How do you pay for reservations and payments at hotels? We get a lot of questions about it. In many cases you need a credit card and because, for example, as a student you may not have enough income, you cannot just apply for one. People are also against the usually high costs of a credit card. We understand that choosing the right card for you, is difficult! Fortunately, there is now a solution for this: a Prepaid Credit Card of Travel Card. This is a disguised debit account (so you have to deposit money into it first) but with all the credit card benefits. So you can book hotels and hostels with it, but you can also simply use it to pay by card abroad. Whether you're just enjoying yourself Europe , are on vacation or busy with making a world trip. Even renting a car is possible with a prepaid credit card!
It should be noted that you must have sufficient balance for any deposit. In this article we tell you everything about Prepaid Credit Cards, how they work, what it costs and how to apply for them.
Also read: Banking, bank accounts and credit cards for your world trip
Table of contents
Why a prepaid credit card?
The introduction of this article is aimed at students, but that does not mean that only students can use it. I myself have not been a student for 12 years, but still use the prepaid credit card on every trip I take. I just enjoy working – the mobile applications are good and you're not going to spend money you don't have. A prepaid credit card is therefore suitable for everyone and can be applied for by anyone – even if you are not a student.
Can I apply for this credit card with a BKR registration?
Yes, that's possible! That is another huge advantage of a prepaid credit card compared to a regular credit card. There are no BKR registration checks when you apply for a prepaid credit card, because you do not have to borrow money with this card.
You also avoid any BKR registrations with prepaid credit cards. With a prepaid credit card you can never get an unexpected BKR registration because you do not borrow money, but set up money yourself.
Unfortunately, this can still be the case with a normal credit card, because in principle you borrow money with every payment and repay it afterwards. When you borrow large amounts and let this rise too far
How does a prepaid credit card work?
A prepaid credit card is a kind of combination of a normal bank account and a credit card. You deposit money into this account just like a normal bank account. You can then pay with your card in stores and also use it worldwide with debit card. The big difference lies in the 'reservation' of payments. With a credit card, a hotel, shop or landlord can reserve money on your credit card as a kind of prepayment. The money will not yet be debited, but you can no longer use it unless the payment or reservation is cancelled.
What can I do with a prepaid credit card?
Just like with regular credit cards, you can make purchases in (web) shops, book hotels on websites such as Booking.com, AirBnB and hostelworld and you can also (if you have sufficient balance for the deposit) rent cars. The funny thing is that almost every car rental company informs you in advance on their website that it is NOT possible with a prepaid credit card.
I (as stubborn as I am) went to try it anyway and in all 8 cases it just worked. The Bunq Travel Card is currently the only prepaid credit card that has actually succeeded in doing so.
What is a Travel Card?
A Travel Card is simply Bunq's prepaid credit card. Because this is often used when traveling (the Dutch hardly use credit cards in their own country), it was called the Travel Card.
What does a prepaid credit card cost?
There are several prepaid credit cards available. The Bunq prepaid credit card (they call it the Travel Card), costs 10 euros. Depositing money is FREE and there are no transaction fees. That makes quite a difference with the costs of a 'regular credit card', where in addition to the standard costs you also pay a standard 2 to 3% transaction costs per transaction. That really matters a lot!
So per 1000 euros that you spend, you already save 30 euros in transaction costs with Bunq.
With the Travel Card from Bunq you also get the real exchange rate, without extra costs, wherever you are. They call this ZeroFX and trust me, this too definitely makes a difference when you travel. I have tested it many times!
Fun fact: I have of course tested the exchange rate guarantee 'ZeroFX' from Bunq myself. I went in South Africa one day buy something (by card) in a store with the Bunq travel card. I paid 2 euros for 12,62 bottles of water and breakfast. The next day I bought the exact same thing with a regular VISA credit card and was charged 13,08 for exactly the same products in the same store.
This may not seem like much, but 46 cents difference on such a small amount is more than you think. With larger amounts this can really add up! When you travel or are on vacation, you make hundreds, if not thousands, of transactions. All this together is worth as much as your plane ticket!
De Bunq Travel Card is a full-fledged Credit cards credit card and it is the most widely accepted credit card in the world. Even offline terminals in airplanes and elsewhere work with this card (we have also tested this ourselves many times).
