Neobanks
What is the cheapest card to spend abroad from the UK?
Any of the 4 free accounts that add no fee to the card network's rate: Monzo, Starling Bank, Chase UK and Kroo Bank. On £1,500 of foreign spending in a month they cost nothing; Wise costs £3.60 and Revolut £5.00. The difference is what else the account holds, and what cash costs. Checked September 2026.
Revised against the dataset Sep 2026. Every figure below is dated where it stands, and the dataset behind it is rechecked at least every 30 days.
Disclosure Links to providers on this page earn this site nothing. They go to the provider’s own site unmodified, with no tracking parameters. If that ever changes, this notice changes with it. Full disclosure.
Fee-free means the network's rate, nothing added
Monzo, Starling Bank, Chase UK and Kroo Bank all pass the card network's exchange rate through with no fee of their own, and none of them caps how much spending that applies to. On the £1,500 month this site prices, they cost nothing. That is the whole answer for a reader whose only question is what a card payment abroad costs.
Wise and Revolut are dearer on that scenario for opposite reasons. Wise charges a small conversion fee from the first pound; Revolut converts the first £1,000 a month free and then charges 1.00%. Spend less than Revolut's allowance and it joins the fee-free group; spend more and Wise's flat fee is cheaper than Revolut's.
- FX cost on £1,500/mo
- £0.00
- Conversion fee
- 0.50%
- Fee-free allowance
- £3,000/mo
- Free ATM withdrawals
- £200/mo, then 2% (min £1)
- FX cost on £1,500/mo
- £3.60
- Conversion fee
- 0.24%
- Fee-free allowance
- None
- Free ATM withdrawals
- £250/mo, then 2.69%
- FX cost on £1,500/mo
- £5.00
- Conversion fee
- 1.00%
- Fee-free allowance
- £1,000/mo
- Free ATM withdrawals
- £200/mo or 5 withdrawals, then 2% (min £1)
- FX cost on £1,500/mo
- £0.00
- Conversion fee
- None
- Fee-free allowance
- None
- Free ATM withdrawals
- £400/mo, then 2% (min £1)
- FX cost on £1,500/mo
- £0.00
- Conversion fee
- None
- Fee-free allowance
- None
- Free ATM withdrawals
- £800/mo, then 2% (min £1)
- FX cost on £1,500/mo
- £0.00
- Conversion fee
- None
- Fee-free allowance
- None
- Free ATM withdrawals
- EEA unlimited; elsewhere £200/30 days, then 3%
- FX cost on £1,500/mo
- £0.00
- Conversion fee
- None
- Fee-free allowance
- None
- Free ATM withdrawals
- Free, up to £300/day
- FX cost on £1,500/mo
- £0.00
- Conversion fee
- None
- Fee-free allowance
- None
- Free ATM withdrawals
- Free, up to £500/day and £1,500/month abroad
- FX cost on £1,500/mo
- £0.00
- Conversion fee
- None
- Fee-free allowance
- None
- Free ATM withdrawals
- Free, no Kroo limit published
- FX cost on £1,500/mo
- £0.00
- Conversion fee
- None
- Fee-free allowance
- None
- Free ATM withdrawals
- Free in the EEA; £200/30 days elsewhere, then 3%
- FX cost on £1,500/mo
- £0.00
- Conversion fee
- None
- Fee-free allowance
- None
- Free ATM withdrawals
- £500/mo, then 1%
- FX cost on £1,500/mo
- £0.00
- Conversion fee
- 1.00%
- Fee-free allowance
- £3,333/mo
- Free ATM withdrawals
- £300/mo, then 2% or £2
- FX cost on £1,500/mo
- £0.00
- Conversion fee
- None
- Fee-free allowance
- None
- Free ATM withdrawals
- Free in the EEA; £600/30 days elsewhere, then 3%
- FX cost on £1,500/mo
- £0.00
- Conversion fee
- None
- Fee-free allowance
- None
- Free ATM withdrawals
- Free in the EEA; £600/30 days elsewhere, then 3%
- FX cost on £1,500/mo
- £0.00
- Conversion fee
- 1.00%
- Fee-free allowance
- £50,000/mo
- Free ATM withdrawals
- £500/mo, then 2% or £2
- FX cost on £1,500/mo
- £0.00
- Conversion fee
- 1.00%
- Fee-free allowance
- £100,000/mo
- Free ATM withdrawals
- £1,000/mo, then 2% or £2
- FX cost on £1,500/mo
- £0.00
- Conversion fee
- None
