 didn’t count.

  • Lumma says:
    21 May21 May 06:43

    The Creation card just shows how illogical they are. I have the free IHG card and the eligibility checker says I’m eligible for the premium card too if I want. For some reason though I’m not eligible for this overseas card or the Asda ones

  • Mark says:
    21 May21 May 07:03

    +1, this is the card I use for overseas spend as we have a nationwide account and it’s useful to only have to look at one current and one (Amex) credit card platform!

  • Drolma-la says:
    21 May21 May 07:34

    The ancestor of this Nationwide credit card has an even longer FX-fee-free heritage than the Halifax card, although it went through a brief black period when it was only FX-fee-free in Europe.

    • Alan says:
      21 May21 May 12:42

      I still hold the, now withdrawn to new customers, gold card. This is still only fee free within Europe. Should probably get rid of it and replace it with something more useful I suppose.

  • Flo says:
    21 May21 May 07:45

    If I link my Lloyds MasterCard into Curve and set the currency to EUR, would any EUR spend on the Curve card incur forex fees? EUR being an example – I assume the same would be true for any available non-GBP transaction?

    • Genghis says:
      21 May21 May 07:53

      What’s the advantage for purchases? Lose S75. Useful for cash withdrawals though

      • Flo says:
        21 May21 May 07:57

        That question includes ATM withdrawals, sorry.

        • Mikeact says:
          21 May21 May 08:23

          My Curve with Lloyds is always set to EUR (within ‘Europe’ ), and no extra fees above the set 1% on all payments or cash withdrawals. As far as S75 is concerned, we’re on holiday and certainly not worried about any local purchases.

        • MarkH says:
          21 May21 May 14:40

          @Mikeact – I thought if the Lloyds card is set to the local currency then the Curve 1% fee doesn’t get charged?
          If not, then why does the Lloyds card ccy need to be changed?

          I’m off to Berlin this weekend and was planning to withdraw cash on Curve with Lloyds card set to EUR but will prob revert to using Nationwide Flexplus if that’s the case.

        • Alan says:
          22 May22 May 00:20

          @Flo/MarkH – yep set your Lloyds MC (or other fee free card) on Curve to the currency you’ll be withdrawing and there’ll be no fee, it’ll just go through as a purchase in that currency. Even useful with a 0% forex fee no-rewards card like PO MC or Clarity where it would save the hassle of having to transfer cash to cover the withdrawal…

    • the_real_a says:
      21 May21 May 21:56

      If you set the currency for Llyods to EUR then you will not incur curves 1% fee. That fee is only if you “force” a currency conversation on the curve card. I do this every time i travel.

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