Cheap Travel Money Discussion Area

jnm21

iblametheparents wrote: »

One postive for Caxton for me travelling to Turkey is that if I get their Sterling card and then withdraw Sterling from a cash machine, there is no charge for this.

A very good spot (seems that their T&C do indeed suggest what you are saying), but I would email them to confirm - I can see it being like paying GBP on a UK debit card in the UK & still getting charged (when you are paying for currency on the 'cards from hell').

Yes you are abroad, but if you are drawing GBP I honestly reckon they will charge the UK ATM fee (with no grounds based on their T&C).

Also would the Turkish ATM charge a fee to dispense GBP?

Grey_Dave

So, after absorbing the various messages on this thread, today I went into my local Halifax branch to discuss moving all my banking from Nationwide, and getting a Halifax Clarity Reward card for cash withdrawals worldwide, and a Halifax Reward current account.

All went swimmingly for 45 minutes. They confirmed that the Clarity exchange rate is the Mastercard wholesale rate, and that's perfect. The nice lady I was talking to thought that you could overpay a previous bill to preload the card with cash, and thus avoid interest payments, but she wasn't sure, and she and her colleagues had crawled through the Ts and Cs without success. Never mind- even without this the 12.9% is only around 1% per month on total withrawals. But then came the deal-breaker. The 12.9% card was only available to me at 17.5%! Now why would that be?

I'm a debt-free retired guy with adequate income, who pays bills on time and has various savings pots around, so it's not my credit score that's the problem. I own my home outright, and I'm on the electoral register. So what's happening here?

Surely it can't be the case that Halifax are advertising a low interest rate to get us interested, then imposing another, higher one when they think we've taken the hook? Has this happened to anyone else?

Actually, with its other features the Clarity card would be better than the Nationwide debit card even at the higher rate of interest, but, on principle, I made my excuses and left. Dunno what to do do now.

jnm21

Dave, I think you probably fall into their least profitable bracket: "I'm a debt-free retired guy with adequate income, who pays bills on time and has various savings pots around, so it's not my credit score that's the problem. I own my home outright, and I'm on the electoral register. So what's happening here?"

All that means is that there is little or no chance of getting interest/missed payment fees, so (sad to say) they don't want you! They want those who are earning & will eventually pay off what they owe, but with the hope of a profitable number of fees along the way.

I may be being overly cynical though.

ks339

Hi,

Has anyone used or heard about 'my travel cash' card to top up money for holiday?

Thanks.

dzug1

MTwallet wrote: »

This guide shows the Halifax Clarity card, the Nationwide and the Post Office credit card as being load free worldwide. This may well be the case but what exchange rates do each use?
It may be all well and good to be charge free but if the exchange rate is poor it is false economy.
Using moneysavingexpert's Travelmoneymax tool to change £1000 into USD today, the Post Office exchange rate gives $1534.80 whilst the Halifax only gives $1494.70 (a difference of $40.10)
Whilst I accept that these might not be the actual rates they use for their credit cards it shows there is quite a difference.
My experience of Halifax products is they don't usually offer the best rates on anything and it is my guess that the exchange rate used by the Post Office would be better than the Halifax.
To my knowledge all these companies do not publicise their credit card exchange rates, I may be wrong. Has anyone got two of these cards and used them on the same holiday? I would be intrigued to know how big a difference there is in their rates

They all use exactly the same exchange rate which is the best available unless you are a currency broker - it's set by Mastercard, not by the CC company and varies by the minute, which is why they don't say what it is, just how it is derived.

It bears no relationship whatsoever to the rates the same organisations offer for cash transactions which will be worse.

So sorry, your suspicious guesses are totally unfounded.

dzug1

ks339 wrote: »

Hi,

Has anyone used or heard about 'my travel cash' card to top up money for holiday?

Thanks.

It's run by the Newcastle Building Society who also run FairFx

On a quick glance it's not at all obvious what the difference, if any, is.

jnm21

£1 foreign ATM fee is one difference IIRC.

jnm21

dzug1 wrote: »

They all use exactly the same exchange rate which is the best available unless you are a currency broker - it's set by Mastercard, not by the CC company and varies by the minute, which is why they don't say what it is, just how it is derived.

It bears no relationship whatsoever to the rates the same organisations offer for cash transactions which will be worse.

So sorry, your suspicious guesses are totally unfounded.

I thought that the mastercard rate was a daily rate (rather than changing minute to minute), but must admit that I had assumed that based on the fact they publish it by the day on their website.

katieparkes

Now nationwide have upped their rates for spending abroad what is now the best debit card to spend abroad as i am going travelling in october and was hoping on relying on a debit card!?

thank you

dzug1

katieparkes wrote: »

Now nationwide have upped their rates for spending abroad what is now the best debit card to spend abroad as i am going travelling in october and was hoping on relying on a debit card!?

thank you

Cumberland Building Society - but you must live in their branch area

Metro bank - must open account in person in London

Nationwide still - but only just and for large transactions only. Where £1 is less than ~0.75% of the amount

I think Santander also have an account - but for their mortgage holders only