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QOTW: Overseas withdrawals
Former_MSE_Penelope
Posts: 536 Forumite
Q. What is the best card to use for cash withdrawals when travelling abroad to avoid high charges, particularly when going to the other side of the world? Jane by email.
Martin's A: The top open-to-all card for cash withdrawals outside of Europe is the Halifax Clarity credit card. This has no foreign exchange or cash withdrawal fees, although you will be charged 12.9% typical APR interest even if the balance is paid off in full, giving a cost of approx £1 for £100 cash.
Alternatively if you already have one of the following, they are almost as good: Saga Platinum* credit card (cash withdrawal fee of 2%, min £2); Santander Zero credit card (27.9% cash withdrawal interest); or Nationwide’s Flexaccount debit card, which until 1 Nov 2010 does not charge for cash withdrawals overseas, after which it’s introducing a 2% load and £1 charge.
The final option is to take a prepaid card, where you top it up before you go away and just spend what’s on it. The best for overseas withdrawals is from Caxton FX* which is fees free. For info on all the cards see the Cheap Travel Money guide.
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Martin's A: The top open-to-all card for cash withdrawals outside of Europe is the Halifax Clarity credit card. This has no foreign exchange or cash withdrawal fees, although you will be charged 12.9% typical APR interest even if the balance is paid off in full, giving a cost of approx £1 for £100 cash.
Alternatively if you already have one of the following, they are almost as good: Saga Platinum* credit card (cash withdrawal fee of 2%, min £2); Santander Zero credit card (27.9% cash withdrawal interest); or Nationwide’s Flexaccount debit card, which until 1 Nov 2010 does not charge for cash withdrawals overseas, after which it’s introducing a 2% load and £1 charge.
The final option is to take a prepaid card, where you top it up before you go away and just spend what’s on it. The best for overseas withdrawals is from Caxton FX* which is fees free. For info on all the cards see the Cheap Travel Money guide.
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Comments
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Hi - As Thailand now introduce a withdrawl fee of 150thb (£3) can you tell me if this is still the cheapest way to withdraw money in this country or should i consider Paypal or something else. I would look to be sending £100 each month to a Thai bank account
- Thanks :beer:0 -
Hi - As Thailand now introduce a withdrawl fee of 150thb (£3) can you tell me if this is still the cheapest way to withdraw money in this country or should i consider Paypal or something else. I would look to be sending £100 each month to a Thai bank account
- Thanks :beer:
Get a FairFx Anywhere card via MoneySupermarket or the Travelex Cash Passport Globe with a minimum balance.
Send the card to the intended recipient and instruct them to repair to the closest AEON cash machine.
Meanwhile, you go online in order to load the card up.. £100 load will currently equate to 4732 baht at the cash point.
If the Mastercard Rate is say 48 on the day, then if you top up £101.50, they should be able to draw out 4800 baht from an AEON machine.
Obviously, to be safe, you should keep a small buffer in there.0 -
MSE_Penelope wrote: »or Nationwide’s Flexaccount debit card, which until 1 Nov 2010 does not charge for cash withdrawals overseas, after which it’s introducing a 2% load and £1 charge.
Not strictly true this only applies to EU transactions nationwide charge for non eu-transactionsLive each day like its your last because one day you'll be right0 -
Am in the course of applying for a Clarity Card. I asked if I could preload it with cash, so I do not have to worry about making a monhly payment on the card whilst abroad, and was advised that that would be fine and dandy. On that basis I shouldn't face any charges whatsoever, though I accept I'm losing interest on the amount preloaded.0
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Red_Leader wrote: »Am in the course of applying for a Clarity Card. I asked if I could preload it with cash, so I do not have to worry about making a monhly payment on the card whilst abroad, and was advised that that would be fine and dandy. On that basis I shouldn't face any charges whatsoever, though I accept I'm losing interest on the amount preloaded.
Told by whom? Have you bothered to check the Terms & Conditions?0 -
Can anyone assist me with some advice,please?
For years in the past I have been able to use my Nationwide cheque guarantee-!!!-ATM cash card to draw cash from ATMs across India in the local rupee currency over there.I do not have a debit card or a credit card.But as of November this year,Nationwide are withdrawing that facility of withdrawing cash from overseas ATMs using their cash cards,so I am now in a quandary as to how access my weekly pay which will be credited into my Nationwide FlexAccount over here through the ATMs in India,where I will be for a month.
Nationwide have been of no help whatsoever other than suggesting I get one of those Travellers Passport cards which is akin to a pre-loaded Mastercard.But as I pointed out to them,if I could afford to pre-load such a card,for a whole month,then there would be no point in getting such a card as I could just as easily take the cash in Sterling with me and get it exchanged there.But alas,I cannot afford to pre-load such a card,or take a month's worth of cash with me.
Any viable or plausible suggestions?0 -
Can anyone assist me with some advice,please?
