Long gone are the days when you’d need to obtain physical foreign currency before travelling abroad. With organisations such as Visa and MasterCard, you can just tap and go pretty much all over the globe. It is super convenient, but at what cost?

Individual banking charges when you are transacting abroad on your regular debit or credit card can seem minimal at first, but they can quickly add up. Amusingly, one of the ways to avoid these fees is to go back to the historic ways of exchanging your cash for the foreign currency of your destination before travelling. This can be risky though because if you draw too much, you’ll pay further exchange fees when you return. If you draw too little, you’ll be caught short and need to spend on your cards anyway.

If you are a frequent traveller, it pays to put in some research into reducing unnecessary bank charges and exchange fees inflated by commission costs.

One easy way I’ve personally used is to find a bank that offers 0% on Non-Sterling Transaction Fees on either their credit or debit cards. I currently have a Virgin Money Mastercard that affords me this benefit and it’s great! Not only do I use it when travelling, but I also use it when purchasing in a foreign currency from home.

Another popular way that I fund my travel adventures is through Revolut. They offer real time currency exchange within their app without charging extra for commission. You can use their debit card in your destination country, transacting and withdrawing in local currency (provided you’ve exchanged it on the app first). There are no foreign transaction fees.

I am sure there are possibly a few more travel savvy methods out there, but these are the two I am personally aware of and have used successfully.

Of course, if you go all inclusive, you wouldn’t need to really worry about money at all. In a luxury resort, you’d have everything you need and you’ve already paid for it all before departing. In most cases, you can even pay for your excursions before leaving for your holiday.