credit cards abroad

annkc · 4 August 2007 at 1:09PM

I am looking for a credit card that i can use in the UK & abroad worldwide. One that has no charges for purchasing goods whilst on holiday, i got caught out with a morgan stanley credit card that charged a % for every transaction whilst in the USA. the reason i have this card is because i always pay off my credit card in full and it offered cash back, but charges out weighed cash back. To top it off they are now imposing a £20 fee for having this card yearly, not happy with this. can any1 help?
annkc:mad:

emma396 · 4 August 2007 at 3:52PM

pay off the morgan stanley card, take as much cashback as you can and close down the credit card.
for a card to use abroad go with either nationwide or the post office.
for a card with cashback, capital one are good at the moment.

LeifGR · 13 August 2007 at 3:54PM

Nationwide offers the only UK (as far as I know) credit card that does not add a commission to each purchase. Be careful, though, not to confuse this with cash withrawals abroad - here, although there is no commission, there is a charge per withdrawal and from the transaction date to when you pay the full balance off any charges will accrue interest...unlike the pure purchase amounts, which of course are interest-free during the same period.

If you are going to be doing cash withdrawals abroad, Nationwide's debit card that comes with their Flexaccount current account similarly has no commission when used for purchases or cash withdrawals abroad.

I have both cards and use them exclusively for when I travel.

city_knight · 13 August 2007 at 7:11PM

Just because they don't charge "commission" does NOT mean that they aren't making any money off the transaction (sorry for the multiple negatives).
In fact, the whole foreign exchange and currency business would be far more transparent if the "commission" was declared and if that was the only money that they make.
There are huge spreads between buy and sell currency prices on the high street, and banks have equally as high spreads.
You may think that buying a product for €100 with your Nationwide card is going to cost you a fair price and that the bank isn't making anything. However, if they then convert that at a rate of 0.75 (at "no comission") it will still cost you £75, when the interbank rate may be at 0.68 (£68).
Of course the bank wouldn't make any money if all their conversions were at the interbank rate, so instead of "commission", they just charge you whatever rate they like!

It would all be far simpler if everybody defined commission as the deviation from the interbank rate with which they will process the transaction, and that way us consumers could decide where and who to use.

When I send Euros to a German account, I get charged interbank+0.3% (very low).
The current best exchange rate offered using this site's Travel Money Maximiser is Thomas cook at 1.45 (interbank+1.92%)
The current interbank rate is 1.4784.

In my mind, Thomas Cook are therefore charging 1.92% commission on the most traded cash currency.

The cheapest deals I have seen for cash currency conversions have been in Moscow, where there is a money exchange bureau on every corner as a result of Russians saving in anything but Roubles. Typical rates for GBP:RUR would be (sell:buy) 49.8:50.2 or 0.4% commission.

If you're travelling abroad and don't want to donate money to banks, then visit a website for a bank at your destination and see how much a pound is worth. It's almost always better to take pounds with you and exchange there.

Careful_ly · 14 August 2007 at 9:01AM

Nationwide have always given a very good exchange rate, bank rate not tourist rate.
A transaction in American $ on 2.8.07 had an exchange rate of 2.03268876 on our statement.

city_knight · 14 August 2007 at 10:51AM

Well, the highest interbank rate on 2nd August was 2.03470 so it seems that Nationwide have a really low commission, or possibly zero. Does anybody else have a statement with an exchange rate we can check?

Biggles · 14 August 2007 at 11:02AM

Not sure why this is on the Stoozing board, but still.

Yes, Nationwide do exchange at (or near as dammit at) the interbank rate, apparently the post office card does too. The ideal is a Nationwide flexaccount with debit card, then even your cash withdrawals abroad are free.

But I agree with City Knight that it should be illegal to advertise 'commission-free' and then charge commission, hidden in the exchange rate.

I have tried to get both Which? and MSE Martin to take up the cudgels on this one but without success. There aren't many areas of commerce where you can lie legally and this should really be sorted.

Daniel55 · 14 August 2007 at 1:45PM

Just apply for a Nationwide debit or credit card. They are the only ones who don't charge for card usage abroad, plus you can withdraw fee free from local cash machines too. I do it and it works!

Daniel55 · 14 August 2007 at 1:46PM

I check rates via https://www.bloomberg.com and Nwide always seem to be v close to these rates.

Loopy_3 · 14 August 2007 at 11:54PM

I agree that the Nationwide exchange rates are always very good. However, I have encountered problems using the card in some shops in Italy. For example in IKEA in Italy the Nationwide debit card is not recognised. This is extremely annoying as I then have had to resort to using a credit card which I've had to pay huge amounts of commission on. I've contacted Nationwide about this but they just said that if the VISA sign is displayed then the card should be accepted. I've tried contacting IKEA but I've had to do this in Italian which isn't easy and so far I've received no reply. It seems crazy that in the UK IKEA are charging extra if you choose to use a credit card over a debit card and in Italy they make it impossible to use a debit card.

br1zer · 16 August 2007 at 7:59PM

Hi

may I give a heads up to the Post Office mastercard. It is commission free abroad and easy to service on line

I have used my card abroad twice so far this year with no probs.

It also has an excellent balance transfer anniversay offer should you should you chose to use this.

I have also found the staff curteous and very helpful at their call centre.

One other tip, always ask to pay in local currency rather than in sterling as the rates are more favourable.

credit cards abroad

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