Supercard from Travelex is now available – the end of FX credit card charges?

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Back in March I wrote about the forthcoming launch of Supercard from Travelex. It is very rare that a totally revolutionary payment product comes along but this could be it.

As you (hopefully) know, almost all UK credit, debit and charge cards add a 3% fee when you buy something abroad.

There are only a handful of cards which waive this fee. There are a few free options, such as the Post Office Platinum and Halifax Clarity. There is only one credit card in the UK which offers reward points and no FX fees and that is the Lloyds Avios Rewards card (review here). You need to pay a £24 annual fee for that.

Supercard is different. It can be used anywhere where a Visa card is accepted. Your purchase is translated into Sterling as the standard Visa / MasterCard rate and charged to any UK credit or debit card you nominate. You will receive the usual rewards from that card.

Let’s imagine spending $150 in New York. If you use your Marriott MasterCard, you would be charged £103 based on a $1.50 exchange rate. Use Supercard – with your Marriott card linked to it – and your Marriott card would be charged just £100.

Supercard does away with the need to keep a separate credit card just for overseas purchases. You would earn reward points on every overseas purchase (assuming you linked a rewards credit card!), you would have spare credit available – by cancelling your Post Office or Halifax card – to apply for another rewards card and you would have one less bill to manage each month.

Back in March you could pre-register your interest via the Supercard website. I did that, but have not received notification yet.

However, as an eagle-eyed reader spotted, the app is now available to download. The links to the iOS and Android apps are on this page. It is not in the iOS app store yet – you need to follow the link.

As of 11pm last night, when I wrote this, it was misbehaving and would not let me register. The reader who sent me the link had been able to register OK.

Only a limited number of registrations are being taken at the moment so act sooner rather than later if you want to be in the first wave and get the card in time for your next foreign trip.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – December 2021 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit or charge card, here are our November 2021 recommendations based on the current sign-up bonus.

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the top current deals:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers.

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and a long list of travel benefits Read our full review

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending:

Barclaycard Select Cashback Credit Card

1% cashback and no annual fee Read our full review

Category

General

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Barafear799 says:

13 May13 May 12:57

there is a message on MSE stating that their servers are struggling – it’s been included in Martin’s weekly email.
Apparently, there is a cap of 25,000 cards in this run, and more than 5,000 have gone already.
I am still trying to get past the last stage of the registration process on Android App.
cglatot says:

13 May13 May 13:03

There’s a lot of speculation about the interpretation of the phrasing for Cash Withdrawals at ATMs with this card. I saw this on the MSE article about it:

“Supercard’s a top pick on all of these, as there’s no exchange loading, no charge for spending, no cash machine fees, and – as cash withdrawals made through Supercard are charged to your account as spending, rather than as cash withdrawals – there’s no interest, even if your linked card is a credit card”

So there you have it. It is NOT counted as a cash withdrawal. Amazing.
- Rob says:
  
  13 May13 May 22:00
  
  If true, that is really amazing – withdraw cash and have it treated as a purchase on your credit card.
  - cglatot says:
    
    15 May15 May 21:42
    
    I think it is true. MSE got exclusive access to review it, which is why they have so many details. That is one of the details, and is pretty clearly phrased. Seems like it’s even more of a game changer because of that!
Craig Vassie says:

13 May13 May 13:05

Takes the prize for one of the most badly written apps I’ve ever seen!
Mark says:

13 May13 May 13:21

Will be interesting to see how well this lives up to expectations. The key thing for me will be the exchange rate that is applied. Zero loading is meaningless without knowing whether the underlying rate will be competitive.

E.g. compare the Halifax Clarity Card (MasterCard) and the Lloyds Avios Reward (Amex). As we all know, both have no loading, yet a recent trip to Germany showed that the Amex card was getting a Euro rate on average 1.8% worse the wholesale MasterCard rate. On the other hand the Dirham rate I got in the UAE was marginally better on the Amex card.

If MSE is correct in implying that the Wholesale Visa rate will be applied (rather than a rate defined by Travelex themselves) that is presumably good news, but it’s not clear whether that is assumption on MSE’s part or fact.

Will also be interesting to see how cash withdrawals are charged in practice. If they are really charged as a purchase that would also be great news, otherwise I would hope that the option is there to automatically charge cash transactions to a linked debit card at least.
- Mike says:
  
  13 May13 May 13:31
  
  From the T&Cs: “If You use Your Supercard for a transaction involving a currency that is not GBP the value of the transaction will be converted to GBP by the Visa scheme network at a rate set by Visa International Incorporated. The exchange rate varies daily and is not set by Us, therefore We are not responsible for setting the rate and cannot guarantee the exchange rate You will receive”
  - Mark says:
    
    13 May13 May 13:39
    
    Sounds good. Anyone any idea how the Visa and MasterCard rates generally compare? I’ve found the latter to be very good, sometimes better than the mid-market rate.
    - jon says:
      
      13 May13 May 13:41
      
      Ive generally found the mastercard rate to be better than the Visa rate
      - Worzel says:
        
        13 May13 May 14:01
        
        I came across this earlier:
        
        http://theinquiringinvestor.com/2013/10/07/how-does-visa-calculate-its-currency-exchange-rate/
- JQ says:
  
  13 May13 May 14:42
  
  The Mastercard rate is usually (always?) better than the Visa rate, so if you have a Clarity card I would still use that; this only becomes useful if you reach your credit limit or it gets blocked, etc.
  - Mark says:
    
    13 May13 May 15:25
    
    Depends how different it is, and whether I’m spending towards a signup bonus. For cash withdrawals particularly the prospect of not having to immediately pay off the cash advance, and earn points, means taking a small hit on the rate may be a worthwhile trade-off.
    - Mark says:
      
      13 May13 May 15:37
      
      Looks at yesterday’s rates it looks like EUR-GBP is about 1.2% worse with Visa, USD-GBP is about 2.0% worse.
n says:

13 May13 May 13:39

Registered last night, but app not logging in. Just me?
- jon says:
  
  13 May13 May 13:42
  
  Me too.
flood says:

13 May13 May 14:25

Anyone had any issues with the Android app not letting them enter their DOB? Selecting the correct date, and hitting “Set” returns to the screen with no date set…
Leo says:

13 May13 May 14:34

Hmmmm I just tried registering (no pre-register) and it said my card is on its way….at 2.30pm.
James67 says:

13 May13 May 15:14

I have persevered with this since 9am and finally was successful. I think the registration process is working fine but just constrained by capacity. After entering my email and clicking next every chance I got it finally downloaded the form for me to complete. Having done that I then had to keep clicking submit over the next couple of hours until it finalised and I got the card in the post email. I registered my interest back in March so I do not know if it is different for folks starting today. My guess is it might be more straightforward if waiting until late evening or early tomorrow. Not too impressed it seems to be entirely app based, would like to have seen a website too.