MasterCard To Launch Cash2Go For Payments Abroad

MasterCard Europe is planning to launch a new, innovative payment system to use abroad as an alternative to credit cards and travellers cheques.

MasterCard have teamed up with the International Currency Exchange (ICE) to develop Cash2Go, a PIN secured Maestro debit card that can be credited with pre-paid sterling, US dollars or euros.

Cash2Go will offer travellers instant and secure access to cash whilst they are abroad, as well as allowing users to pay for goods without the need for hard currency. The card is activated when users call a freephone number and are given a unique PIN number. The amounts that can be pre-paid range from £50 (dollars, pounds or euros) to £2,500 (dollars, pounds or euros).

The card is currently undergoing a pilot scheme at ICE exchange bureaux across the UK as well as at a number of branches of the travel agent Travelcare. MasterCard Europe hopes that Cash2Go will help to reduce the £541 million that credit card holders currently waste on charges abroad every year.

Keith Hobbs, vice president and head of business development at MasterCard Europe, said that Cash2Go "offers consumers a great opportunity to get easy, safe and secure access to their money."