Oh dear , that must feel good that you dodged that . I ' m desperate for someone to pay attention to me , but not that desperate . <| sep |> It ' s not clear what you ' re trying to do . If you buy a travel debit card here in the UK , they ' re designed for putting sterling on the card which then converts that to a foreign currency . You ' d want to buy a travel debit card in the US , then put your dollars on that which would convert it to sterling . On the other hand if you ' re thinking of buying a prepaid debit card here like ones we would use to give as gifts for example you could , but you ' d get a terrible rate and fees with your own bank . Have you thought about getting a credit card before you come over ? Certain credit cards offer the best rates available to individuals . The additional problem with a prepaid sterling debit cards scenario 2 above is that if you underspend there ' s no easy or cheap way to convert that to dollars if it ' s even possible . I would look around at credit cards as there may be some as there are here that don ' t charge a fee even for cash withdrawals . Final note , while there is uber in Glasgow they only operate in the city centre , and all other taxis you ' ll need cash for . Hope you enjoy your time here ! EDIT personal experience seems to vary regarding taxis . While it sounds like you can now pay for most taxis with a card , I would still advise keeping cash on you for this purpose as a non uber taxi driver will never not accept cash , they may well not accept a card payment .