The Cheapest Way to Spend Overseas Discussion Area

trevorh

I have a NW debit card for overseas cash and a NW credit card for overseas purchases.

All has worked well without charges until a recent holiday in Gran Canaria when I was caught on two occasions with the credit card where the merchant charged me in £ sterling thereby giving rise to a 2% mark up to the local bank.

I was not asked if I wanted this although inspecting the small print of the sales slip says I agree I was offered the choice and that this choice is final!

I also noticed when withdrawing money from a local ATM that I was offered the choice of £ or euro's, presumably had I chosen £ I would again have paid a local mark up.

The moral appears to be always ensure you are being charged in, or drawing, the local currency rather than £'s.

beario

Hi,

I am going to Menorca next week (not enough time to open a Nationwide flexaccount, but am planning to do this for my Florida holiday in August) - can you tell me if the Halifax will charge if I buy my Euros using my debit card on Travelex.com? If they do I may as buy my euros at a slightly worse rate (Post Office or travel agent) than buy them from Travelex and incur a handling fee.

Thanks,

Abi

beario

*bump*

I need to know today so I can decide whether to purchase or not!

Paul_J

After reading through (and thoroughly confusing myself in the process) the article and most of the posts here, I went to Nationwide to upgrade my cash card to a debit card. I've held a flexaccount with them with around £120 in for about 15 years now. I dont really use the account day to day though. I use my current account with The Abbey for salary payments, d/d's, etc.

However, NW refused to upgrade my card to a debit card, saying my 'score' was too low.

So my question is, would it be better to get my euro's here and take to Spain, or get them from an ATM over there with my Abbey cash/debit card? Abbey charge (not sure if I understand their fee structure here http://www.abbey.com/csgs/Satellite?c=GSDetalleProducto&cid=1127562793287&idParent=1127562791480&pagename=Abbey%2FGSDetalleProducto%2FGS_DetProducto ) 2.75% AND a further 1.5% of the amount withdrawn. Is that correct? If so, this makes it very uncompetitive, doesn't it?
I'm not an expert on these things, I rarely travel abroad, so your answers are really appreciated.
Thank you.

shammyjack

You can use your Cashcard in ATMs abroad with no charge as long as they display the Maestro or Cirrus logo, no need to upgrade to a Debitcard !

shammy

Paul_J

shammyjack wrote: »

You can use your Cashcard in ATMs abroad with no charge as long as they display the Maestro or Cirrus logo, no need to upgrade to a Debitcard!

Really?? Thanks for that info, shammy. I didn't realise that. Does it matter that my old expired cashcard had the Cirrus logo on it, but the new one I have here no longer carries the Cirrus logo??
I didn't want to go abroad and THEN find out that I had no access at all to money, so thought I needed a debit card.

Also, with regard to the NW debit card, if I used it in an ATM abroad which displayed the Visa logo but not the Cirrus logo, would there still be no fee to pay?
Appreciate your help.

catokelly

Just a word of warning..If you buy your currency in the UK:MOST CREDIT CARDS CHARGE UP TO 3% 'cash advance fee'(but I think Barclays charges £4.95 max)and most Visa debits 1.5% (except Nationwide and Halifax).

In other words, for every £1000 of currency you buy, your credit card provider will charge £30 - outrageous! When ur buying currency, use Switch/Solo/Maestro or Nationwide/HBOS debit cards or pay by cheque or online transfer!

So many people are not aware of this.

memyselfand1

Hi, new to site, but would like to know about the tesco credit card abroad. Is it better to take cash in euros or use this credit card? I may or may not pay balance up immeditately when i come back, thanks:undecided

patrickbateman

Going to USA for 3 wks in July. Just applied for the post office cc for the 0% transactions in a foreign currency. I am looking at spending about $1500 on this throughout the holiday. However cannot rely on this for all purchases and tipping etc.

Will probably need $200 cash and another $1200 in travellers cheques to see me through the hol. Where is the best place to get these at the best rate (also we no longer have $2 to the quid, is the rate likely to go up/down between now and July)?

Thanks for the help.

jinkssick

shammyjack wrote: »

You can use your Cashcard in ATMs abroad with no charge as long as they display the Maestro or Cirrus logo, no need to upgrade to a Debitcard !

shammy

exactly, only thing that cannot be done on them is purchases abroad, as youll need the debit card

and rule number one! as it states in the t&c of NW and mentioned various times. when making a withdrawal abroad with the cash/debit from nationwide MAKE SURE YOU ARE BEING CHARGED IN THE CURRENCY OF THE COUNTRY YOUR IN (USA = $) AND NEVER EVER EVER IN BRITISH POUNDS.