You probably already know how important it is to maintain your budget when traveling overseas and to make sure your money is safe at all times if you travel overseas frequently.

By taking your international prepaid card with you every time you travel nowadays, you can easily achieve both of your objectives. There are a number of ways in which international prepaid cards work like prepaid cards used in other countries.

Amazingly, international prepaid cards also come with a number of extra features designed to make your travel abroad easier and more convenient, especially if you have a limited travel budget.

International Prepaid Cards: Two Types

As far as international prepaid cards are concerned, there are two primary types:

Prepaid travel cards that are used for general travel

They are mostly the same as the prepaid cards you would use when you are abroad. However, they come with some extra features that are very helpful when you are away from home. For instance, they have an emergency card replacement feature, chip and pin capabilities, as well as international ATM access.

Although many prepaid cards come with a chip, this is not true for all of them and it can be an issue. In many European countries, chip technology has been standard for a long time now, so it is likely that you will encounter problems when using a prepaid card at automated payment points or unmanned kiosks, as opposed to a chip-enabled card.

Cards that are multi-currency and accept a wide range of currencies

You will be able to load cash onto these cards before you go on holiday and make sure the exchange rate is locked in. This is a great feature because it lets you take advantage of the current exchange rate during your vacation rather than paying for it today at the point of sale.

A prepaid card, however, can only be loaded with a handful of currencies, so you cannot load it with just about any currency you desire. In most cases, the issuers of prepaid cards limit the number of currencies that you can load on the card.

For example, many prepaid card issuers allow you to load only six currencies, namely the Australian Dollar, Canadian Dollar, Mexican Peso, Japanese Yen, Euro, and British Pound.

International Prepaid Cards Offer Unbeatable Benefits You Can’t Find Anywhere Else

There are several advantages that can be gained from carrying your international prepaid card with you whenever you travel. However, some of the most remarkable benefits of bringing your international prepaid card with you when traveling are as follows:

Travel can help you keep a tighter rein on your spending and help you stick to your budget. It’s a challenge to adhere to your budget when you’re traveling. It’s understandable that you might feel a bit lighter and happier when you’re traveling, making it a lot easier for you to go over your budget.

The good news about prepaid cards is that you are still able to limit your spending by limiting it to the amount that’s available on your card, which means that you can limit your spending to the amount that you have on the card.

When you use a prepaid card, you are in control of your spending much more than you are when you use a credit card, since the balance can seem infinite when you are using one.

You can use your international prepaid card to prevent your credits and debit cards from being used on your trip if you don’t know how to use them. You can also use it as a buffer for your other accounts, if you are uncomfortable about using your credit or debit cards on your trip.

A shady character might also be able to compromise your checking or savings account when they gain access to your credit or debit card. In addition to that, you can rest assured that when you use a prepaid international card, you won’t have to worry about anyone trying to steal your personal information.

Thankfully, you won’t have to worry so much about that. There are many international prepaid cards today that provide almost the same level of protection in terms of fraud protection that other plastic cards offer. Many of these cards also come with a very low fraud rate.

In other words, in the event that someone uses your credit card without your permission, you will still be responsible for a certain amount as long as you notify the company within two business days of the incident.

In addition to international prepaid cards, many offer zero-liability coverage that ensures the cardholder won’t lose any money if the incident is not reported before the charges appear on the account as long as the incident is reported before charges are incurred.

Gino Hawkins