Don't lose a Citibank ATM card overseas

CTmom2018
Thu, 23 Jun 2016 02:39:06 +0000

I’m giving this thread a bump to mention Travelex. My D took one of their “cash passport” cards as a backup to her chip/PIN bank debit card on her study abroad trip to Rome this month.

This is a prepaid debit card that can be preloaded in Euros, British pounds, Japanese Yen, Canadian dollars, Australian dollars and Mexican Pesos. It can be reloaded online with funds from another account. The exchange rate is locked in at the time of your purchase, and if you have foreign currency left over after your trip that you don’t want, you can sell it back to Travelex. (Their exchange rate is not as favorable as bank rates, but of course that is how Travelex makes its money.)

They send you two cards so you have a backup, but if both of them are lost/stolen, Travelex can get you a new card in as little as 24 hours. The card itself doesn’t have any of your personal information on it, so your identity cannot be stolen off it-- nor can you lose any of the funds in your Travelex account. The new card you receive will be loaded with the same amount of money as the card(s) you lost.