Caxton Review 2026: Currency Card, International Payments Fees and Exchange Rates

Caxton earns from the exchange-rate margin, not from big upfront fees. So the question that matters is which currency you spend or send, and on which product.

The currency card markup

We checked its card pricing. The free Black card charges nothing to spend a currency you have already loaded, across the 15 it supports. That is the fee-free spending Caxton advertises.

The markup appears when you spend a currency you have not loaded. On the Black card that cross-currency conversion costs 2.49% above the Mastercard rate.

The £8-a-month Red card removes that 2.49% and drops the UK ATM fee, so it only pays off if you regularly spend outside your loaded balances.

Caxton card fees

International payments margin

We found Caxton's bank-to-bank transfer service adds no flat fee, but it does not use the mid-market rate. Independent monitoring puts its margin around 1.5% above mid-market on major routes such as euros and dollars.

For larger sums you can deal by phone, where there is no online cap and you can use forward contracts or set a rate order. That is a genuine feature banks and app-only rivals often lack.

Sending and loading £1,000 in euros

These figures are illustrative, dated 2 July 2026, using a mid-market rate of 1.1632. Rates move daily and the margins are estimates, so check Caxton's live quote before you commit.

We priced £1,000 in euros both ways. On a straight transfer the margin costs you around £15, and Wise on the same route would usually cost you nearer £4 to £5. Caxton's value is the card and the phone desk, not the cheapest transfer.

Currencies and coverage

We confirmed the card holds 15 currencies: sterling, euros, US, Australian, Canadian, New Zealand and Hong Kong dollars, Swiss francs, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian krone, yen, rand, Polish zloty and Hungarian forint.

The separate international payments service is wider, covering 28-plus currencies to 195-plus countries, so you can send to Spain and most of the world by bank transfer.

What Caxton does not do

There is no cash pickup and no mobile-wallet payout, so this is not the tool for sending family cash to collect at an agent or receive on M-Pesa. Caxton pays into bank accounts, or onto its own card.

Speed and limits

Travellers and holiday spending

This is the core use. You load euros or dollars before a trip, lock in that rate, and spend with no Caxton fee and no overseas ATM charge. If you are the sort of traveller who likes to buy currency when the rate looks good, that pre-load model suits you.

Property and larger transfers

If you are buying abroad or moving a lump sum, Caxton's phone dealing desk matters more than its app. You can speak to a person, fix a rate with a forward contract, or set an order to trade when the rate hits your target.

Picture a €200,000 property completion. Fixing the rate months ahead removes the risk of the pound falling before you pay, which an app-only spot transfer cannot do for you.

Business

Caxton for Business offers multi-currency accounts, expense cards, bulk payroll payments and an open API for accounting tools. Pricing is quoted at sign-up, and international card spend still carries the 2.49% margin, so weigh it against a dedicated business FX provider.

How Caxton protects your money

We checked Caxton against the FCA Register. Its current entity, Caxton Payments Ltd, is an Authorised Electronic Money Institution under FRN 900663, and has held that status since June 2018.

As an e-money firm it safeguards customer funds in segregated accounts at tier-one banks, rather than under the FSCS. So there is no £120,000 guarantee, but your money is kept apart from the firm's own and its cards are issued through PSI-Pay, a Mastercard principal member.

Account security and fraud protection

You complete ID checks when you open the account, and larger transfers can trigger a source-of-funds request, so build that time in before a deadline. The app lets you freeze and unfreeze a card yourself.

The recurring gripe in reviews is automated security freezes, though customers also praise how quickly UK support releases them.

Signing up. You open the account and order a card in the app, then load it by debit card, bank transfer, Apple Pay or Google Pay. A minimum first load applies.

App and website. Caxton is app-led, and it rates 4.8 on Google Play. You manage currencies, convert between them instantly and lock the card from your phone.

Customer support. Support is UK-based by phone and in-app message. Reviewers single it out as a strength, especially for replacing a lost card while you are abroad.

We read the recent reviews, not just the headline score, and they point to one clear strength and one clear irritation.

What people praise: fast UK-based support, no overseas ATM fees, and an easy app for switching currencies.

What goes wrong: the £2 monthly dormancy fee draining idle balances, and the occasional automated account freeze.

For a travel card you pre-load, Caxton stands up well in our money transfer comparison, thanks to fee-free spending in its 15 currencies and no overseas ATM charge.

For a straight bank transfer, though, Wise usually beats it, using the mid-market rate with one clear fee instead of a margin near 1.5%. Revolut is the other card to weigh if you spend unpredictably across many currencies. Among the other travel cards and apps our FairFX, Travelex and Monzo reviews cover the closest rivals. For travel cash rather than a card, our Post Office Travel Money review is worth a look.

Rates move daily, and we refresh the live figures, so run a live comparison of today's rates and fees for the amount and currency you actually care about before you send.

Caxton is the one to reach for when you want to fix your holiday spending money in advance and spend it abroad without card fees.

For pre-loaded travel spending and for larger transfers where a phone dealer and a fixed rate help, it is a solid, well-run choice, and we rate it 4 out of 5.

Just know its edges before you commit: the 2.49% markup off your loaded currencies, a transfer margin wider than Wise, and a dormancy fee that punishes an idle balance.