Finance

Starling vs Chase vs Wise vs Revolut: UK Travel Fees Compared (2026)

08/06/2026 • Ryan Shire

Last updated: 12 September 2026

Using the wrong card abroad can add foreign-transaction fees, ATM charges or an unfavourable conversion rate to an otherwise ordinary holiday purchase. This guide compares the current overseas-spending terms for Starling, Chase UK, Wise and Revolut, and explains the fees that matter before you travel.

Passport and payment cards ready for travel abroad

The short version

When a card terminal or cash machine offers to convert the transaction into pounds, paying in the local currency will usually avoid the merchant or ATM operator’s own conversion rate.
Starling and Chase currently charge no provider fee for normal card spending abroad and use the Mastercard exchange rate, although ATM operators can still charge.
Wise uses the mid-market rate and shows its conversion fee separately; ATM withdrawals are free up to a monthly allowance, then a percentage fee applies.
Revolut Standard has monthly exchange and ATM allowances, plus an additional weekend exchange fee.
Provider terms change frequently. Check the live fee page before travelling, particularly if you expect to exchange or withdraw larger amounts.

Fees and protection note

Affiliate disclosure: Some links may earn ShireQuid a commission at no extra cost to you. Affiliate relationships do not change the comparison criteria used here.

Important: This article is general information, not a personal recommendation. Fees, eligibility, exchange terms, account protections and product features can change. Confirm the current terms directly with the provider before applying or travelling.

Scope: This comparison covers debit/current-account style travel spending. It does not compare travel credit cards, which have different eligibility, interest and cash-withdrawal rules.

At-a-glance comparison

Provider	Foreign card spending	ATM allowance / limit	Key point to check
Starling	No Starling fee for card spending abroad; Mastercard exchange rate	No Starling withdrawal fee; overseas cash withdrawals subject to a £300-equivalent daily limit	ATM operators can charge separately. Starling’s euro account has separate conversion pricing from ordinary debit-card spending
Chase UK	No Chase fee abroad; Mastercard exchange rate when paying in local currency	Up to £500 a day; abroad there is also a £1,500 cash-withdrawal limit per calendar month	Foreign/non-GBP spending does not qualify for Chase cashback
Wise	Mid-market rate plus a separately disclosed conversion fee when conversion is required	First £250 per month free from Wise, then 2.69% on the amount above the allowance	Wise Payments Ltd is an e-money institution, not a bank; standard balances are safeguarded rather than covered by FSCS deposit protection
Revolut Standard	Weekday exchange allowance of £1,000 per rolling month; 1% fair-usage fee above it; 1% weekend exchange fee	£200 or five withdrawals per rolling month, whichever comes first; then 2% per withdrawal, minimum £1	Some UK customers have moved to Revolut Bank UK Ltd while others may still be transitioning; check which entity holds your account and what protection applies

These figures are provider terms checked on 12 September 2026. A cash machine, merchant or intermediary can still add its own charge even where the account provider does not.

The conversion choice that matters at the terminal

At a restaurant, shop or cash machine abroad, you may be offered a choice between paying in the local currency and paying in pounds. The pounds option is usually Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC).

With DCC, the merchant’s or ATM operator’s payment provider performs the conversion and sets the exchange rate. If you decline the conversion and pay in the local currency, your own card provider normally performs the conversion instead.

Chase explicitly tells customers that paying in the local currency can help avoid merchant conversion fees. Revolut gives similar guidance for card and ATM use. That does not mean every local-currency transaction is automatically cheapest: your own card may charge a foreign-transaction fee, so check its terms. But if your card has no overseas transaction fee, declining DCC is generally the cleaner comparison.

At a cash machine: wording varies. You might see “accept conversion”, “guaranteed rate”, or an amount shown in GBP. If you want your own card provider to handle the currency conversion, choose the local currency / decline the ATM’s conversion. Always read the screen because the ATM operator may also disclose a separate usage fee.

Foreign-transaction fees: check your own card, not a rule of thumb

Some UK debit and credit cards add a percentage fee when you spend in a foreign currency; others do not. There is no useful single percentage that applies across the market, and fee schedules change.

The four services compared here currently do not use the same charging model:

Starling and Chase: no provider fee for normal card spending abroad and the Mastercard exchange rate applies when the transaction is converted by the card network.
Wise: uses the mid-market rate and charges a separately disclosed conversion fee when you need to convert between currencies.
Revolut: exchange pricing depends on your plan, monthly allowance and whether the exchange happens at the weekend.

That is why “0% foreign transaction fee” does not by itself tell you the total conversion cost.

ATM charges can come from two places

Cash withdrawals can involve both a provider charge and an ATM-operator charge. Staying within your account’s free allowance only removes the provider’s fee; it does not prevent the machine owner from applying a surcharge.

Check the withdrawal screen before confirming. ATM-operator fees vary by country and machine, so do not assume that staying within your provider’s free allowance guarantees a fee-free withdrawal.

Starling

Starling is a UK current account that currently charges no Starling fee for debit-card spending abroad and no Starling fee for overseas ATM withdrawals. Its travel page states that foreign cash withdrawals are subject to a daily limit equivalent to £300. ATM owners can still charge their own fee.

For normal Starling debit-card spending abroad, the relevant comparison is the Mastercard conversion rate rather than Starling adding a foreign-spending mark-up.

Starling also offers a euro account, but that is a separate product with different conversion pricing. Its current euro-account page lists a 0.4% conversion fee and a 0.5% non-working-day margin on conversions during weekends and bank holidays. Those euro-account conversion charges should not be confused with ordinary fee-free Starling debit-card spending abroad.

