I've been paying 3% transaction fees on withdrawals and purchases for the last couple of months of being abroad, and it all mounts up.
I didn't take any cash with me when I left the UK so literally everything I've paid for has had 3% whacked on top.
I've spent around £1200 in France/ Spain/ Portugal over the last couple of months - a lot of that on fuel, the rest mostly on food, but also cash withdrawals for rent (the withdrawals still charged at 3%) so that's around £40 of fees, just because the banks can.
I have accounts with Barclays, Lloyds, TSB, and Nationwide (the last three opened because they were kind enough to give me £100 each for doing so some years ago) - every single one of them charges that 3% fee.
It's quite significant that 3% fee - spend just £600 a month and that's £20 extra, for no real service at all, it's just a 'just 'cos we can' charge.
So I opened up a Virgin Current Account
Kudos to Virgin for being the only UK account I can open which does not charge for foreign transactions.
If you're thinking of going abroad, ever, I recommend opening one yourself, and maybe closing down one of your older accounts?!?
It took me a while to realise I was being charged (I should have known this in advance!), then a while to set the account up, and for my card and number to arrive with me here in Portugal, but now thank God I've cut off this drip-drip leaching of my hard-earned cash into the clutches of the dinosaur banks.
I can of course transfer money from any of those other accounts into my Virgin account and then just use the card I've now got for that account to withdraw and make purchases, for what's effectively a 3% reduction in price!
Clearly if Virgin can afford to offer a service where there's no fee for foreign transactions, so can the rest of the banks - I mean I've transferred pounds to Kraken from both Barclays and Lloyds, with NO FEEs before, I can't see why it should be any different when making a purchase in a foreign country or withdrawing cash - they just do it because that's the way it's been for years, and they're clearly not in any rush to change it.
So thanks Virgin - now I just need to decide which of those other dinosaur accounts to close, I might even close two.
Eeni Meeni Minee Mo....