Before you go · step 6
You saved for months. Then you hand a slice of it back in exchange rate markups and withdrawal fees without ever seeing a bill for it. Here is exactly where that money goes, what the machine charges in each country, and which card keeps the most of it in your pocket.
Night market in Thailand
None of these show up as a line on your statement saying what they are. That is the whole problem: you cannot avoid a cost you never see. So here they are, out in the open.
Most banks add a percentage to the exchange rate the moment you pay or withdraw outside the eurozone. You will not find it as a separate line anywhere, because it is baked into the rate itself. In Ireland that runs from 1% to 3% depending on who you bank with, a big Spanish bank charges 4.5%, and some cards charge nothing at all. Look yours up before you go, because the gap between those two ends is real money.
On top of the rate, plenty of banks charge a flat amount per cash withdrawal abroad, often a couple of euros, sometimes with a minimum that bites hardest on small amounts. Withdraw twenty times in three months and you have handed over a night or two of accommodation for the privilege.
220 baht in Thailand, 250 pesos in the Philippines, 4 to 8 dollars in Cambodia. That one lands on you with any foreign card, ours included. There is no card on earth that dodges it. The only defence is arithmetic: take bigger amounts out less often.
Say no. Every time. Choose euros and the machine or the shop does the conversion itself, at their rate and with their markup on it. Pay in baht, dong, kip, riel or pesos and your own card does the maths instead, which is almost always cheaper.
Sources: the published card charges of Irish and Spanish banks, and the ATM fees per country further down this page. All amounts checked on 13 September 2026.
Four questions and you will see what your own card costs you against what ours does. We ask what your bank charges rather than guessing, because that number is wildly different in Dublin, Madrid, Berlin and Paris. Look it up on your bank’s fee page if you are not sure, it takes a minute and it is the whole answer.
It is an estimate, not a quote. Check your own bank’s fee sheet for the exact figures. Checked on 13 September 2026.
We have paid our way through five countries with this card. It is not magic and it does not solve everything, so here is the whole of it: what it does, what it costs, and the bit it does not fix.
At the mid-market rate, in 40 currencies. Hold the right currency on your account and nothing comes off. We move part of our budget into baht before we fly.
That is the physical one, paid once. No subscription, no monthly fee. The digital card is free and works in Apple Pay and Google Pay straight away, which is handy while the real one is still in the post.
Go over that in a calendar month and Wise charges 2.69% on the part above the line, not on the whole thing. That is the reason to pay by card where you can and save your cash for where you must.
See a rate you like and you move euros into baht or dong in the app, ready to spend. Converting carries a small fee that starts at 0.2% and Wise shows it before you confirm. You then know exactly what rate you are travelling on.
Left it in a hostel, or on a food stall counter? Freeze it in the app and switch it back on when it turns up. No phone call to a bank at three in the morning.
Booking a bus on a website that looks like it was built in 2009? Make a single use digital card for it and bin it afterwards. Your real number never touches the place.
One thing to know before you compare: Wise charges according to the country your account is registered in, not the country you are standing in. Every figure on this page is for an account in euros. Open yours somewhere else and check their pricing page, because your numbers will be different.
Source: the Wise card pricing and fees pages. Checked on 13 September 2026.
Per country
This is the fee you cannot dodge, the one the local bank charges for its own machine. It lands on you with any foreign card. The trick everywhere is the same: fewer withdrawals, bigger amounts.
Where cards work. 7-Eleven, supermarkets, malls, hotels and the better restaurants all take cards. Markets, street kitchens, tuktuks and songthaews do not. That is cash, every time.
Our tip. Take the maximum out in one go. That 220 baht is a flat fee per withdrawal, not a percentage, so four trips of 5,000 baht cost you four times what one trip of 20,000 does.
Read up on ThailandWhere cards work. In the cities and the tourist towns you increasingly pay by card or by scanning a QR code. Out in the countryside, up in the mountains and at the small eateries it is all cash.
Our tip. Watch the zeros. A 500,000 note and a 20,000 note look alarmingly alike, so count what the machine gives you and count what you get back.
Read up on VietnamWhere cards work. Laos is the most cash based of the five. Assume your hostel, your minibus and your dinner are all cash, including in places where you would expect otherwise.
Our tip. Outside Vientiane, Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng there are few machines and they are empty more often. Never set off for Nong Khiaw, Thakhek or Don Det on an almost empty wallet.
Read up on LaosWhere cards work. Hostels, tours and the better restaurants take cards. Markets, tuktuks and the small eateries price in dollars, and anything under a dollar comes back to you in riel.
Our tip. Machines love handing out 50s and 100s, and a tuktuk driver can do nothing with those. Ask for an odd amount, 90 dollars say, and you get smaller notes. Torn or written on dollars get refused, so check what you are given.
Read up on CambodiaWhere cards work. In Manila, Cebu and the bigger resorts you can pay by card. On the small islands, in the bangkas and on the tricycles it is cash for everything, your hostel included.
Our tip. Stock up before you go island hopping. On places like Port Barton and Malapascua machines are scarce and regularly out of cash, and that is a spectacular view to be broke in front of.
Read up on the PhilippinesConverted at the rates on the day we checked. Fees and limits vary by bank and by machine: the screen always tells you the cost before you confirm. All amounts checked on 13 September 2026.
