Credit or debit card in Spain?

As always, Nationwide is best for these things.

Otherwise, I would suggest Maestro (Switch) for cash and Mastercard for purchases, mainly because Morethan will charge interest for cash advances.

For the purchases, is this because MasterCard is better than Maestro/Switch, or because credit cards are better than debit cards, or because MoreThan is better than IF? Does the difference arise from different policies on exchange rates and commissions, or what?

Matti

i suspect its because you get a month or more before you have to pay

Maestro and Mastercard are, as I understand, the same thing in the same way that Visa and Delta are.

I am assuming that the rates you get are the same for both. They probably will be. The benefit of buying by credit card is you get longer to pay, and you may have some rights under the Comsumer Credit Act. Also, depending on what options you selected for your Morethan card, you may get cashback. I don't know if that applies to foreign transactions, so check.

I opened a Spanish Bank Account with BBVA a few holidays ago, all you need is a passport and you get a debit card. When I go on holiday I take euro travellers cheques with me that I get in the UK with no commission. Pay them into my account when I get to Spain and then I can use the debit card and draw cash with no charges.

David Woodcock

Thanks for that. I think there was a test case in the last couple of weeks which established that items purchased with a credit card outside the UK didn't benefit from the protections of the CCA, in fact. I'm pretty sure that cashback applies, though.

I'd always thought that credit card purchases abroad used favourable exchange rates, and wasn't sure whether this extended to debit cards.

Matti