Cheap Travel Money Discussion Area

Oldtraveller

KTF wrote: »

I take my netbook with me and drip feed it via instant payments from a Halifax current account when I am away for a couple of weeks.

Yeah, wiser on reflection. As in: "Why prod sleeping dogs, or bees' nests?"

Sounds like a more discreet approach...:)

Wammer

I always have internet access when I am on holiday so I'm another one that makes a payment to the Clarity card when I have withdrawn cash.

However be aware that if there are purchases on the card which have been statemented, any payment will go to pay these off first rather than the cash.

If there are no outstanding purchases from the statement date and you use the card for both purchases and cash advance, the payment will go towards the cash first.

Oldtraveller

OK, did the deed. Signed up for a Clarity card down the local branch today. Remarkably pain free, though of course they did a credit check, details of income, savings, other cards, etc. - the full works.

During all this, an interesting little technical debate with the customer rep about foreign cash withdrawals... And yeah, pre-loading is 'officially' frowned-upon.

It seems that even if you do an internet lodgement to the card account immediately following a foreign (or of course ANY) cash withdrawal, there's still potentially a couple of days' delay before that lodgement hits the card account, in which case they'll sting you for those couple of days.

Peanuts in real terms of course, but probably a case of them having the last laugh I guess...

John_Pierpoint

What rate of interest did you get now that only 50% of the punters need to get the headline rate.

Oldtraveller

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

What rate of interest did you get now that only 50% of the punters need to get the headline rate.

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The blurb they sent me limping away with says: '12.92% P.A (variable) for cash withdrawals, 12.92% P.A (variable) for all other transactions and amounts payable under the agreement' Yada-yada-yada, etc, etc, etc for 6 pages of standard print and a further 3 pages of small print.

I'll be setting up a direct debit for this of course so as to try to avoid all of that anyway, subject to the foregoing cautionary about interest on cash withdrawals...

Wammer

I think my payments took about 3 days to hit the card account and the interest was pennies.

I certainly wouldn't moan about paying 1% a month or 0.25% a week in interest. You are getting full Interbank rates that you won't get anywhere else.

Today's USD rate is $1.58479. Compare that to Travelex's sale rate today of $1.56 or their rate before the sale of $1.5475.

Oldtraveller

Wammer wrote: »

I always have internet access when I am on holiday so I'm another one that makes a payment to the Clarity card when I have withdrawn cash.

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Here's one - and OK probably not for this thread, but: How do you assure secure access via your device, whateveritis (iPad in my case) to your bank account from foreign hotels/motels, internet caffs, public places with WiFi?

I've been reading / seeing horror stories about how easy it is to intercept data in these places, and thereby hack into accounts for fraudulent purposes... :question:

John_Pierpoint

Oldtraveller wrote: »

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The blurb they sent me limping away with says: '12.92% P.A (variable) for cash withdrawals, 12.92% P.A (variable) for all other transactions and amounts payable under the agreement' Yada-yada-yada, etc, etc, etc for 6 pages of standard print and a further 3 pages of small print.

I'll be setting up a direct debit for this of course so as to try to avoid all of that anyway, subject to the foregoing cautionary about interest on cash withdrawals...

Well done, my wife who is a teacher coming up for retirement, who has a "Halifax" bank account and a faultless payment record, got 24 %

Wammer

Oldtraveller wrote: »

Wammer wrote: »

I always have internet access when I am on holiday so I'm another one that makes a payment to the Clarity card when I have withdrawn cash.

---

Here's one - and OK probably not for this thread, but: How do you assure secure access via your device, whateveritis (iPad in my case) to your bank account from foreign hotels/motels, internet caffs, public places with WiFi?

I've been reading / seeing horror stories about how easy it is to intercept data in these places, and thereby hack into accounts for fraudulent purposes... :question:

I don't use open connections or public internet cafes or coffee shops. I only use connections which require a password and make sure the connection is set to Public. I am happy with the security on my laptop, eg firewall, anti-virus, anti-malware and anti-spyware and make sure I am using a secure site, eg https.

However on a recent holiday I had purchased internet access from an online company. I wanted to purchase something that was on a special offer for a very limited period, but decided against it as I wasn't 100% confident in the security of the connection.

tomruth78

I can't believe I have been stung buying online cash. I bought some Euro's from Sainsburys as the rate was fairly good. I paid using my Barclay's VISA debit card and have just discovered a hidden charge of £4.50 so that pretty much blows out the good exchange rate I received.

In all fairness I haven't travelled abroad since 2006 so am a bit rusty on the tricks of the trade, but I thought because I was paying with my own bank account and not on credit I wouldn't incur charges. Sadly no where in bold does it say that I am to be charged £4.50 by VISA and it does not state on my receipt or when I bought online that I would be charged.

Anyone else found these hidden charges a bug bear? Next time shall be withdrawing cash and visiting my local high street exchange.