Everything & Anything New York City

jackieblack

M4RKM wrote: »

And this is why a debit card is so much easier.

Or just confiscate the husband's card until after the cash has been withdrawn:D

Traincrashing

TooClumsy wrote: »

That's great! I had to rack my brain for what a&f was..but I guessed Abercrombie and Fitch? Did you get things delivered to your hotel room if you did online shopping..?

Z hotel looks beautiful! How long are you staying for..(not sure if you mentioned it before-sorry if you did!) Also..second hotel? As in you have two trips to NYC this year? (slightly jealous!)

Yes, Abercrombie and Fitch I love clothes from there. Yep, they got delivered to the hotel and then they sent them up to our room for us.

I hope it's nice, it looks like a lovely hotel from the photos and has a free shuttle into the city which I hope is reliable. Haha, no unfortunately not. We decided instead of staying in one average hotel to stay in two different ones so we could stay somewhere nice. It got a bit messed up though with one (Ink 48) and we had to find somewhere else so we choose the Z Hotel. We're staying there from the 1-5 Dec, and ONE UN Hotel from the 28-1

M4RKM

jackieblack wrote: »

Or just confiscate the husband's card until after the cash has been withdrawn:D

pretty sure I can't do that

poormaria

Ok, slightly more confused. If I want as near to a normal credit card, where I can pay it off at the end of the month with no charges, which is the better option?
Then, for cash withdrawals which would I need? Although I'm
Wondering how many cash withdrawals I'd actually do if everywhere takes cards. I could just take dollars with me x

jackieblack

poormaria wrote: »

Ok, slightly more confused. If I want as near to a normal credit card, where I can pay it off at the end of the month with no charges, which is the better option?
Then, for cash withdrawals which would I need? Although I'm
Wondering how many cash withdrawals I'd actually do if everywhere takes cards. I could just take dollars with me x

The Halifax Clarity is a good card.
To get the best from it:
1. Make sure the balance is clear before you travel (pay off any prior spending)
2. Withdraw any cash you want asap after arrival, before using the card for purchases
3. Then use the card for purchases
4. Pay off amount of cash withdrawal asap to minimise interest - even if you wait until you get home to do this the interest is going to be minimal and probably less than you'll have gained by getting a better exchange rate on you cash and purchases.
5. Pay off purchases by the payment date on the first statement you receive after returning home, to avoid interest charges on your purchases.

Take a back up card in case your account is blocked for any reason. Never happened to us with our Clarity card, only with Santander cards (twice), but it's better to be safe than stuck.

Savvy_Sue

jackieblack wrote: »

Only to get the reward payment every month, but I think you might have to have the right current account to get it

Phew, we don't have a current account with them, so that's OK.

I'm like Martin, I keep a travel purse, so it's no great problem to grab that and use the cards in it when away, then revert to 'normal' purse once I'm back. DH keeps them all in two places, the cards he uses 'all the time', and the cards he rarely uses. Sadly he keeps losing track of where he put the 'rarely' wallet ... my travel purse is with my passport!

noplams

I love new york. Thank you for such an information.

lostgirlontour

poormaria wrote: »

Ok, slightly more confused. If I want as near to a normal credit card, where I can pay it off at the end of the month with no charges, which is the better option?
Then, for cash withdrawals which would I need? Although I'm
Wondering how many cash withdrawals I'd actually do if everywhere takes cards. I could just take dollars with me x

I have a slightly different strategy with the Halifax Clarity card to that mentioned earlier.
I pay off anything on it before I leave.
I set up a series of payments to cover the cash I think I will withdraw (plus a bit for luck) for a day or two after I think I will withdraw the cash. As I understand it this means that I pay off the cash advance before any purchases (the following is from the t&cs "If the payment is not enough to pay off all Transactions at a particular interest rate, we will pay off Transactions charged at that interest rate in the following order:- Cash Withdrawals, Purchases, Balance Transfers ...").

Last month I was in NYC for 12 days. I withdrew cash on day 3 and day 10. I made payments on days 4, 8 then days 14 and 15 (though I was home by then). I made 2 withdrawals each of $300. I paid 18p in interest.

The other thing which might be helpful - try to use Credit Union machines for withdrawals as they generally have lower fees. I paid $2 for one withdrawal and $2.50 for the other. Sometimes I have even found machines where I have not been charged at all. The fee is the same whatever the amount withdrawn.

My personal opinion is that buying $$s here in the UK is an expensive way of doing it because you get stung on the exchange rate.

chrispy

Hi, being a bit dippy here can someone advise please.

Looking at getting the ipad mini while away in NY direct from thier lovely store , have checked prices on Apple.com, I'm guessing the price is the same in store but will i have to pay any sort local of tax on top of that?

M4RKM

chrispy wrote: »

Hi, being a bit dippy here can someone advise please.

Looking at getting the ipad mini while away in NY direct from thier lovely store , have checked prices on Apple.com, I'm guessing the price is the same in store but will i have to pay any sort local of tax on top of that?

Yes, Tax will be added at 8.875%.

Also there are rumours that a new iPad Mini is imminent, so it really depends if you want to be buying old technology (obviously depends on when you are going).
Finally, if you get a wifi + cellular one it won't work on any 4G networks in the UK, which the iPad mini is compatible with EE 4G only.

M