Full list of card providers charging up to £24 a year in ‘sneaky’ fees which eat away at your cash
IF you’ve got a prepaid card you haven’t used in a while, check the terms and conditions, as you could be stung by sneaky charges that eat away at your money.
Several providers charge ‘dormancy’, ‘inactivity’, or ‘account maintenance fees’ if you’ve not used your card for a set period – often a year.
This is particularly common among currency and prepaid cards, which is a problem because if you skipped your annual holiday thanks to the cost-of-living crisis, you might be losing cash without realising it.
Some companies even charge you if you have an unused balance on a card that has since expired.
Most providers charge around £2 a month until the balance is cleared after which you won’t pay any more fees.
If you have an inactive account, you can typically stop the charges by either topping up cash, withdrawing money, or spending on a transaction.
The exact amount charged varies from bank to bank, but you can check by looking up the terms and conditions for your card.
We’ve rounded up a list of cards that charge dormancy or account management fees, how much it will cost each month, and what triggers the charges.
Asda travel money card
Asda says it charges an inactivity fee of £2 per month on its Travel Money Card.
The fee kicks in after a 12-month period where you have not topped up your card, paid for transactions or withdrawn money.
This still applies after your card has expired, but there is no fee if you have a zero balance.
Caxton Mastercard Prepaid Card
Caxton says that if there hasn’t been any activity on your card for 12 months or more, you will pay a £2 per month dormancy fee.
The dormancy fee will continue until either you re-activate the account, or the available balance is completely depleted.
You can stop the fees and reset the 12-month period at any time by:
- Loading your account
- Switching a balance
- Using your card for a payment
If your balance is at zero, you will not pay any fees.
Easy FX Currency Card
Easy FX says it charges a card dormancy fee of £2 per month if there have been no card transactions in the preceding 12 months.
FairFX Currency Card
FairFX doesn’t charge a dormancy fee, but it does charge a £2-per-month “expired card administration fee” on cards that still have balances.
This doesn’t apply to cards that have not expired.
Iceland Bonus Card
The Iceland Bonus card is designed to help shoppers save and gives you a £1 bonus for every £20 that you load.
But Iceland says it reserves the right to withdraw, decline, cancel or issue a new card at any time and without notice. If your account is cancelled, the remaining balance will be lost.
If you choose to cancel the account you must make sure that any savings or balances on your Bonus Card are redeemed, otherwise you’ll lose the money.
Iceland also says that your Bonus Card will automatically expire 24 months after the last time you used it. Any remaining balance, of any type, will be forfeited and will not be retrievable.
Paypal
PayPal charges an inactivity fee of £9 each year, which it says is to cover the cost of maintaining inactive accounts.
To avoid the fee, you need to do one of the following:
- Log in to your account
- Pay with PayPal
- Send money to friends or family using your PayPal account
- Withdraw money from your PayPal account
- Donate to a charity using PayPal
This fee only impacts accounts that haven’t been active within the past 12 months. Accounts with a zero balance aren’t charged and PayPal says the charge won’t result in any negative balances.
If an account remains inactive, PayPal says it may be closed.
Post Office Travel Money Card
The Post Office charges a monthly maintenance fee of £2 for Travel Money Cards that have expired and not been replaced, despite having a positive balance.
If, after the expiry of your current card, you would like to apply for a new one, you can contact customer services, and the balance will be transferred across.
The fee starts to be deducted from your balance 12 months after your card expires. All cards are valid for up to 3 years.
Sainsbury’s Bank Travel Money Card
If you don’t use your card for 18 months, a £2 dormancy fee (also known as inactivity fee), will be taken off your balance each month.
If, following the debit of any monthly inactivity fee, the card fund balance is less than the fee, Sainsbury’s says it will waive the difference.
If the balance is £0, then you won’t be charged.
Travelex Money Card
Travelex says it charges a £2 per month fee after a 12-month period of you not using your card.
To prevent the charge, you need to either top up your card, pay for transactions or withdraw money.
The fee is still charged if your card has expired, but there is no fee if you have a zero balance
If you don’t have enough currency available in pounds to pay the charge, Travelex says it will convert the inactivity fee into a non-Pound Sterling currency on your card in the usual wallet order.
It will use the Mastercard foreign exchange rate to do the conversions.
WeSwap
WeSwap says that an inactivity fee of £2 will be charged if there is no activity on your account for a consecutive period of 12 months.
It also charges a £2 expired card management fee on cards with leftover funds.
Options for holiday spending if you don't want to exchange currency
THERE are several specialist cards that can give you a great exchange rate.
These cards include travel credit cards and pre-paid cards which can let you pay abroad without fees or at a set exchange rate.
Travel credit cards: Travel credit cards allow you to spend money abroad without being hit by any fees or hidden charges.
But, they may still charge you for taking cash out.
We recommend the Halifax’s Clarity Card as it won’t charge you for using it abroad, nor are there any fees for withdrawing cash.
But you will be charged interest if you don’t repay your balance in full at a rate of 19.9 per cent.
And you will be charged interest on cash withdrawals until your balance is paid off too, at a rate of between 19.9 and 27.95 per cent depending on your credit score.
In other words, just because you are using plastic abroad doesn’t mean you don’t have to pay these credit cards off like you normally would.
Always pay off your balance before the end of the month with these cards to make sure that any money you saved isn’t wiped away by paying interest.
For more on travel credit cards you can read our guide here.
Pre-paid cards: An alternative to carrying cash around is to get a pre-paid card.
These cards allow you to put a set amount of cash on the card at a fixed exchange rate.
So if the rate is good at the moment, you can put money on your card and it will stay that rate when you are on holiday.
Just keep in mind that these cards can sometimes have hidden costs and charges so be sure to read the small print.