Cheap Travel Money Discussion Area

anna13x

Hi,

I'll be spending August 2011-May 2012 studying at a US university on exchange from my university here in the UK. I currently have a NatWest student account with a Visa debit card.

For going abroad, I'm considering getting a FairFX or Caxton pre-paid card and topping it up online from my NatWest account...does that seem like the best option? I'd also like some kind of back up but I'm not sure how successful I'll be applying for credit cards given my student status. Also, would it be worth setting up a US bank account when I'm over there?

Thanks in advance for any help

Nath4n

rdtrdt wrote: »

David, thanks for persevering with trying to get to the bottom of this.

If interim payments to the card are permitted (to minimise the interest charges on cash withdrawals), and then Halifax take a direct debit payment of the prior month's full balance, such that the balance could go into credit, it seems there's the possibility of breaching the terms, as you described:-

7.7 You must not make payments or transfer funds from another credit or store card to your account that would leave a credit balance on your account.

You could argue the toss that it was their direct debit which caused the credit balance.

But they could argue that it was your earlier payment (whilst being aware that you already had an instruction in place for a direct debit payment to clear the prior balance in full), which caused the credit balance. Since it's their bat and ball, their view would probably prevail.

Besides the suck-it-and-see approach (risking a charge for breach of terms), asking them directly about that specific scenario seems the only way to know for sure. And getting their response in writing, if it needs to be relied upon later.

In the meantime, I'm interested in hearing from anyone who has done what David described:-

- Made cash withdrawals just prior to a statement date;
- A few days later (e.g. just after the statement date), made a manual payment to the card in order to minimise the interest charged on the cash withdrawal;
- Then had a direct debit payment a few weeks later of an amount equal to the balance at the statement date, to clear the monthly balance (such that the card results in a credit balance due to your earlier manual payment).

I'd have thought that this scenario must be quite common for anyone using the Clarity card. What's happened when you've done this?

I've just been considering taking out a Clarity Rewards Card for abroad spending now that I have a Halifax Rewards Current Account.
Just been reading about it on the guide and funnily enough the first question I thought about was - surely depending on when the bill is generated and then subsequently paid off almost 2 months worth of interest may have accrued on some cash withdrawals meaning essentially a 2% charge rather than 1%? Come to the forum click through to the final page and sure enough you guys are discussing this very issue!

It would appear then from what I've read that interest does indeed accrue from the day of withdrawal right up to the day the credit card bill is paid. Now avoiding the slightly messy area regarding manual payments and subsequent account credits etc, is is possible to manually set your statement date - or does it depend on when you opened the account? If I'm going to do alot of abroad spending, it would be nice to know when my statement is generated as surely a large cash withdrawal just beforehand is the cheapest option (although probably not feasible). Is it also possible to specify the direct debit date - e.g. immediately after the statement generation date?

Instead of having a direct debit, is possible to set manual bill/statement payments meaning that if you know when the statement is generated you can manually pay it off in full as soon as possible afterwards - rather than having to wait 3 weeks or so until the full direct debit payment is taken? minimising interest accrual.

Finally a quick question to anyone who has a Clarity linked up to their Halifax current account - are payments to the Clarity card from a Halifax account instant or do they take 3 days to register etc. (E.g. I can send a Faster Payment from my RBS current account to my RBS credit card statement and it will register within a matter of hours). On top of that, do cash withdrawals count towards the £300 spending count for the £5 monthly cashback.

Thanks!

fluxie_2

I am travelling around the world and been looking at the Caxton global and the fairfix pre-paid cards trying to decide between the two but I wanted to ask what does ''The exchange rate applied is fixed at 2.5% from the prevailing interbank rate.'' mean?

malc_b

All this about the halifax clarity is over thinking the problem IMO. You can pay off your credit bill at any time. Nothing in law says you must wait until the statement date or the direct debit. If you pay off too close to the direct debit then the system doesn't have time to reduce the direct debit so you end up in credit.

You can't penalise customers for a single payment, particularly if it was the inability of Halifax systems to adjust the DD. That would be not treating customers fairly and you would have a right to complain to FOS. If you regularly do this though to be in credit that would be a different matter.

But if Halifax always takes the full amount and doesn't adjust the DD (unlikely) then it would be their fault. They would have set up their system to deny you the right to pay off early and FOS would have a lot to say about that. I can't imagine that would be the case.

You can usually see credit card current purchases online so I'd pay off cash when that appeared. That's not unreasonable. There is no law that says you have to wait until the last moment to maximise the amount of interest paid, that's nonsense.

With revising of the rules so that the higher interest items get paid off first I would think you just need to pay off the cash advance amount. The letter I have says the order is now "Cash advances, cheques, purchases, balance transfers, default sums". So just paying off the cash amount should stop any more interest from that point on. You'd still have a few days worth though since it takes a few days for the cash advance to show and then for the payment to go through.

dzug1

malc_b wrote: »

But if Halifax always takes the full amount and doesn't adjust the DD (unlikely) then it would be their fault. .