May suit: someone who wants a conventional UK current account that can also be used overseas without a Starling foreign-spending fee.

Check before choosing: the £300-equivalent daily cash limit, any ATM-operator surcharge, and whether you actually need the separate euro account.

Chase UK

Chase currently charges no fee when its card is used abroad and applies the Mastercard exchange rate when you pay in the local currency.

Cash withdrawals have two important limits: up to £500 a day, and when travelling abroad a further limit of £1,500 in cash withdrawals per calendar month from the Chase current account. A foreign ATM operator can still add its own fee.

Chase’s cashback is a separate issue. The current offer is 2% cashback, capped at £20 a month, on specified UK and Channel Islands categories for customers who meet the qualification criteria. Purchases outside the UK and Channel Islands, and payments in currencies other than GBP, do not qualify.

The current qualification rules require at least 15 qualifying payments in the previous calendar month and a combined balance of at least £1,000 across Chase saver accounts every day during that month. The offer and eligibility rules can change, so do not treat cashback as part of the overseas-spending comparison.

May suit: someone who wants a UK current account with no Chase foreign-spending fee and who is comfortable with the overseas cash limits.

Check before choosing: the £500 daily and £1,500 monthly overseas ATM limits, and the current cashback conditions if cashback matters to you at home.

Wise

Wise uses the mid-market exchange rate and discloses its conversion fee separately. The fee varies depending on the currencies and amount, so the relevant number is the total conversion cost shown before you confirm rather than a single universal percentage.

If you already hold the currency you are spending, Wise can debit that balance directly. If you do not, it converts from an available balance and applies the relevant conversion fee.

For UK personal customers, Wise currently allows cash withdrawals up to a total of £250 per month without a Wise withdrawal fee. Above that allowance, Wise charges 2.69% on the excess. An ATM operator may still charge separately.

Wise Payments Ltd is authorised by the FCA as an electronic-money institution, but it is not a bank. Standard Wise balances are safeguarded under e-money rules and are not covered by FSCS deposit protection in the same way as eligible deposits at a UK bank. Wise’s investment/Assets services have different arrangements and are outside this travel-spending comparison.

May suit: someone who values seeing the conversion fee separately or wants to hold several currencies.

Check before choosing: the live conversion quote, the £250 monthly ATM allowance, card-order costs if you need a physical card, and the difference between safeguarding and FSCS deposit protection.

Revolut

On the Standard plan, Revolut currently allows up to £1,000 of exchange per rolling month before a 1% fair-usage fee applies to additional exchange. Standard customers are also charged a 1% weekend exchange fee on exchanges made during Revolut’s defined weekend period.

The Standard ATM allowance is £200 or five withdrawals per rolling month, whichever comes first. Above the allowance, Revolut charges 2% per withdrawal, with a minimum fee of £1. An ATM operator can also add its own charge.

Revolut became a UK bank in March 2026 through Revolut Bank UK Ltd, and eligible deposits held with that bank can receive FSCS protection up to the applicable limit. However, Revolut has stated that existing UK customers are being moved across in stages. Some customers may therefore still have an account provided by a different Revolut entity with different protection arrangements. Check the legal entity shown in your app/account terms rather than assuming one protection regime applies to every UK customer.

Paid Revolut plans have different exchange, ATM and insurance benefits. Subscription costs, eligibility and policy exclusions matter, so compare the plan terms rather than assuming a paid tier is cheaper simply because you travel.

May suit: someone who uses several currencies and understands the Standard-plan limits or would genuinely use the features of a paid plan.

Check before choosing: the monthly exchange allowance, weekend fee, ATM allowance, paid-plan subscription cost, and which Revolut legal entity currently holds your account.

A simple fee example

It is safer to illustrate a known percentage than to pretend there is one “typical” DCC mark-up or ATM surcharge.

If a card charges a 2.99% foreign-transaction fee and you make £1,200-equivalent of purchases in foreign currency, the card fee alone would be about £35.88 (£1,200 × 2.99%). Any ATM fees or DCC conversion cost would be separate and depend on the specific machine, merchant and card terms.

That example is arithmetic only, not an estimate of what you will pay. Your own card may charge a different rate or no foreign-transaction fee at all.

Practical checks before you travel

Check your card’s current foreign-spending and ATM fee schedule. Do not rely on a review written months earlier.
Know your ATM allowance. Starling uses a daily limit, Chase has daily and monthly overseas limits, while Wise and Revolut use monthly fee-free allowances.
Decline DCC unless you have a specific reason to accept it. Paying in the local currency normally lets your own provider handle the exchange.
Carry a backup payment method. A card can be declined, blocked or retained by a cash machine.
Keep cards separately. Losing one wallet should not remove every payment option.
Do not assume “fee-free” means cost-free. Exchange pricing, provider allowances and ATM-operator fees can still matter.

How to compare the four without a “best” label

Starling: compare it if you want a mainstream UK current account with no Starling foreign-spending fee and relatively simple overseas terms.

Chase: compare it if you want no Chase foreign-spending fee and the £500 daily / £1,500 monthly overseas cash limits are enough for your trip.

Wise: compare it if holding multiple currencies and seeing the conversion fee separately are important to you.

Revolut: compare it if multi-currency features are useful to you and you are comfortable tracking plan allowances, weekend fees and the legal entity/protection applying to your account.

The lowest-cost option depends on how much you spend, how much cash you withdraw, when currency is converted and which features you actually use. A provider that is cheaper for one travel pattern can be more expensive for another.

Sources checked

Disclaimer: General information only; not a personal recommendation. Fees, limits, eligibility, legal entities and exchange terms change. Information was checked on 12 September 2026. Confirm the current terms with each provider before applying or travelling.