Travel Money Cards Compared 2026: The Same Month Abroad Costs Nothing on One Card and 68 Pounds on Another

Monzo leads this index at 92/100, followed by Starling Bank (91), N26 (88), Revolut (86), Wise (65) and Curve (42). Seven providers were assessed against three published criteria, every figure carrying its source and the date it was read. The same month abroad, priced from each provider's own published fee schedule, costs nothing at Starling and GBP 68.32 at Curve. Two of the seven publish a weekend surcharge on currency exchange; the other five publish no weekend statement at all. Below the table the same dataset is re-cut by the basket, by the fee schedules themselves and by what protects the money.

Verified 21 September 2026 · each provider's own fee schedule, terms and help centre · FCA Financial Services Register · UK Companies House

Seven travel money cards scored on published cost and disclosure

Seven providers were assessed on their free or entry tier against the criteria below. Six hold a ranked position. Chase UK could not be scored on the cost criterion and is recorded as assessed and not ranked, for the reason set out further down.

Score breakdown by criterion

The index separates two things that marketing usually runs together. The first is what a month actually costs, which for most of these providers is decided by the cash allowance rather than the exchange fee: five of seven charge nothing on card spending and the differences appear the moment a reader stands at a cash machine. The second is whether the allowances and the charges above them are published together, which is the difference between a reader being able to work out their own cost and having to find out afterwards.

The published basket, provider by provider

The basket is the same for everyone: 2,000 of card spending in a foreign currency in one month, plus four cash withdrawals of 200. Nothing is estimated. Each figure is computed from the provider's own published fee schedule for the free plan named in its record.

Curve's GBP 68.32 is the outlier and it is worth reading as structure rather than as a verdict. Its GBP 250 monthly exchange allowance is the smallest here, and 2.99 per cent above that on a GBP 2,000 month produces GBP 52.32 before any cash is drawn. Wise's GBP 4.80 on the card half looks the cheapest of the providers that charge anything, and its 0.24 per cent is a floor rather than a rate: Wise states the fee varies by currency, so a reader's own figure depends on their own pair. Three providers, Starling, Monzo and Chase UK, charge nothing at all on the card half of this basket.

What each provider actually publishes

Four providers publish a blanket zero on card spending; two publish a weekend surcharge; five publish no weekend position either way. The test is what appears on the public fee schedule without logging in.

The weekend column is the one most worth a reader's attention, because it is the only place in this index where publishing more looks worse. Revolut and Curve both charge extra at weekends and both say so, in figures, on their fee pages. The other five say nothing. That silence is not evidence of a surcharge, and it is also not evidence against one: a reader who exchanges currency on a Saturday cannot confirm what they will pay from Monzo's, Starling's, Chase's, N26's or Wise's published schedules. The honest reading is that two providers answered a question the other five did not.

What protects the money

Four of the seven are banks whose deposits sit under a statutory compensation scheme. Two are not banks and say so. The test is what the provider itself names, because safeguarding and deposit protection are different instruments with different consequences if a company fails.

Monzo, Starling, Revolut Bank UK and Chase UK all publish FSCS protection to GBP 120,000 per person. N26 publishes protection under the German private banks compensation scheme, which is a different scheme with a different limit and is the detail most likely to surprise a British reader who thinks of N26 as an ordinary current account. Wise and Curve both state plainly that they are not banks and that customer funds are safeguarded rather than compensation-protected. Safeguarding means money held separately from the company's own, which is meaningful and is not a guarantee. Every firm reference number in that table can be checked against the FCA register in under a minute, and our review site transparency index covers who is telling you about these products and how they are paid.

Why Chase UK is not ranked

Chase UK is assessed and not ranked because it publishes no position, in either direction, on fees for cash withdrawals abroad. It states that it uses the current Mastercard exchange rate with no fee added on card spending, and it publishes a GBP 1,500 monthly limit on cash withdrawals abroad and a GBP 500 daily cash-machine limit. What it does not publish, on the pages that were read, is whether a fee applies to those withdrawals.

The basket cannot be computed without that. Treating an unstated fee as a fee of zero would have put Chase UK at the top of this index on an assumption rather than a published figure, which is the one thing this index will not do. It is a limit of what could be read, not a claim that Chase UK charges anything, and a reader who holds the account will find the answer in their own app. Our travel credit cards for the UK and Europe covers the credit side of the same question.

