Cheap Travel Money Discussion Area

Baldur

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

Have you checked the rate of interest Halifax is charging on the card, not all Clarity cards are the same.

Yes, see http://www.halifax.co.uk/creditcards/clarity.asp

Your personal APR will be from 12.9% APR variable to 21.9% APR variable, depending on individual circumstances.

51% of customers are offered our best rate of 12.9% APR representative (variable).

cepheus

Same with Santander, the rate for my new card will be more than advertised on the web according to the letter I have just received.

adindas

I think they stop doing this since the end of last year. I remember receiving the letter last year. Also there is a thread regarding this in this forum.

ADINDAS

malc_b wrote: »

Paying off the Clarity as you go along does work, sort of. I did this while in the USA recently. I'd withdraw $100 and when it showed up on the statement I'd pay it off (in round number, so £62 or £63). The payment rules say that any payments go first to cash withdrawals so although I'd made many other purchases the cash withdrawals got first bite.
.

adindas

I think Halifax clarity card division does not do FP. So they will still be a slack for about 3-4 working days where we need to pay the interest.

But if the amount is still very small anyway in case just a few hundred quids.

Baldur wrote: »

You could minimise the interest, if you had access to online banking, by paying off the amount withdrawn via the Clarity card ASAP straight after the transaction.

For example, if I withdrew 400 Bulgarian Leva today at the Mastercard rate of 2.205581, I would log on to my Halifax account and set up a payment to take place as soon as possible to pay off the resulting £181.34 debit to my Clarity card account.

Baldur

adindas wrote: »

I think Halifax clarity card division does not do FP. So they will still be a slack for about 3-4 working days where we need to pay the interest.

But if the amount is still very small anyway in case just a few hundred quids.

It's about two working days, in my experience, as transfers from a Reward current account can only be scheduled for the next day and usually appear in the CC account on the working day following the date of instruction.

As I use my Metro Bank debit card for cash withdrawals, the issue of using the Clarity card for ATM withdrawals would rarely, if ever, arise.

John_Pierpoint

Baldur wrote: »

Yes, see http://www.halifax.co.uk/creditcards/clarity.asp

Your personal APR will be from 12.9% APR variable to 21.9% APR variable, depending on individual circumstances.

51% of customers are offered our best rate of 12.9% APR representative (variable).

That 51% is some "level playing field" rule imposed by the European Union - here in the UK we used to get a better percentage.

malc_b

Thanks for the suggestions but I can read the % rate off my statement. My APR is 12.9% which is 0.033425% per day according to the Halifax letter I received explaining the interest charges. That was quite a quick response to my request they explain the charges in writing (as on the phone they couldn't).

The letter explains that my cash payments went to pay off purchases so my cash advance account just accrued interest, hence the higher figure. BUT, according to my Clarity card statement and payment goes first to pay off cash advances, which didn't happen. When I can get through on the phone I'll ask them why Halifax isn't doing what it says.

UPDATE: Finally Halifax phone line is not engaged. They admit there is a mistake and have refunded all the interest, so I'm 30p better off :-). I'd suggest that people check their cash interest charges as I can't see why it would just be my Clarity where payments have been directed to the purchases account rather than the cash advances account.

On the point of paying in money as soon as you withdraw that doesn't work. If you use the Clarity only for cash then paying in before the ATM is registered could be putting the card in credit which the T&C forbid. Or if you use the Clarity for both cash and purchases then paying in early sends the money to whatever is outstanding at the time. Hence I waiting until the cash advance showed on the online statement then paid it off.

BTW my experience is that when you make a payment online you have to say do it the next day, it will not accept do it today, but the payment registers that day on the clarity statement, e.g. go online on 3 May, make payment the earliest allowed the 4 May, payment shows on Clarity as 4 May.

adindas

Dear malc_b;43310048

Do you mean that purchase will take priority over cash withdrawal ?
So It will mean that although you transfer the same amount of money with the money you withdraw on the day you do withdrawal, you will still need to pay Interest because the transfered money will clear the purchase first ?. Just what to make sure .... Is it what they did ? They should stop doing this since the end of last year. If we need to call them every time to correct this, I think this too much hassle .....


ADINDAS

malc_b wrote: »

Thanks for the suggestions but I can read the % rate off my statement. My APR is 12.9% which is 0.033425% per day according to the Halifax letter I received explaining the interest charges. That was quite a quick response to my request they explain the charges in writing (as on the phone they couldn't).

The letter explains that my cash payments went to pay off purchases so my cash advance account just accrued interest, hence the higher figure. BUT, according to my Clarity card statement and payment goes first to pay off cash advances, which didn't happen. When I can get through on the phone I'll ask them why Halifax isn't doing what it says.

UPDATE: Finally Halifax phone line is not engaged. They admit there is a mistake and have refunded all the interest, so I'm 30p better off :-). I'd suggest that people check their cash interest charges as I can't see why it would just be my Clarity where payments have been directed to the purchases account rather than the cash advances account.

On the point of paying in money as soon as you withdraw that doesn't work. If you use the Clarity only for cash then paying in before the ATM is registered could be putting the card in credit which the T&C forbid. Or if you use the Clarity for both cash and purchases then paying in early sends the money to whatever is outstanding at the time. Hence I waiting until the cash advance showed on the online statement then paid it off.

BTW my experience is that when you make a payment online you have to say do it the next day, it will not accept do it today, but the payment registers that day on the clarity statement, e.g. go online on 3 May, make payment the earliest allowed the 4 May, payment shows on Clarity as 4 May.

veggie4life

Baldur wrote: »

Your choice - you'd receive the same Mastercard exchange rate as the Metro Bank card but ATM withdrawals would attract immediate interest until cleared in full.

You could minimise the interest, if you had access to online banking, by paying off the amount withdrawn via the Clarity card ASAP straight after the transaction.

For example, if I withdrew 400 Bulgarian Leva today at the Mastercard rate of 2.205581, I would log on to my Halifax account and set up a payment to take place as soon as possible to pay off the resulting £181.34 debit to my Clarity card account.

thanks Would this be the same as setting up an automatic direct debit?

Also, Halifax have offered me a 21% rate which I know is poor but even that looks better than the other cards Martin mentioned?

malc_b

adindas wrote: »

Dear malc_b;43310048

Do you mean that purchase will take priority over cash withdrawal ?
So It will mean that although you transfer the same amount of money with the money you withdraw on the day you do withdrawal, you will still need to pay Interest because the transfered money will clear the purchase first ?. Just what to make sure .... Is it what they did ? They should stop doing this since the end of last year. If we need to call them every time to correct this, I think this too much hassle .....


ADINDAS

Cash withdrawals have highest priority, but this time they got it wrong. I doubt I'm alone in this. Halifax said they would look into it and flag it up as a error. Personally I'd check at least for the near future as it seems like their systems don't yet cope automatically with this.

I wouldn't pay money into the account until I had seen the cash withdrawal on the statement. If you pay in when all that shows on the statement are purchases then the payment would be put towards the purchases. Hence IMO you have to wait until the cash advance shows up.