Abbey Zero credit card v Nationwide credit card

Nutty_Maj

I'm off to Australia soon and am wondering which credit card to use. I have an Abbey Zero credit card and a Nationwide credit card and am not sure which is likely to offer the best exchange rate. Do Mastercard and Visa give the same rate? I will be putting credit onto the card before I go away so I don't have to worry about missing payment dates while I am away. Also, will the Nationwide Flex Account be the best one for withdrawing cash?
Thanks.

chattychappy

Based on my recent experience of both, Abbey Zero does now give a better exchange rate than Nationwide Visa. It's not easy to be sure as daily fluctuation in forex rates can mask the 0.84% difference you'd expect between the two. (The rate you get is not necessarily the rate on the day - even with PDQ it can be a day or two before transactions go through.)

A few points though:

1) Make sure you are billed in the Australian Dollars. Search here or google for the perils of "Dynamic Currency Conversion" or DCC.

2) I've found Nationwide (or at least their gold card) "as good as gold" for acceptance. Abbey Zero staff were full of dire warnings about how I must keep them updated with my travel plans for fear of getting the card stopped. In fact, by chance, a few hours ago I made my first two Abbey purchases overseas without telling them before hand. They did go through all right. For years I've never had a problem with Nationwide overseas but I know sometimes people do have problems with other cards. I'm still in early days with Zero.

3) Don't rely on pre-payments to your cards to keep the minimum repayments in order. Generally you're not supposed to do that - so you could run into trouble. Also, at best it would only fix the first minimum repayment as all of the amount would be applied to the first statement balance. Next time around there would be another minimum to face. There really is no substitute to keep getting setup online and doing it that way. (DDs are fashionable on these forums, but I've never signed one and cope OK despite being out of the UK more than in.) Staying online is better for fraud prevention too, though your own laptop via WiFI is probably better than a dodgy internet cafe somewhere.

4) Nationwide Flex probably is the best way of withdrawing money, though if you're cash rich enough to pre-pay Abbey Zero IN FULL and are on the version that doesn't charge for cash withdrawals you might be better off using Abbey Zero for cash withdrawals. You pay interest, but that would be tiny if you immediately paid it off. No good if you're running a purchase balance. However cash withdrawals on a credit card can have a detrimental impact on your credit rating.

5) Whatever you do, take backup cards. Paying 2.75% on a currency converstion is still better than getting stuck with stopped cards and messing around with rellies and Western Union etc. If travelling with a trusted companion it would probably make sense to take care of a backup card on behalf of each other in case of robbery etc. Else find another way to keep your backup card separate.

6) Keep a separate note of your card numbers (obviously not expiry or other card data) and emergency phone numbers. If you use a web mail account you could email it to yourself in case you lose the paper record.

Have a great trip!

Nutty_Maj

This is really helpful, thanks very much.