The six ranked providers in detail

Monzo — 92/100

Monzo Bank Limited · FCA 730427 · free current account · no FX fee

Monzo takes this index at 92 of 100. It adds no fee at all to card spending in a foreign currency, passing Mastercard's rate through directly, and it publishes the cash allowance beside it: GBP 400 fee-free every 30 days inside the UK and EEA, GBP 200 outside, then 3 per cent. On the basket used here that comes to GBP 12, all of it cash. Deposits are FSCS-protected to GBP 120,000. It wins not by being cheapest, which it is not, but by being the only provider that publishes every part of the structure a reader needs to work out their own cost.

Monzo — official site

Starling Bank — 91/100

Starling Bank Limited · personal current account · no FX fee, no stated ATM fee

Starling is the cheapest provider in this index on the published basket: nothing at all. It passes Mastercard's rate without an added margin and states that it charges no fee for cash withdrawal in a foreign currency outside the UK, subject to its standard GBP 300 daily withdrawal limit. Deposits are FSCS-protected to GBP 120,000. It scores 91 rather than higher because its help centre is a JavaScript application that returns no readable text to an automated request, so the charge over any allowance, its support hours and its card-freeze procedure could not be read from a public page. A fee schedule a reader can reach matters as much as a low fee.

Starling Bank — official site

N26 — 88/100

N26 Bank SE · Berlin · Standard free account · 1.7% on foreign cash

N26 scores 88 and is the most completely documented record in this index. It adds no fee to card payments in a foreign currency, gives two free withdrawals a month on the Standard account and then charges EUR 2 each, and applies a fixed 1.7 per cent conversion fee to foreign-currency cash withdrawals. On the basket that is EUR 17.60, all of it cash. Deposits sit under the Compensation Scheme of German Private Banks rather than the FSCS, which is a different scheme with a different limit and worth knowing for a British reader. Its published support hours are 07:00 to 23:00 CET, the only provider here to state plainly that it is not a 24-hour service.

N26 — official site

Revolut — 86/100

Revolut Bank UK Ltd · FCA 981170 · Standard free plan · weekend surcharge published

Revolut scores 86 and is one of only two providers in this index that publishes what happens to currency exchange at weekends. Its Standard plan exchanges GBP 1,000 a month free and charges 1 per cent above that, with a further 1 per cent on all weekend exchanges between 17:00 Friday and 18:00 Sunday Eastern Time. Cash is five withdrawals or GBP 200 a rolling month, then 2 per cent with a GBP 1 minimum. The basket comes to GBP 22 before any weekend spending. Deposits held with Revolut Bank UK are FSCS-protected to GBP 120,000. Publishing a surcharge is not the same as not having one, and this index rewards the publishing.

Revolut — official site

Wise — 65/100

Wise Payments Limited · FCA 900507 · no tiers · safeguarded, not FSCS-protected

Wise scores 65 and the gap is almost entirely one line. It is not a bank, its customer funds are safeguarded rather than covered by the FSCS, and it says so plainly on its own pages, which is why it takes half marks on protection rather than none. On cost it is competitive: conversion fees start at 0.24 per cent and vary by currency, giving GBP 4.80 on the card half of the basket and GBP 14.79 on the cash half, with GBP 250 of fee-free cash a month and 2.69 per cent above that. The variable-by-currency structure is the honest complication: 0.24 per cent is a floor rather than a rate, and a reader cannot know their own figure without checking their own currency pair.

Wise — official site

Curve — 42/100

Curve UK Limited · FCA 900926 · Curve Standard free plan · the dearest basket here

Curve finishes sixth at 42 and it does so on cost rather than on disclosure. Its allowance publishing is complete, taking full marks: GBP 250 of fee-free currency exchange a calendar month, then 2.99 per cent plus the Mastercard Wholesale Rate, a further 1.5 per cent on exchanges at weekends and English public holidays, and cash charged at the greater of 2 per cent or GBP 2 from the first withdrawal with no free allowance. On the basket used here that is GBP 68.32, three times the next dearest and against nothing at all at Starling. Curve is an electronic money institution rather than a bank, so customer funds are safeguarded and not FSCS-protected.

Curve — official site

Three things to check before you travel

1 · Find the cash allowance, not the exchange rate. Four of these seven charge nothing at all on card spending, and a fifth charges nothing within an allowance. Every difference in the basket above comes from cash, and the allowances range from GBP 400 a month at Monzo to nothing at all at Curve.

