Cheap Travel Money Discussion Area

meher

Thank You, I'll have a good look at that because if they've given me the wrong information then I'm clearly in the wrong. But I don't understand how other banks add on fees to their mastercards if it's nothing to do with the bank? Surely Halifax must be having some kind of control over the rates their offer and not entirely upto mastercard to determine it?

dzug1

meher wrote: »

Thank You, I'll have a good look at that because if they've given me the wrong information then I'm clearly in the wrong. But I don't understand how other banks add on fees to their mastercards if it's nothing to do with the bank? Surely Halifax must be having some kind of control over the rates their offer and not entirely upto mastercard to determine it?

No - no control. They are not offering actual rates - they are offering rates as set by others

For the Clarity card they have stated they will use the mastercard rate. As have Metrobank. Nationwide used to do the same thing with Visa. It just goes through the Visa or Mastercard system untouched.

(Most) other banks state they will charge 2.75% (which is fairly standard). Amex say 2.99% - on the high side. It goes through the Visa/MC system and is then doctored when it's charged to your account.

For cash exchange transactions (ie over the counter) they are free to set their own rates independent of Visa/Mastercard who have nothing to do with the transaction anyway

adindas

I second Dzug1 statement.
I have FairFx anywhere card
I have Santander Zero Credit Card
I have Halifax Clarity Card.

Based on my personal experience using all of these cards, there is no way that FairFx will offer you a better result (final exchange that you get) than Halifax Clarity Card.

If you have both while you are traveling, try to withdraw money from Cash Machine and see the result.

How come 1.5% is better than 1%. The only one who will say this is probably the one who try promote FairFx card. FairFx is still good but do not mislead people by saying that it is better than Halifax Clarity.

Also, this have been clearly confirmed by Martin Lewis the creator of this forum.

The only way you could beat Halifax Clarity for cahs withdrawal is by using Specialist debit Card like those from: Metro Bank, Cumberland BS, N&P (soon in January).

ADINDAs

dzug1 wrote: »

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

gumbarge

hello

I am doing some travelling in Asia, USA and New Zealand next year

I have a fairfx anywhere card which seems to be one of the best but I cannot get my head round the commission I have been charged for a booking online made in new zealand $ - seems more than the 1.5% .... is there something i am missing ?

2010-12-09 £38.76
(transaction for $80.00)
2010-12-09 £1.37 Auth Commission


do i need to change cards???

CountryGoose

gumbarge wrote: »

hello

I am doing some travelling in Asia, USA and New Zealand next year

I have a fairfx anywhere card which seems to be one of the best but I cannot get my head round the commission I have been charged for a booking online made in new zealand $ - seems more than the 1.5% .... is there something i am missing ?

2010-12-09 £38.76
(transaction for $80.00)
2010-12-09 £1.37 Auth Commission


do i need to change cards???

Have you challenged this with FairFX - there seem to be a number of these queries popping up recently.

jago25_98

park_gate wrote: »

If I preload a credit card like Nationwide Gold or Santander Zero so that it is in credit and then draw money abroad (EU) from a cash machine so the card stays in credit will I pay any fees?

I got charged for a positive balance with Santander Zero; so yes.

Re: Halifax Clarity for cash.
If yo upay off the moment you withdraw the interest is calulated when they recieve payment (probably about <5 working days). This could be 3 weeks cheaper than waiting til the end of the month. However, this can confuse the Direct Debit.

bennett2kuk

This year I used Moonpig.au to buy a card for my Mum in Australia. I noticed after using my Santander debit card that I was charged £1.25 for daring to use a foreign website. So beware you don't have to be abroad to be stung for the foreign use charges.

Chippy

My daughter has been using her Halifax Clarity card in Australia for a couple of months and during her first month I made 2 payments of £400 and £550 to
a) Ensure she didn't go over her limit of £1250 and
b) To help reduce the cost of interest on her cash withdrawals.

She had already set up her direct debit for the full amount each month and this is where we went wrong!
Her statement was for £907 so as I had already paid £950 I wrongly assumed that it would cancel out her DD and didnt transfer any more money into her Halifax current account(where the DD was set up). Clarity still requested the DD, Halifax refused it and the end result was a £10 charge from Halifax and a £12 charge from Clarity for paying early!!
PLEASE BEWARE.

I'm sure many of you more switched on moneysavers will already know this but thought I'd post this warning just in case someone else makes the same mistake.

meher

amex refuses to accept early payments so that's yet another fine feature in that they don't set traps to con their customer

zaffi wrote: »

this is what i used

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

This link worked for me the other day. Now it doesn't. Some technical issue from my side probably. I just don't know how to rectify it. Any other similar sites?

Wheel_nut

jago25_98 wrote: »

I got charged for a positive balance with Santander Zero; so yes.

Re: Halifax Clarity for cash.
If yo upay off the moment you withdraw the interest is calulated when they recieve payment (probably about <5 working days). This could be 3 weeks cheaper than waiting til the end of the month. However, this can confuse the Direct Debit.

Is this ONLY a problem if you have a DD set up to pay off the outstanding balance in FULL on the due date?

Fo example, If I don't set up a DD at all, Can I make payments into the Card account at will to keep the outstanding balance to a minimum and then pay off the final balance (if any) at the end of the billing cycle?

Also, is it against the T's&C's to put the Clarity Card account into surplus? Can anybody point me to the salient term.