Cheap Travel Money Discussion Area

CountryGoose

meher wrote: »

I
for $1000 the cheapbies offer you, you pay

fairfx: 651.47
clarity: 678
Santander Zero: I've no calculator on that but they line their pockest with at least 3% they've fleeced from us. My husband has spent it abroad recently and wasn't amused by their rates when he saw the bills.

whereas the unparalleled amex

Amex: 662.31 including fees, mind you I get 5% cashback round about £33 and effectively I'd have paid only £629 for $1000

I want it all upfront - I want to know my loss to make sense of the gain and not be told to accept that they are free or cheap. grr. I hope I've done a good job of putting you lot off from cheapbies :rotfl::o

Ignoring the stream of consciousness rant at the start...

Is this drawing cash or for purchasing?

What source do you have for the rates and the dates? Or is it all from your husband "spenting it abroad and not being amused by their rates?"

John_Pierpoint

A lot of places won't take American Express because it charges the merchant a higher commission than the main stream credit cards.

meher

CountryGoose wrote: »

What source do you have for the rates and the dates?

Ignoring your unwarranted nasty comments, may I suggest you take your own advice and use your friend google for the rates.

zaffi

meher wrote: »

I really spent some time trying to study what big crooks these so called cheap and free money conversion offers are. And guess what I settled for my dear old amex instead and paid the hefty fee of 2.99% fees and it still turned out to be exciting than the free offers from my post office account, the free offer from my halifax clarity card and their peanut offer of £5 is not good enough for me, my husband's dubious santander zero and even fairfx turned out to be unfairfx. Mind you I have a new platinum american express so it offers me 5% cash back. So I outwitted these freebies and cheapstakes that's on offer. This is precisely why I always go for proper cards and look at freebies and cheap offers quite cynically because I couldn't cope with crooks.

for $1000 the cheapbies offer you, you pay

fairfx: 651.47
clarity: 678
Santander Zero: I've no calculator on that but they line their pockest with at least 3% they've fleeced from us. My husband has spent it abroad recently and wasn't amused by their rates when he saw the bills.

whereas the unparalleled amex

Amex: 662.31 including fees, mind you I get 5% cashback round about £33 and effectively I'd have paid only £629 for $1000

I want it all upfront - I want to know my loss to make sense of the gain and not be told to accept that they are free or cheap. grr. I hope I've done a good job of putting you lot off from cheapbies :rotfl::o

meher wrote: »

not really sure where your getting your numbers from. using the mastercard currency conversion tool I get the clarity (for purchases, add 1% if cash withdrawals) coming in at £641 for $1000. rate on 1-12-10 was 1.5589 dollars to the pound so, (1/1.5589)*1000 = £641.4. So your wrong there by quite a bit.

Also, as previously posted you don't state if it's cash withdrawals or purchases you've calculated (wrongly) for?

Do Amex give cashback on cash withdrawals? Also, from the amex website only one credit card gives 5% - and that's an introductory offer for 3 months. Also, from the amex website for that card the cash withdrawal apr is 27.9%, my clarity is 12.9%. Think i'll stick with what i've got, thanks.

I'm also curious how a credit card from a major bank is as you put it "a cheapbie" what does that even mean?

If your happy with your card basically as a status symbol, more power to you, but the rest of us will go for the best deal, and that's the clarity

meher

zaffi wrote: »

not really sure where your getting your numbers from.

I logged into each of these accounts where it offers a foreign currency calculator and that's where I used to get my figures.

zaffi wrote: »

I'm also curious how a credit card from a major bank is as you put it "a cheapbie" what does that even mean?

