Before COVID, we had only been taking short trips of a couple of weeks at a time. So at that time, our focus on the right credit cards for us was about collecting points, travel insurance, and reward benefits from the company.

We love the benefits from American Express Platinum card and Aeroplan TD visa credit cards. Both have good sign-up bonuses, purchase protection and travel insurances for short trips (up to about a month). We also took advantage of the points for last minute flight bookings. Points are much more cost effective for one way flights - exactly half the return fare whereas a one way flight paid for with money is anywhere from 2/3 or more of a return fare. Points can also be a very good deal to upgrade to business and on this trip I had my very first true business class flight from Canada to Thailand! Whereas a business class ticket is often thousands more than economy, it cost the equivalent of about $200 in points for us to upgrade. The business pod seating, service, and food was amazing!

Most Canadian cards charges 1% to 3% on foreign currency transactions. Therefore, for our one-year long stay, we decided to look into cards with no FX fees. Another thing we kept in mind is that we will be mostly using cash in Thailand, so the ATM withdrawal fees and currency exchange rates also come into play.

There are 6 possible fees to look out for using credit card abroad:

1. Cash advance fees

2. Foreign exchange (FX) transaction fees

3. The interchange fees from Visa/Mastercard/American Express

4. Interest fees on cash advances

5. ATM/Cash Machine charges

6. ATM withdrawal fees from the card

Most people might not have noticed that when you make a purchase with your card abroad, there will be FX fees and interchange fess which is roughly 3.5% of the purchase amount.

When you withdraw cash abroad using a credit card, you will likely to pay for the 6 fees mentioned above, which can be steep once you add it all up. While some of these fees can be avoided with a bank card withdrawal, you still end up paying FX and ATM and withdrawal fees.

After some Google searching and reading different review articles on no FX credit cards, I applied for STACK Mastercard. Although it doesn't have the competitive benefits like other travel cards, it fulfills what we were missing to reduce unnecessary recurring cost to get and spend money while abroad.

Honestly, I knew very little about Virtual Credit Cards. After reading more about it, I was ready to give it a try. Although there are other similar cards, the biggest benefits that caught my eye were, no monthly fee, no ATM Withdrawal fees, no FX fees and Mid-market exchange rate from STACK. On average, you could lose 3% to 5% of cash you took out while aboard! That's $50 for every $1000, or a cup of very fancy coffee for every $100 you took out (or 5 street food meals in Thailand)!

I like how easy it is to transfer the fund through their app. You can request funds from other accounts, Interact® e-transfer or using cash to load the card in Canada. The app also has neat features such as freeze card and view card PIN that can be hard to remember if you have multiple cards.

KOHO is a similar prepaid card by VISA comes with 0.5% cash back benefit (though the case back benefit doesn't apply for purchases abroad). This card does charge ATM fees and a 1.5% FX fee so I don't think there's any reason you would use this card over STACK as a travel card.

ScotiaBank Passport Infinite Visa card was in the running for us as well. It has no FX fees, however the ATM withdrawal will count as Cash Advance with no grace period on the 22.9% interest rate. So we don't use this card to take out cash but we do use it as our main credit card while out of the country in order to save on FX.

Things to keep in mind while using STACK:

• It's a PREPAID card. You need to make sure you transfer your fund in the app ahead of the time. The fund is CDIC protected.

• Daily and monthly limit. Besides ATM limit, STACK has maximum $500 per single ATM transaction and maximum cumulative ATM amount of $2000 per month.

• ATM machine charges. Yes, I know, I did say no ATM fees. Although STACK doesn't charge the fee, the ATM machine itself still could charge fees depends on the local bank. You should look into ATM withdrawal limit and fees associated in your destination. Most ATMs in Thailand charge about THB220 per withdrawal.

• Apply 2-4 weeks before your trip. Although you can start using your virtual card and have it in Apple Pay and Google Pay right away, you do need the physical card to take out cash in an ATM. I received the card within 2 weeks and it can be activated through the app.

• Choose local currency when making a purchase or ATM withdrawal. To get better rate from MasterCard, choose local currency when you pay. The foreign currency transaction is converted to Canadian dollars at MasterCard International’s rate on the date the merchant finalizes the transaction.

STACK Referral Program

Earn money when you refer your friends to STACK. Your friends will get a $5 sign up bonus and you can earn up to $15 with no cap.

note: I installed the app on the phone first before using the referral link to ensure I get the bonus.