Roughly, and it shifts as you go: Thailand takes cards almost everywhere, Laos takes them almost nowhere. Plan on carrying more cash than you would at home.
Cash, always
Card is fine
Watch for these
What happens. The machine or the card reader offers to bill you in euros, with a tidy number attached. It feels reassuring: you know exactly what it costs.
What to do. Say no and pick the local currency. Say yes and the machine or the shop converts it themselves, at their rate with their markup. It is called dynamic currency conversion and it is almost always the more expensive of the two.
Watch out. The right button usually says something like “continue without conversion”. Sometimes the expensive choice is big and green and the cheap one is small and grey. That is not an accident.
What happens. You are at the machine, the card goes in, and nothing comes out. No money, no explanation, just a queue forming behind you.
What to do. Try a machine belonging to a different bank first: they refuse each other’s cards fairly often with nothing actually wrong. Still nothing? Check your app for a blocked payment and make sure you hold a balance in the right currency.
Watch out. Turn on withdrawals outside Europe in your banking app before you leave. Plenty of banks have that switched off by default and you find out on day one.
What happens. You hesitate a second too long at the screen, the machine pulls your card in, and that is the last you see of it.
What to do. So use a machine attached to an actual bank branch, during opening hours. Then you walk in and usually have it back the same day. At a standalone machine down an alley at eleven at night, it is gone.
Watch out. Freeze it in the app straight away and reach for your second card. This is exactly why you carry two, and why they do not live in the same bag.
What happens. “BEST RATE!” in blue and orange above the counter, and the number on the board genuinely does look good.
What to do. Compare that board with the real rate in your app. The difference is rarely in the rate itself, it is in the commission underneath, printed a lot smaller than the rate is.
Watch out. Never change money at the airport and never at your hotel: those rates are reliably the worst you will see. At a machine you at least know the cost before you press yes.
One in your wallet, one in your bag or the hostel locker, and never both in the same place. Machines eat cards, banks block accounts after a transaction they find odd, and an island cash machine takes Mastercard on the day you only brought Visa. With one card you are stuck. With two you walk to the next machine and carry on with your day.
Nine things, most of them five minutes each, all of them a nightmare to sort out from a hostel in Bangkok. Your browser remembers where you got to.
Because it is what is in our own wallets, and has been across every country on this site. The rate is the real one, the fees are printed where you can find them, and the app does the two things that actually matter on the road: it tells you instantly what just left your account, and it lets you kill the card the moment it goes missing.
We also earn a small amount if you open an account through our link, at no cost to you. That is how this site pays for itself, and you should know it before you read another word of this page.
What it does not do: it does not touch the local machine’s fee, which you pay regardless, and it is not a bank. Your money there is not covered by the deposit guarantee that protects savings at a normal bank up to €100,000. Wise has to hold customer money separately from its own, at large banks or in government bonds, which is not the same thing. Treat it as your travel wallet, not your savings account, and leave the rest where it is.
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The physical card is a one off €7 and the digital one is free. A replacement is €4. No monthly fee, no subscription. Spending is free at the mid-market rate as long as you hold that currency. Cash is free up to €250 per calendar month, and above that Wise charges 2.69% on the part over the line, not on everything. Converting currency carries a fee that starts at 0.2% and is shown to you before you confirm.
No, and it matters. Wise is a payment institution. Your money there does not fall under the deposit guarantee scheme that protects savings at a normal bank up to €100,000. Instead Wise is required to keep customer money separate from its own, held at large banks or in government bonds. In practice: use it as the wallet you travel on, keep your savings where they are.
Yes. You top up your Wise account from your existing one, so you need it either way. This replaces the card you pay with abroad, not your bank.
At any machine or card reader that takes the logo on your card, which is most of them. Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and the Philippines are all straightforward. Laos is the most cash based of the five, so there you use the card mainly at the machine and pay for the rest of your day in kip.
You do not. If you have no baht, Wise converts automatically when you pay. Doing it yourself has one advantage: you pick the moment, so you know exactly what rate you are travelling on.
Because something always happens. A machine swallows one, a bank blocks another after a transaction it finds suspicious, an island ATM takes Mastercard on the day you only packed Visa. One card and your trip stops for two days. Two cards and it is an inconvenience. Keep them in different places.
A hundred to two hundred euros or dollars as an emergency reserve, in clean notes without tears. Withdraw the rest as you go: that is nearly always better than an exchange desk at home, and you are not walking around with an envelope.
That is dynamic currency conversion. The machine or the shop offers to do the conversion for you, at their rate with their markup on top. It looks helpful and it is almost always more expensive. Always pick the local currency: baht, dong, kip, riel or pesos.
They do roughly the same job and both work fine out there. We use Wise as our main card because we find the rate and the fees easiest to actually locate. The honest answer is to carry two cards from two different providers, and then the order barely matters.
Then you already have the expensive part solved, and a second card will not save you much. Take one anyway as a backup, because the failure you are guarding against is not a fee, it is being stuck without access to your money on a Sunday in a town with one machine.
Night market in Thailand
The physical card arrives by post, so this is a job for now rather than for the week you leave. Order it, put the digital one on your phone, move a bit of your budget across, and the money side of this trip is done.