With many banks the DD would not be adjusted - one of my statements states specifically that the full amount will be taken regardless of any other payments made. (Another says they will take the balance less any interim payments so it does vary.)

What do Halifax statements say? If they are silent on the subject then they ought under the DD rules to take the full amount as they will not have notified you of a differing amount.

murphydavid

dzug1 wrote: »

With many banks the DD would not be adjusted - one of my statements states specifically that the full amount will be taken regardless of any other payments made. (Another says they will take the balance less any interim payments so it does vary.)

What do Halifax statements say? If they are silent on the subject then they ought under the DD rules to take the full amount as they will not have notified you of a differing amount.

Their web site is so hard to navigate I gave up on it. My last statement includes the following.

"Your closing balance = £153.20"
"Direct debit payment date = 14the Dec"
"Your Direct debit amount = £153.20"

To me this says they will DD £153.20 on 14th Dec so if I pay any of it earlier I will cause my account to go into credit.

And under Fees

"Returned payment fee = £12.00"

and as I said previously one of there terms says For breaking the rules another Fee of £19.00
and
Overpayments may be returned

Suck it and see Hmm - Based on this I would not risk it

But I would love to hear from someone who has

walrus1

kelk72 wrote: »

Hello we've had a Nationwide flex account for years (have a holiday home in spain) and also have one of their credit cards which i only use once a year to pay for our Spanish car ins. Due to Nationwide now charging to withdraw cash from atms (in Europe) using our debit cards Im thinking of opening a N&P gold classic account I know we have to pay in £500 per month to be fee free but is there anything else I should be aware of?
We plan on keeping the nationwide credit card as theres no fee as I understand it for using this card is that correct?
Our plan is to use this account as we did the Flex account e.g. have a £500 monthly direct debit paid in from our main bank a/c , then before we go over to spain set up from our main bank a/c additional monthly transfers for the time we are there usually 6-8 weeks, after reading thru' all the info on N&p website i cant see any problem with doing this, just wanted to check with you lovely helpful people that Im not missing anything ? Many Thanks xx

PS
Would their Gold light a/c be better for our use?

Hi

I have just opened a N & P Gold and have found no problems so far. Just like the Nationwide USED to be. Now they are just another bank. IMHO.

malc_b

dzug1 wrote: »

With many banks the DD would not be adjusted - one of my statements states specifically that the full amount will be taken regardless of any other payments made. (Another says they will take the balance less any interim payments so it does vary.)

What do Halifax statements say? If they are silent on the subject then they ought under the DD rules to take the full amount as they will not have notified you of a differing amount.

Hmm, Capital One DD is adjusted by any returns, as is Egg, in fact I can't think of card where I have noticed that returns do not reduce the DD. If returns affect the DD then I can't see why making a cash payment wouldn't reduce it.

Certainly I wouldn't stand for the logic of if you pay early then we will take a DD that puts you in credit and then charge you to return it. That would be unfair trading. It would be penalising you for paying off early. FSO would have something to say about that. There are written rules that say banks must behave reasonably.

Taking the full DD amount is a bit grey. They could argue that if you want the money you only to have to withdraw it as there are no cash advance charges. I'll have to try this with the clarity on my next holiday.

BTW clarity T&Cs are here I've found
http://www.halifax.co.uk/creditcards/special-offers/rewards-clarity/terms-and-conditions/
That says in 2 "You can always pay more, and have the right to repay all or part of the credit early at any time." and lower down it says cash advances get first call on any money paid.

Aaron

What's your current advice for Cuba? And is prepaid VISA dying out? When I went a few years ago, I had two different bank cards, some sterling cash and a prepaid VISA from the Post Office. It seems a good idea to have lots of options in Cuba because it can be a bit random. A friend of a friend is going very soon but can't find a prepaid VISA anywhere. The Post Office one is unavailable to new customers, the Travelex one has switched to MasterCard (which used to be useless in most of Cuba - I assume that's still the case?), so what's the best thing to get as a fourth option? Many thanks for any tips.

Nessie23

Aaron wrote: »

What's your current advice for Cuba? And is prepaid VISA dying out? When I went a few years ago, I had two different bank cards, some sterling cash and a prepaid VISA from the Post Office. It seems a good idea to have lots of options in Cuba because it can be a bit random. A friend of a friend is going very soon but can't find a prepaid VISA anywhere. The Post Office one is unavailable to new customers, the Travelex one has switched to MasterCard (which used to be useless in most of Cuba - I assume that's still the case?), so what's the best thing to get as a fourth option? Many thanks for any tips.

Aaron, I couldn't find any pre-paid VISA card which has no fees or low fees. You could however consider Norwich & Peterbourgh BS current account which comes with a no fees VISA card see
http://www.nandp.co.uk/current-account/ and http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/travel/2011/01/norwich--peterborough-launches-cheapest-holiday-debit-card