As for the comment on cheapbies, it's my observation and opinion and claim no authority to it and that I'm entitled to be ruthless about it if I don't like what's on offer. I can't for the life in me understand why anyone would take issue with my analysis of foreign exchange offers and experience of use of various cards. Good on you if you found clarity ideal, I'm loyal to amex for more than one reason, the least being I perfectly understand what's going on whereas I don't with other cards because they are not upfront as far as my aesthetics is concerned.

zaffi wrote: »

If your happy with your card basically as a status symbol, more power to you, but the rest of us will go for the best deal, and that's the clarity

I dont understand the status symbol comment btw - is there some sort of hierarchy in using cards? If there is, I'm not aware of it and it's not me to indulge in all that. Please don't project your complexities on to me and even if people insist on doing that there's very little I can do to address it as it's an issue for you and not mine to work on. All I look for is transperancy and any card that clearly states the rate and the charges and possibly a cash back to actually cover the fees if any and makes up for the low rates. I've had my say on this and shan't be indulging any more untoward responses because I realise that our individual experiences and expectations from cards are different.

zaffi

meher wrote: »

I logged into each of these accounts where it offers a foreign currency calculator and that's where I used to get my figures. As for the comment on cheapbies, it's my observation and opinion and claim no authority to it and that I'm entitled to be ruthless about it if I don't like what's on offer. I can't for the life in me understand why anyone would take issue with my analysis of foreign exchange offers and experience of use of various cards. Good on you if you found clarity ideal, I'm loyal to amex for more than one reason, the least being I perfectly understand what's going on whereas I don't with other cards because they are not upfront as far as my aesthetics is concerned. I dont understand the status symbol comment btw - is there some sort of hierarchy in using cards? If there is, I'm not aware of it and it's not me to indulge in all that. Please don't project your complexities on to me and even if people insist on doing that there's very little I can do to address it as it's an issue for you and not mine to work on. All I look for is transperancy and any card that clearly states the rate and the charges and possibly a cash back to actually cover the fees if any and makes up for the low rates. I've had my say on this and shan't be indulging any more untoward responses because I realise that our individual experiences and expectations from cards are different.

the status symbol comment was not some jealous resentment, and surely if you think about it a bit laterally, it could be argued that the fact you thought that, kind of proves my point!!

your numbers are wrong for the clarity, no two ways about it and on a forum like this, people make financial decisions based on posts, so the numbers have to be right and should be challenged when they are wrong.

equally you use statements like, "I perfectly understand what's going on whereas I don't with other cards because they are not upfront as far as my aesthetics is concerned"

and "All I look for is transperancy and any card that clearly states the rate and the charges"

surely, given it's name, the clarity would fulfill those criteria?

you still didn't really answer how a cc from a major bank is a "cheapbie"

regardless, I along with many others on here have, and am happy with my clarity, as it's the best cc for foreign currency. fact.

dzug1

meher wrote: »

for $1000 the cheapbies offer you, you pay

fairfx: 651.47
clarity: 678
Santander Zero: I've no calculator on that but they line their pockest with at least 3% they've fleeced from us. My husband has spent it abroad recently and wasn't amused by their rates when he saw the bills.

Sorry I just do not believe your Clarity figure - that looks more like the Halifax rate for cash in branch/online. Not comparable at all

Today the Clarity rate would cost you £644

meher

thnaks dzug, I was advised by the customer services to look for conversion rates on my halifax account when using the clarity - I honestly have no clue where you're getting your figures from

dzug1

meher wrote: »

thnaks dzug, I was advised by the customer services to look for conversion rates on my halifax account when using the clarity - I honestly have no clue where you're getting your figures from

Customer services (and that's any bank, not just Halifax) tend to be clueless about exchange rates. I used:

http://www.freedom-card.co.uk/check-your-currency-exchange-rate-with-freedom-eagle-cash-prepaid-mastercard-live-currency-conversion.aspx which claims to link direct to mastercard

Or there's http://corporate.visa.com/pd/consumer_services/consumer_ex_rates.jsp which should be virtually identical even though it's Visa

zaffi

this is what i used

https://www.mastercard.com/us/personal/en/cardholderservices/currencyconversion/index.html