Cheap Travel Money Discussion Area

mr_bob_dubalina

I don`t understand why the Halifax clarity is better than using your debit card ? If they are charging 12.9% then if you spend £100 you pay £112.90, if you spend £100 on a debit card even with the load (3% for HSBC) i would only pay £103! or am i just being a bit thick. ?

Walter_Sobchak

mr_bob_dubalina wrote: »

I don`t understand why the Halifax clarity is better than using your debit card ? If they are charging 12.9% then if you spend £100 you pay £112.90, if you spend £100 on a debit card even with the load (3% for HSBC) i would only pay £103! or am i just being a bit thick. ?

I'd imagine the 12.9% charge is only if you don't pay off your monthly balance in full.

dzug1

mr_bob_dubalina wrote: »

I don`t understand why the Halifax clarity is better than using your debit card ? If they are charging 12.9% then if you spend £100 you pay £112.90, if you spend £100 on a debit card even with the load (3% for HSBC) i would only pay £103! or am i just being a bit thick. ?

Yes you are:)

The 12.9% is an ANNUAL interest rate, not a loading. It works out very approximately at 1% a month which is the longest you'd borrow it for. And it's only charged on cash taken out, not spending

John_Pierpoint

Some applicants for "Clarity" cards are charge more than double the often touted 12.9%, but this still works out cheaper than a typical 2.7% exchange commission/fee charged by most cards.

alxx

scarlet_macaw wrote: »

As a regular traveller, I have always thought the cheapest way to fund overseas travelling would be to get a foreign currency account with debit card facilities and fund it using "wholesale rate" transfers. The only problem is finding the banks that will offer this service as the main UK provider, Citibank, requires high minimum balances.

Does anyone know which foreign banks will provide a full banking service to non residents (possibly an idea for an article here). At present I am particularly intersted in the Eurozone, US Dollar and NZ Dollar accounts.

I opened a Citi Euro and a Citi US Dollar account recently for my various holidays and travel and they were free and don't require any minimum balances....

stilltheone

alxx wrote: »

I opened a Citi Euro and a Citi US Dollar account recently for my various holidays and travel and they were free and don't require any minimum balances....

But what is the Citibank reference exchange rate and how is it calculated? Do you have this information? My cursory search indicates that it is the VISA rate minus 2.75%. Nothing really about which to write home.

alxx

Does anyone know what the different credit card (and debit card) exchange rates are actually like? Is there a list somewhere that publishes this and therefore lets us compare what the best deal really is?

zagfles

alxx wrote: »

Does anyone know what the different credit card (and debit card) exchange rates are actually like? Is there a list somewhere that publishes this and therefore lets us compare what the best deal really is?

VISA & MasterCard publish their rates here:

http://corporate.visa.com/pd/consumer_services/consumer_ex_rates.jsp

https://www.mastercard.com/global/currencyconversion/index.html

So you can check the rates on any particular day. However most banks will mark up the rates, typically 3% or so. The T&C's for your account will state this somewhere. The VISA site lets you enter the bank fee so it's worked out for you.

A few accounts (both bank and credit card) don't markup the VISA/Mastercard rates at all, so the rates you see above are what you get. These are well worth looking into if you travel abroad a lot. Examples are Halifax Clarity and MetroBank. See the "best cards" article on the main site. http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-travel-money

alxx

ref Zagfles post above (I'm not allowed to post links and therefore can't 'quote' the previous message..)
Ok. I rang up Citi to find out and they're current exchange rates are GBP to Euro = 1.0912 and GBP to USD = 1.5791, which by my calculations for pounds to euros equals 0.01%. (let me know if that calculation is correct...) I don't get charged any fees abroad in the currency of the account, so how does that compare to other banks and credit cards? Did I do the right thing by choosing a foreign currency account (rather than a credit card) and by choosing Citi (rather than HSBC who I also looked at), as I can't see either of these big global banks in the article?

stilltheone

alxx wrote: »

ref Zagfles post above (I'm not allowed to post links and therefore can't 'quote' the previous message..)
Ok. I rang up Citi to find out and they're current exchange rates are GBP to Euro = 1.0912 and GBP to USD = 1.5791, which by my calculations for pounds to euros equals 0.01%. (let me know if that calculation is correct...) I don't get charged any fees abroad in the currency of the account, so how does that compare to other banks and credit cards? Did I do the right thing by choosing a foreign currency account (rather than a credit card) and by choosing Citi (rather than HSBC who I also looked at), as I can't see either of these big global banks in the article?

Your calculations are a bit off.

Look at the links zagfles has provided and take 2.75% from them. That should be what Citi are offering to you.

No, it's not the best deal you can get.

Metro Bank, N&P and Cumberland BS have much better accounts for when it comes to overseas travel.