What Are Travel Cards And How Do They Work?

Travel today has become difficult due to the pandemic breakout. As things tend to get better and many countries opening their borders for tourism people are gearing up for their next trip. Safe and improved travelling experiences, better transport and technology, necessary safety precautions have made travel easy and convenient. Travelling to a different country would mean planning in advance, arranging for visas and accommodation and ensuring you have a comfortable stay while you are there. While all this is important, the crucial thing that matters most is procuring local currency.  And this is where Travel Cards come extremely handy and useful. In this blog, we will talk about everything you need to know about Travel Cards.

What are Travel Cards?

No matter, which country you visit, money is an important commodity everywhere. Apart from the visa and other things, having local currency is extremely important. However, it is not practically feasible to carry a lot of cash. Also, it is not a very safe option. This is where Travel Cards can be used. Travel cards are an easy, convenient and say way of buying foreign currency and taking it with you when you travel internationally. The traveling cards are in prepaid format and you will have to preload a card with one currency or multiple currencies depending on your travel.

Be it booking hotels or flight tickets or paying for a meal at a restaurant, the Travel Card will be handy at most times. These travel cards are better known as Forex cards and are quite popular with frequent travellers and tourists.

There are two main types of travel cards – one currency card and the multiple currency card, depending on the countries you plan to visit Frequent travellers can opt for the Borderless prepaid travel card which will help them move across nations without having to worry about their Forex needs.

Also Read: Buying Forex For Your International Trip? Consider these points

How does the Forex Travel Card Work?

The Forex card is an incredible tool and a blessing for travellers travelling abroad. This travelling card helps you get the local currency to the country you are travelling to. Earlier forex could be a long, time-consuming and cumbersome task. However, with modern facilities, one can now get the forex delivered to their doorstep.

To buy forex all one needs to do is log into the Thomas Cook website and register, once this is done, relevant documents need to be submitted. Once all the submissions are done and payments are made, you will receive the forex card. The Forex travelling card is a prepaid card and you will have to load it with the foreign currency of the country you are visiting. This enables you to use the card for transactions just like you’d use the credit or the debit card back home.

Forex cards are a boon since they help you keep your wallet light. It also helps you save big time on conversion charges. Imagine paying currency conversion charges for every single transaction. As a rule most, it is recommended that you get 30% of your forex in cash and the other 70% on the forex card. In times of emergency, you can also use the Forex travel card to withdraw cash from an ATM.

Benefits of the Thomas Cook Forex Card:

1. The Thomas cook travel card is extremely safe. It comes protected with a chip and pin and therefore quite safe to use.
2. It is convenient to use. Thomas Cook offers a free replacement in case the card is lost or stolen.
3. This smart forex card can be used to load eight different currencies onto a single card.
4. You can avoid currency rate fluctuations by loading your card in advance.
5. You can reload the card, anytime and anywhere.

To simply put it, the Forex card is like your travel buddy who will help you sail without any hassles while you travel. Thomas Cook Forex Services makes using the Travelcard on the go even better with 24/7 dedicated customer service.

Still, have doubts? Here are a few Frequently Asked Questions.

1. How can I reload my forex card?

Once you have logged in to the website, choose the desired amount and currency. Once this is done, fill in the relevant traveller details, make payments and you will receive the order confirmation. You will receive your forex at a price at the blocked rate.

2. What documents will I require?

All you need is a duly completed A2 form and a copy of the Visa and the airline ticket. The visa and airline ticket copy would be required only when you are heading on a new trip. You do not have to provide visa or ticket details if you are reloading money for the same trip.

3. Can I reload my travelling card online?

Yes, you can reload your travelling card online anytime and anywhere.

4. What is the validity of a forex card?

A borderless multicurrency card has a validity of 5 years. All other forex cards come with a validity of 3 years.