Which prepaid credit cards are there?
There are of course more prepaid credit cards than just the Travel Card from Bunq. However, other prepaid credit cards have different rates. Below you can see the differences in both functionality and costs of prepaid credit cards.
Remark: If you plan to rent a car with a prepaid credit card, you can still only do that (until now - the end of 2022) with the Bunq prepaid credit card).
We will continue to test this with other prepaid credit cards and will update this page when that changes.
Bunq Travel Card
- Bank account costs extra € 7,99 per month.
- Pay in foreign currency at no extra cost.
- Rent a car abroad possible.
- Reliable Dutch bank.
- Works on your mobile with Apple Pay and Google Pay.
You can use the Bunq Travel Card here to request. Via the link you also immediately plant 10 trees when registering, which is a nice bonus!
Note: The Bunq Travel Card has become the ideal card for us on the go in recent years. We rent cars with it, we withdraw money and nowadays we actually pay everything with this card when we are traveling.
This is nice because we can keep all travel expenses neatly separated from our personal bills and afterwards (using the handy App) draw up a balance in the household book. This way we can see exactly what we have spent on what. For example, food, hotels, fuel, etc.!
Binance credit card
For the bitcoin and crypto fanatics among us: Binance, the largest crypto platform in the world, recently also launched Prepaid Credit Cards. You can deposit bitcoin, dollars, euros and many other cryptocurrencies there to use. You can choose to convert it in advance into euros or dollars, for example, but you can also choose to use the 'bitcoin rate' of that moment. Binance will then automatically convert the amount 'on the fly' for 1% transaction costs.
Also useful to know: You can via Wereldreizigers.nl Get 10 euros free bitcoin with the most popular Crypto App from Dutch soil, BLOX. If you enter the voucher code 'WORLD TRAVELERS' you will immediately receive 10 euros for free in your account to test the App.
Don't like it? Fine… then it won't cost you anything.
You download it HERE for iOS and HERE for android. Give it a try!
VISA: Because the Binance prepaid Credit Card is a VISA card, it is also the perfect addition to your Mastercard from Bunq. If you happen to be somewhere where they do not accept Mastercard, you can still use this VISA card. With both cards you have 100% coverage anywhere in the world.
cashbacks: Also good to know is that with every payment via the Binance Credit Card you can save for cashbacks in crypto. You get money back when you regularly make purchases with the card and enough cryptocurrencies 'staked'. The cashback discount can then rise from 1 to 10%!
You can use the Binance prepaid credit card apply here or by scanning the QR code in the image above.
Also read: Our 6 best tips to save money on your motorhome trip + VIDEO
N26 – Prepaid Credit Card
After Bunq the N26 Prepaid Credit Card is the most popular in the Netherlands. N26 is originally a German company and their card works almost all over the world. The big advantage of N26 is that you also get a free payment account, at Bunq this costs 6,99,-. The most important disadvantage of the N26 card is that you cannot rent a car with it for the time being.
- Free Mastercard and bank account.
- Free payments in any currency.
- Rent a car abroad not possible.
- English customer service.
You can use the N26 prepaid credit card apply here.
Open bank R42 Mastercard
I have no experience with the openbank R42 master card myself. I do know that other travelers use these and are satisfied with them.
- Free current account + Maestro debit card.
- Withdraw money 5 times a month for free.
- Rent a car abroad not possible.
- Dutch customer service.
You can use the Openbank R42 Mastercard apply here.
Revolution Mastercard
Like the openbank R42 master card, I have no experience with the Revolut Mastercard myself. I do know that other travelers use these and are satisfied with them.
- One-time costs only 6 euros.
- Pay in foreign currency at no extra cost.
- Free prepaid card and Euro IBAN checking account.
- Rent a car abroad not possible.
You can use the Revolut Mastercard apply here.
Also read: Tips to save energy and money with Smart Home Products
Last summer we were able to rent our car through OpenBank in Sweden with a prepaid credit card. This also works at the (larger?) car rental company.
Because we do not want a BKR registered credit card, we recently purchased a prepaid credit card so that we can rent a car abroad. Ideal! 🙂
This information is now outdated, and the Bunq travel card can only be requested in combination with a subscription of at least 3,99 per month. So no longer attractive if you only want the card and want to stay with your trusted bank.