For years in the past I have been able to use my Nationwide cheque guarantee-!!!-ATM cash card to draw cash from ATMs across India in the local rupee currency over there.I do not have a debit card or a credit card.But as of November this year,Nationwide are withdrawing that facility of withdrawing cash from overseas ATMs using their cash cards,so I am now in a quandary as to how access my weekly pay which will be credited into my Nationwide FlexAccount over here through the ATMs in India,where I will be for a month.
Nationwide have been of no help whatsoever other than suggesting I get one of those Travellers Passport cards which is akin to a pre-loaded Mastercard.But as I pointed out to them,if I could afford to pre-load such a card,for a whole month,then there would be no point in getting such a card as I could just as easily take the cash in Sterling with me and get it exchanged there.But alas,I cannot afford to pre-load such a card,or take a month's worth of cash with me.
Any viable or plausible suggestions?
You can 'preload' the FairFx Anywhere via MoneySupermarket card with as little as £10(though they suggest £100) and then transfer your wages via Faster Payments in to the card when they arrive.
With the Cash Passport Globe you need a minimum of a £250 top up.
Alternatively, get to the Metro Bank in Holborn and open an account.
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About PrePaid CC, I have tried it with Santander Zero Cridet Card and it works without any problem. I load my CC a few days before traVeling. But in my case it is just about £500.00 do not know for larger amount, how it will be effected.But bear in mind in reality this is actually against their T&C as higligted by one of the senior member. So although it workes for me you do it with your own risk.
My thought If you do not want to break the T&C you might do the following:
- Know aproximately the date and the amount of foreign cash you want to withdraw from the cash machine abroad, say on your arrival at the Airport, etc
- Set up several direct standing order from your bank /AC on the different dates while you are still in the UK based on the aproximate dates you expect to withdraws the foreign cash on the approximate amount in Sterling.
By this way you will not break the T&C if your standing order arrive at the same day or after your withdrawal. You will only pay a very small interest rate for a very small amount of money, probably just 1-£100.00 for a few days, which is almost nothing, considerint the IR is just about 2% per full month.
To be honest, I have not tried this by myselves, so again do it ith your own risk. Probably the senior member could shed the light on this and open for discussion.
ADINDASRed_Leader wrote: »Am in the course of applying for a Clarity Card. I asked if I could preload it with cash, so I do not have to worry about making a monhly payment on the card whilst abroad, and was advised that that would be fine and dandy. On that basis I shouldn't face any charges whatsoever, though I accept I'm losing interest on the amount preloaded.0 -
Forgot to mention: (from my post previously)
Alternatively, we could also withdraw Cash from ATM using overseas specialist credit card which charge Zero Loading and Cash withdrawal fee such as Halifax Clarity, Santander Zero, Saga, etc. At the same day we transfer approximate sum of money from our UK current A/C to our credit card account.
By this way as we clear our debt directly, so no interest will be charged. The worst case the money arrives in the credit card account 2 days later, we will only be charged for 2 days interest. Given tat the interest is 2% per month this is very small. My calculation for £350 withdrawal, with 2% monthly interest for 2 days , the interest charge will only be 23p. We could repeat this every week as as often as we can. My experience I transfer my fund from my UK Bank AC to Santander Zero, it will only take 1 day at the most to arrive.
This will not breach the T&C as we will not be in positive balance.
Most people will bring their own laptop if going abroad and get access to the internet abroad from Hotel, Internet Cafe, etc where they could access their UK Bank AC. I have not tried this so do not know whether this could work.
Could a senior member of this forum of MSE please have a look on this option whether there issue with this?
Thank you
ADINDAS0 -
Forgot to mention: (from my post previously)
Alternatively, we could also withdraw Cash from ATM using overseas specialist credit card which charge Zero Loading and Cash withdrawal fee such as Halifax Clarity, Santander Zero, Saga, etc. At the same day we transfer approximate sum of money from our UK current A/C to our credit card account.
By this way as we clear our debt directly, so no interest will be charged. The worst case the money arrives in the credit card account 2 days later, we will only be charged for 2 days interest. Given tat the interest is 2% per month this is very small. My calculation for £350 withdrawal, with 2% monthly interest for 2 days , the interest charge will only be 23p. We could repeat this every week as as often as we can. My experience I transfer my fund from my UK Bank AC to Santander Zero, it will only take 1 day at the most to arrive.
This will not breach the T&C as we will not be in positive balance.
Most people will bring their own laptop if going abroad and get access to the internet abroad from Hotel, Internet Cafe, etc where they could access their UK Bank AC. I have not tried this so do not know whether this could work.
Could a senior member of this forum of MSE please have a look on this option whether there issue with this?
Thank you
ADINDAS
There is no issue. I didn't post it before because it's more than obvious.
Though I'm sure there will be more than a few who didn't think of it. 0
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