Halifax Clarity Exchange rate

dzug1

jojo5987 wrote: »

" The choice is Mastercard's/the merchant's/the overseas bank's or any combination - not Halifax "

..... But how do you know which rate they will use? Are they all still generally better than the rate you would get by taking cash?

You don't. But it's a choice of when the transaction takes place, not of exchange rate. That follows automatically and is the Mastercard rate at the time that happens.

The Mastercard rate is invariably MUCH better than exchanging cash.

standinman2009

Ive just got back from the states and used my clarity card the rates of exchange were very good on average $1,56 to the pound but as high as $1.57 on one occassion ,but be warned us atms charge a $3 fee for cash withdrawls so i mainly did purchases via the card .

andrewmp

standinman2009 wrote: »

Ive just got back from the states and used my clarity card the rates of exchange were very good on average $1,56 to the pound but as high as $1.57 on one occassion ,but be warned us atms charge a $3 fee for cash withdrawls so i mainly did purchases via the card .

Do they charge $3 even for Halifax Clarity?

CountryGoose

For RON on 26/10

xe.com = 4.8904 (4.89)
Clarity = 4.86
M/Card = 4.8597 (4.86)

So a .6% difference between xe.com and Mastercard and Clarity.

CountryGoose

andrewmp wrote: »

Do they charge $3 even for Halifax Clarity?

Yes - this is a fee imposed by the ATM - just like some machines in the UK charge.

andrewmp

CountryGoose wrote: »

Yes - this is a fee imposed by the ATM - just like some machines in the UK charge.

I remember last time I was in the USA (using nationwide then). I didn't ever charged for using an ATM, I think I mainly used proper ATMs outside of banks etc though. Has it all changed?

CountryGoose

andrewmp wrote: »

I remember last time I was in the USA (using nationwide then). I didn't ever charged for using an ATM, I think I mainly used proper ATMs outside of banks etc though. Has it all changed?

Some do, some don't.... just like the UK. Remember the fallout when Barclays said it was to start charging in the UK?

andrewmp

CountryGoose wrote: »

Some do, some don't.... just like the UK. Remember the fallout when Barclays said it was to start charging in the UK?

Was that over 10 years ago? If so yeah, I remember that, thankfully it didn't exactly catch on here. :j

dzug1

andrewmp wrote: »

I remember last time I was in the USA (using nationwide then). I didn't ever charged for using an ATM, I think I mainly used proper ATMs outside of banks etc though. Has it all changed?

Yes it has. Most charge these days including those outside many banks. Not all though.

Non-charging of overseas cards fell foul of the US equivalent of the Monopolies Commission who said Visa and Mastercard couldn't tell the banks whether to charge or not, so many promptly did.

BWAE

Just returned from Barcelona and used Clarity for the first time - not impressed.

2 withdrawals from ATM's gave 1.10 euros to the pound. On the same day using a Nationwide credit card gave a rate of 1.158 with no charges whatsoever.

Compared to Clarity I would have been much better buying Euros by preordering from Travelexor or the Post Office

It seems to me that Clarity is very misleading because Mastercard seem to use a very poor rate certainly in Spain (but maybe not always in some other countries according to other posts)?

I probably won't use Clarity again because after taking into account the interest it is probably no cheaper than the Flex account. I'll try to use Nationwide credit card wherever possible and not use so much cash. Any cash I need I'll probably buy in UK before I go abroad, or In countries like Turkey I'll take GBP notes and change at a money shop.