How to get a UK bank card

THERE was a recent question in Connexion about the difficulty of getting a British pre-paid credit card if you do not have a UK address, to spend in France pension money paid in pounds into a British bank account. I use Neteller – you can transfer from the UK to France with them, which, I think, is free. S.M.

Thank you for the tip. Neteller is not a completely “free” solution but may suit some people. Alternatives would include transferring money from a UK account to a French one (perhaps via a money transfer specialist) or requesting to have income paid directly into a French bank account.

Neteller are based in the Isle of Man and, indeed, say they do not require a British address. They recommend their Net+ Prepaid Mastercard, which you can apply for online. You get an “eWallet” – an online account – into which money can be deposited, and this can be used to “load” your card.

A spokesman said: “You could sign up for an account from France, set it up in euros, load it using international bank transfers and then use the Net+ card in France.

“We can’t receive pounds into a euro account, so we would charge a foreign exchange fee of 2.95% and there would be an exchange rate applied but that would be a good ‘spot rate’ better than a lot of banks’ and you would not lose much on the margin there.

After that there are no card fees or point of sale fees, but there is a €4 fee for withdrawals at bank machines.”

He added it is possible to have a sterling account but every time you make a transaction in France there would be a foreign exchange fee, so it is better to set it up in the currency you will be spending in.

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