Best way to go with overseas money

Donnie

galvatron20 wrote: »

Would there be much difference between the Zero and Post Office if I only used the card for car hire and paid it off before any interest was added on?

A new Post Office card has a three month period from card opening where there are no Interest charges for Purchases, Zero has six.

So just set up a Direct Debit for the minimum payment and then clear the bill when you get home.

Of course, to take advantage of this you will have to apply for the card closer to the date you are leaving.

galvatron20

been rejected for the Halifax and Santander cards, even though I have no debts, no mortage or any bad history to my knowledge.

Any ideas for next step?

benjus

As you already bank with Nationwide, you may have more luck getting one of their credit cards. These will still charge only 1% outside Europe after November, although they are not much use for cash withdrawals as they charge a cash advance fee and interest. Having a credit card is definitely useful if you're interested in hiring cars.

For cash withdrawals - as mentioned above, if you can get to London easily a MetroBank current account is worth a try. Failing that, I would use a prepaid card with your FlexAccount card as backup.

Donnie

galvatron20 wrote: »

been rejected for the Halifax and Santander cards, even though I have no debts, no mortage or any bad history to my knowledge.

Any ideas for next step?

Are you on the Electoral Roll?

If all else fails, try MBNA.

They gave me my first ever credit card, many moons ago when I was but a young whippersnapper.

You can try the Virgin MBNA option 2 first, as you get 12 months interest free on purchases. Makes it quite handy for those emergency purchases whilst abroad.

If it all goes Pete Tong and no one will accept you for a CC, you may have to take the option of a higher interest rate CC. You'll get one, but you'll need to be more careful in managing these.

galvatron20

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

I think I'd only actually use a CC for hiring a car and then pay it off straight away as I'll be using my nationwide for cash withdrawals.

Would I be better off going for a Nationwide or Barclays credit card as I have bank accounts with them both?