- Fee-free allowance
- None
- Free ATM withdrawals
- £750/mo, then 1%
- FX cost on £1,500/mo
- £10.00
- Conversion fee
- 1.00%
- Fee-free allowance
- £500/mo
- Free ATM withdrawals
- £200/mo, then 2%
- FX cost on £1,500/mo
- £44.85
- Conversion fee
- 2.99%
- Fee-free allowance
- None
- Free ATM withdrawals
- £3 per withdrawal abroad
- FX cost on £1,500/mo
- £37.38
- Conversion fee
- 2.99%
- Fee-free allowance
- £250/mo
- Free ATM withdrawals
- None free; 2% or £2, whichever is greater
Every figure here was checked against the provider’s own page in Oct 2026. Figures are rechecked at least every 30 days; one past that is marked “Recheck due”.
Segments show the tier reached, not the score:BasicStandardStrongExcellent
Where the fee-free cards differ: cash
Card payments are free on all of them; cash machines are not always. Each account's published terms are in the last column of the table: some set a daily limit, some a rolling monthly allowance abroad with a percentage after it, and one states no limit of its own. The machine's operator may add a fee of its own on any of them, which no UK account controls.
Monzo, Starling and Chase pass through Mastercard's rate; Kroo passes through Visa's. The two networks' rates differ by small amounts that change daily, and neither is reliably better; the fee an account adds on top matters far more than which network it sits on.
Where they differ: holding other currencies
The fee-free cards are sterling accounts, Starling's euro account aside. They convert at the point of payment and hold nothing in any other currency. That suits a trip; it does not suit being paid in euros or dollars, or keeping a balance in a currency you spend regularly. The accounts that hold other currencies are Wise, Revolut and Starling Bank, and Starling's second currency is the euro only, through a free euro account.
Being paid from abroad is a separate question again. Wise gives local account details in 14 currencies and Revolut in 3, so a sender in those countries pays them as a domestic transfer. Chase UK and Kroo Bank cannot receive payments from abroad at all. The table's local account details column lists each account's currencies.
So the cheapest card and the most useful account are not always the same product, and it is common to hold both: a fee-free card for spending, and a multi-currency account for receiving and holding. The scenario column is deliberately about spending alone, so that this distinction stays visible rather than being averaged away.
Related questions
- Is Revolut free to use abroad?
- On the Standard plan, conversion is free up to £1,000 a month on weekdays, then 1.00%. Cash abroad is free within the published allowance, then charged. Under the allowance it costs the same as the fee-free cards; over it, it does not.
- Why is Wise not free when it has no monthly fee?
- Wise charges its conversion fee on every pound converted, with no free allowance, so a month of card spending always costs something: £3.60 on £1,500. In return it holds 40 currencies, which none of the fee-free cards do.
- Should I pay in pounds or local currency when the terminal asks?
- Local currency. Choosing pounds hands the conversion to the merchant's terminal at its own rate, which is what the fee-free accounts are letting you avoid.
- Which is the dearest account here for spending abroad?
- Zempler Freedom, at £44.85 on the £1,500 scenario, because it charges 2.99% on every foreign card payment.
Sources
Rules and deadlines above are read from these primary sources. Prices come from the comparison dataset and are dated where they stand.
- Monzo: travel and spending abroadRead Sep 2026
- Starling: travel moneyRead Sep 2026
- Chase UK: travelling with ChaseRead Sep 2026
- Kroo: spending abroadRead Sep 2026