Studying In Europe - Banking

[merzbot]

Kind regards,

I was wondering if there were any alternatives to using a debit card for making purchases. Mainly I would like to avoid the 3% (or as much of it as possible) that comes with using a foreign card.

Otherwise what are the best alternatives - traveller's checks, withdrawing large sums sparingly from atm's..?

thankyou for any advice.

[Kasper]

what i did when i studied in norway was that i withdrew as much as i could each time (500$) . i also tried to use my credit card as much as i could cause the commission is lower than when making withdrawal (1.5% opposed to 2% for atm). traveller's check usually end up costing more than just withdrawing the money (1% fee + 2% or more on the day rate) so i wouldn't recommend them. last year, i studied in japan and i found a wire transfer service from xe.com called XEtrade (https://www.xe.com/fx/) and if you can open a bank account where you gonna study (not possible everywhere though, was not possible in Norway for example so check before), you transfer money from your home bank account and there's no fee, so it end up being the cheapest option, not to mention that you can use your debit card and don't have to carry tons of cash. you can do everything online and it's really easy so i would definitely recommend this service is you can.