2 · Check the weekend, if you exchange at weekends. Revolut charges 1 per cent and Curve 1.5 per cent on weekend exchanges. Neither appears in the basket here because it depends on when you spend, and both can exceed the weekday cost on a short trip.

3 · Know whether you are holding a bank account. Two of these seven are not banks. Safeguarded funds and FSCS-protected deposits behave very differently if a company fails, and the distinction is published on both firms' own sites.

What changed for travel money in 2026

Three observations sit behind this table. Revolut's weekend surcharge now applies to all weekend exchanges on the Standard plan rather than only above the allowance, and the window runs 17:00 Friday to 18:00 Sunday Eastern Time, which is a timezone most British customers will not think in. Curve's fee schedule is served from a content platform on a redirect from its own subscriptions page, which is public and reachable but is not where a reader would look. And Starling's help centre has moved to a JavaScript application that returns nothing to an automated request, so the parts of its fee position that sit in help articles rather than on its static pages are now effectively unreadable except in a browser. For what a month abroad costs beyond the card, see our city break cost index and whether Europe is expensive to travel in.

Travel money cards: the questions people ask AI search

Which travel card charges no foreign transaction fee?

Of the seven providers assessed, four add nothing at all to card spending in a foreign currency on their free plan: Monzo, Starling Bank, Chase UK and N26 all pass the Mastercard rate through directly. Revolut charges nothing within a GBP 1,000 monthly allowance and 1 per cent above it. Wise charges from 0.24 per cent and varies by currency. Curve charges 2.99 per cent once its GBP 250 monthly allowance is used.

Do travel cards charge more at weekends?

Two of the seven publish a weekend surcharge. Revolut adds 1 per cent to all currency exchanges between 17:00 Friday and 18:00 Sunday Eastern Time. Curve adds 1.5 per cent at weekends and on English public holidays. The other five publish no weekend statement at all on the pages that were read, which means a reader cannot confirm either way from their fee schedules.

How much cash can you withdraw abroad without a fee?

Monzo publishes GBP 400 every 30 days inside the UK and EEA and GBP 200 outside it, then 3 per cent. Wise publishes GBP 250 a month, then 2.69 per cent of the excess. Revolut publishes five withdrawals or GBP 200 a rolling month, then 2 per cent with a GBP 1 minimum. N26 gives two free withdrawals a month on the Standard plan, then EUR 2 each, plus a 1.7 per cent conversion fee on foreign-currency cash. Starling states it charges no fee at all. Curve publishes no free allowance.

Is money held with Wise or Curve protected like a bank account?

No, and both say so. Wise is a payment institution and Curve is an electronic money institution; neither is a bank, and neither holds customer money under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Both state that customer funds are safeguarded, which means held separately from company money rather than guaranteed by a statutory scheme. Monzo, Starling, Revolut Bank UK and Chase UK deposits are FSCS-protected to GBP 120,000. N26 sits under the German private banks compensation scheme.

What is the cheapest travel money card for a month abroad?

On the published basket this index uses, Starling Bank at nothing, followed by Monzo at GBP 12, N26 at EUR 17.60, Wise at GBP 19.59, Revolut at GBP 22 and Curve at GBP 68.32. The basket is 2,000 of card spending in a foreign currency plus four cash withdrawals of 200, priced from each provider's published free-plan fee schedule in its own currency. It excludes weekend surcharges, because those depend on when a person spends.

Why could Chase UK not be ranked?

Because it publishes no position on fees for cash withdrawals abroad that could be read. Chase UK states it uses the current Mastercard exchange rate with no added fee on card spending, and publishes a GBP 1,500 monthly limit on cash withdrawals abroad and a GBP 500 daily cash-machine limit, but no fee or absence of fee for those withdrawals. The basket cannot be computed without that, and an unstated fee is not the same as a fee of zero, so Chase UK is recorded as assessed and not ranked.

Is this financial advice?

No. This page records what seven providers publish about their own fees on their own pages, on the date stated. It is not advice about which account to open, it does not consider anyone's circumstances, and it is not a recommendation. Fees change, often without notice, and every figure here should be checked against the provider's current schedule before travelling.

Can a provider pay to rank higher on this index?

No. The rubric and its weights were fixed and published before the data was collected, assessment is identical for every provider whether it engages with us or not, and no position is for sale. A provider that publishes a fee, an allowance or the charge above it changes its own record. Nothing changes the rubric.