Cheap Travel Money Discussion Area

dw96

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

But it's only going to be pennies!! If you pay your statement in full you'll pay less than 1% in interest e.g. withdraw £1000 and interest for that month will be less than £10. You can make as many ATM withdrawals as you like, subject to your credit limit. Some people pre-load the card to avoid paying any interest at all.

Not being funny but is it really pennies? Please bear with me as I try to do the maths..

With Halifax Clarity the (best) rate is 12.9% on ATM withdrawals. If I withdraw £100 and pay it off after a year I assume it cost me £12.90. But if I withdraw £100 today and pay it off in full tomorrow, would that cost me 12.90 / 365? ( = ~3.5p)

I'm trying to compare the cost with withdrawing money on my (bog standard) debit card that I did during Christmas. And while I can see an obvious saving in terms of using the Clarity card for spending in shops, I struggle to see an advantage when withdrawing money from an ATM. And I've been looking at the exchange rate for the day in question.

Many thanks in advance.

dzug1

dw96 wrote: »

Not being funny but is it really pennies? Please bear with me as I try to do the maths..

With Halifax Clarity the (best) rate is 12.9% on ATM withdrawals. If I withdraw £100 and pay it off after a year I assume it cost me £12.90. But if I withdraw £100 today and pay it off in full tomorrow, would that cost me 12.90 / 365? ( = ~3.5p)

I'm trying to compare the cost with withdrawing money on my (bog standard) debit card that I did during Christmas. And while I can see an obvious saving in terms of using the Clarity card for spending in shops, I struggle to see an advantage when withdrawing money from an ATM. And I've been looking at the exchange rate for the day in question.

Many thanks in advance.

Your bog standard debit card will be charging you 2.75% to 3% on the exchange rate (Clarity doesn't). And a few charge a fee on top of that.

NiftyDigits

londonmania wrote: »

thanks - though I need a card for NZ and Australia.

Surely you are not that dopey....?

GBP just means the card has Pounds on it. You get the full Mastercard wholesale exchange rate at the point of transaction.
1.85% loading fee.

Asking for a 'totally free' prepaid card is also a bit 'dopey.

Just use your Clarity for goodness sakes.

If you think that you won't have Internet access in order to clear the balance whilst you are away, just set up delayed payments via online banking before you leave.

You can think about taking a Kalixa Pay Prepaid card as a backup for purchases. They levy no charges. They have an existing Promo Code that waives the initial card fee of £6.95 when you load £50 or more.

spras

I am travelling to China in a few weeks. I am unable to get one of the credit cards as I have no regular income. I'm looking at the pre-paid cards as the best way to be able to withdraw cash out there (need to be able to get both HK$ and Yuan). I have used FairFX dollar and euro cards in the past and had a good experience. What I can't quite work out is which is going to be the best card to use in China (between FairFX, Travelex, Caxton FX, and ICE). Caxton and Travelex have relatively high charges for card use (2.49% and 2.75% respectively) versus FairFX (1.4%) but I mainly will be using cash. FairFX charges £1 for all withdrawals but the other three are free.

If FairFX gets the edge it is likely to be with its exchange rate. the Travelex exchange rate, for example, is relatively poor (9.2208 Yuan to £1) against the current interbank rate (9.90) such that it is likely to nullify any savings from cashpoint withdrawals (vs FairFX). However, I can't find exchange rates for Yuan for the other cards. Does anyone know how closely FairFX (or others) compare with the interbank rate?

dzug1

spras wrote: »

, I can't find exchange rates for Yuan for the other cards. Does anyone know how closely FairFX (or others) compare with the interbank lending rate?

You don't need to find an actual exchange rate for yuan


You need to find what loading the card you use has on the interbank rate when it does its conversion - that information will be somewhere in the T&C etc on its website. If you dig deep enough you will find it. It will be the same loading whatever the currency


It would be wise to have more than one card anyway

Bri1

Never see the need to use a debit card abroad, I just take the Halifax Clarity Card & some local cash for where a card is not appropriate, never run out yet :-)

hpuse

Could someone help me understand this.

Reading 'zero load' fee I had taken a capital one credit card just for transactions abroad last year. I have used the same for trips abroad but I really do not think I am getting value from it even if it has a "zero load fee".

To confirm this, I made 2 transactions from a store abroad within a span of 2 minutes for the same amount of 112USD in Aug last year (identical items, but paid separately on different creditcards).

The first txn was on Capital One and the second one was John Lewis partnership (both master card)

Capital One Statement showed 74.38
Whereas, JL statement was 73.77

Clearly, JL card saved me 61pence, even thou it is not listed as a "zero load" fee credit card. Something is missing in this thread' that would probably explain the same?.

agent69

I have a FairFX (anywhere version) which runs out shortly.

I mainly use the card for my main holiday (this year will be Thailand / Malaysia / Singapore) although recently I have also been using it for a second holiday each year in Spain.

I find the card reliable and convenient and would like another. Only issue is I have never understood the difference between the £, euro and $ versions (when being used outside USA/ Europe).

Is the anywhere card the best for me?

freelancer123

A tip rather than a question for buying back GBP from your post office travelcard once you're home... This may have already come up but I don't feel like reading through the 117 pages on this thread!

I had a Australian Dollars Post Office Travelcard and wanted to buy back Pounds Sterling once returning to the UK. Having looked into it, the post office could only return the money through bank transfer in something silly like 15 working days (why it takes that long to transfer money who knows), but also at an absolutely terrible rate.

I experimented by taking out cash from a normal UK cashpoint, just £50 (had over $1000AUD in the account left over on the travelcard) and depositing it into my bank instead. Despite the post office's percentage AND withdrawal charge being deducted, it still worked out better than transferring with the post office - because the TSB cashpoint's conversion rate was so much better. At the time, TSB didn't charge anything extra either.

The daily withdrawal limit meant I could only take out about £250 at a time, and yes I had to carry that cash down the road to the bank to deposit it, but once that was done over a few days we had saved over £100 by not doing it through the post office.

The post office really need to sort themselves out - their rates aren't as good as they make them out to be, especially when buying back to GBP. If you've got a significant amount left over after travelling I'd recommend giving it a go. Things can always change with rates etc but just email the post office to check what they are, and try withdrawing a small amount first and do a bit of maths.

Anyway, that's me done. Thought I'd share a good tip for anyone out there who's in the same situation as I was. The travelcard was very convenient but I can't help thinking I could have gone somewhere else for better rates. The pace at which they return it to you is pretty ridiculous too - I can transfer money anywhere in the world within 24 hours with internet banking!

NiftyDigits

hpuse wrote: »

Could someone help me understand this.

Reading 'zero load' fee I had taken a capital one credit card just for transactions abroad last year. I have used the same for trips abroad but I really do not think I am getting value from it even if it has a "zero load fee".

To confirm this, I made 2 transactions from a store abroad within a span of 2 minutes for the same amount of 112USD in Aug last year (identical items, but paid separately on different creditcards).

The first txn was on Capital One and the second one was John Lewis partnership (both master card)

Capital One Statement showed 74.38
Whereas, JL statement was 73.77

Clearly, JL card saved me 61pence, even thou it is not listed as a "zero load" fee credit card. Something is missing in this thread' that would probably explain the same?.

Which Capital One card? Did you pay in US$ or was it converted for you at source?