Using Cards Abroad/bank accounts

Biggles

Mikhail wrote: »

Option 2: Citibank international currency account, I use it as a prepaid card, but no fees for cash withdrawals (in Euro from Euro ATMs if you open Euro account) and no exchange commission.

There are no fees for withdrawal, the charges come in when you move GBP into your EUR account.

They used to be slightly less than other cards ATM withdrawal rates but I understood they'd increased them lately.

Mikhail

Biggles wrote: »

There are no fees for withdrawal, the charges come in when you move GBP into your EUR account.

They used to be slightly less than other cards ATM withdrawal rates but I understood they'd increased them lately.

Only if you move between citibank accounts, if you make a deposit from elsewhere, e.g., Lloyds they apply interbank exchange rate. I've done it.

labp04

MetroBank dont charge

avqs43

I withdrew €300 cash in the Canaries on 30 January 2011 from my Santander Zero credit card account. This equated to £258.95. Having already discussed the matter with the Santander call centre prior to my trip, I concluded that the best way to keep interest to a minimum was to withdraw the cash and then make a credit to the Zero account, thus eliminating the cash debt. I still have an introductory 0% on purchases and so any credits made to the account should have been offset against the cash withdrawal. I had already arranged for an automatic transfer from my A & L account to the Zero credit card account, knowing that I would be withdrawing cash abroad. So, the cash withdrawal reached the Zero account on 30 January and the credit of £300 reached the account on 1 February, a total of three days, including the day of withdrawal and the day of the credit. My latest statement shows interest charges of £1.41. You work it out, just to confirm my figures. The interest rate is 2.07%. So, 2.07% of £258.95 is £5.36 for a full month. February has 28 days. So that's £0.19 a day, for three days is about £0.57. I appear to have been charged for interest for the remainder of the statement. That is 30 January to 9 February. I am writing to Santander for clarification, but would just like any comment as to whether I have got things wrong here. It seems that any credit made to the Zero account does not take effect until the statement date. In which case you would be better off not making the credit to the account until after the statement has been issued.

Sorry about the ramble.

chattychappy

Yep you found out the hard way, though it is in the T+Cs.

Paraphrasing, payments are applied in this order:

1) Statemented balances, highest APR first
2) Unstatemented balances, highest APR first

I have certainly had no problems taking out cash and then paying off a couple of days later and only being charged for 2 days interest. (Faster payments from Nationwide which is handy.) But only the basis there wasn't an outstanding balance from the previous statement.

Actually I do wonder if this arrangement is in the spirit of the "new deal" that was supposedly agreed. But there you go!

avqs43

I think I'll send a letter to Santander anyway.

As I understand it, if I have a balance from the previous month, (which I have due to the 0% deal) the £300 would simply reduce that balance. The €300 cash withdrawal will attract interest until the new statement is raised. I am about to pay off the full balance anyway because the 0% ends in March. This problem concerns the February statement. I presume that if the 0% was due to continue for a couple of more months, as there is still a balance I would have to pay off more than the minimum payment as this would be less than the €300 borrowed in the first place. The annoying thing is that I discussed it with the S'der call centre and I didn't pay off the full amount on their sayso. As usual unable to understand the situation as described, or my inability to speak English in a clear enough way!!

chattychappy

Given you were on a 0% deal, you should only have made the minimum payment. Then paid the £300 immediately following statement generation (the statement that shows the cash withdrawal). One side effect of this is that you extract slightly better value out of your 0% deal - because the £300 would also count as meeting your minimum repayment. Though I appreciate you are coming to the end of the deal anyway.

(As an illustration - assume you have £10,000 on 0% for a year. Let's say your minimum repayment is 2%. Then you'd have to pay off £200 a month. If you withdrew £200 just before your statement date, then the balance would be £10,200. Your min payment would be £204. So you pay off £204. Now you have £9,996 on 0% instead of £9,800. Of course there would be a tiny amount of interest between the £200 withdrawal and your £204 payment. But that extra £196 on 0% might have many months to run.)

OK back to the situation. I think the best you can do is to write, saying you that you relied on the representations of the call centre. They could see your account on the screen, you explained what you wanted to do and the desired outcome. You then followed their instructions based on their assurances about how the repayment would be applied. Accordingly they should refund the excess interest because had they not misrepresented the situation you would have handled the transaction differently.

Good luck and report back!

avqs43

Wilco.

The extra is only about £1 but it's the principle:)

Just to make sure I keep the interest down, I am paying the whole lot off tomorrow, instead of waiting until 9 March. This means I can still use the card this month, as I'm close to the max limit anyhow.

The direct debit was due on 3 Feb. I drew the money on 30 Jan, transferred £300 on 1 Feb and of course the DD was taken anyway. I had anticipated this.

I am now looking to my next trip abroad in May. I will have a nil balance by then. If I draw, say €300, how do I pay the correct amount of cash so as not to go into credit?

Would this work? Direct debit in force to clear the outstanding balance. i.e. £0.00. Create a small balance with a British purchase of say £20 (not yet on statement) before I go away. I make the withdrawal of €300 and immediately transfer an amount of about £260 (depending on the exchange rate) which would be sufficient to pay off the €300 and some of the £20. This means I am not going into credit. But the amount would pay off the €300 in total and the remainder would be offset against the £20, (presumably). The DD would clear the balance next month.

My wife has another Zero card which we use for foreign purchases. i.e. no cash withdrawals.

Biggles

Mikhail wrote: »

Only if you move between citibank accounts, if you make a deposit from elsewhere, e.g., Lloyds they apply interbank exchange rate. I've done it.

According to their T&Cs, they apply 'the Citibank reference exchange rate' in both cases. Needless to say, they are very coy about saying exactly what the Citibank reference exchange rate is and how it relates to the interbank rate.

http://www.citibank.co.uk/personal/banking/customerinfo/otherinformation/documentlibrary/allrates.pdf?merchant=citi

avqs43

The rate was not too bad to be honest. Only about half a cent less than the rate shown on Sky and BBC news programmes. (These are the only channels on the hotel TV, except for CNN and Nat Geographic.)

When we paid the bill on Saturday, we were given €1.179 to the pound. The rate then was only €1.18 and a bit:)