Halifax Clarity - can I avoid interest on withdrawls abroad ?

milton1970

Similar post on currency board ...

Previously used a Nationwide debit card for foreign currency through ATMs in Europe but following the imposition of new rule I have now got a Halifax Clarity card.

My question is this - accepting that there are no transaction fees only interest, can I minimise the interest payable by paying off any debt prior to statement date / statement being produced ?

Suggestion is that you cannot pre-load with credit ... but is there a standard way in which cc providers calculate the interest & if it is between withdrawl date & statement date .. if I take 10 days (say) to pay (but pay before the due date) does interest continue to accrue ?

Apologies not used to withdrawing cash on credit cards ...

This question is purely related to withdrawls from ATMs ... & already know about N&P cards

Thanks in advance ...

lisyloo

Interest is between withdrawal and you making payment (not the statement date).
So if you can arrange to make payment quickly then that will reduce interest.
There are 3 ways I can think to do this abroad.
1) Use internet/wifi abroad
2) set up payments in advance
3) text a friend and get them to do it for you

These all have drawback
1) using foreign internet is not safe. I am an IT professional and I don't access banking sites abroad.
2) You won't know when you are withdrawing
3) technically you shouldn't giev out your login details.

The simplest answer is to relax and enjoy your holiday and pay immediately you get back.
I did this recently and on £1200 I was charged less than £4.

I also made sure I paid MORE than the estimated interest.
I'm now in credit and need to make a purchase.
The problem with paying less is that you'll always get residual interest as you'll always have an outstanding balance.
So estimate, pay a little too much, buy a sandwich to clear the credit, pay it off.

You can estimate as follows

Cash taken * 0.129 /365 * number of days money borrowed

This assumes the typical interest rate of 12.9%.

If you haven't made a payment by the time your statement is generated, then the interest shown will only go up to the statement date and there will be more to follow.

Degenerate

Cash withdrawals start accruing interest immediately on a daily basis, and stop accruing interest when paid off, whether this is before or after a statement is issued. In practise this means that you can minimise or possibly eliminate interest as long as you have access to a way to make payment whilst abroad. Eg, a laptop and hotel with internet access.

I've played this game with my Santander Zero Card (cash APR 27.9%) for a while now. It used to take a couple of days for payment to transfer, which would mean paying something like 45p on a £300 transaction. I can live with that. Now they seem to have sorted their systems out and payment from my Santander bank account is instant, so I pay no interest at all.

I don't know whether Halifax CCs accept Faster Payments, but even if not the cash rate is less than half the Santander one, so a couple of day's interest will be piddling.

Degenerate

lisyloo wrote: »

1) using foreign internet is not safe. I am an IT professional and I don't access banking sites abroad.

Care to elaborate on this? I'm pretty IT-savvy myself and I disagree.

lisyloo

Care to elaborate on this? I'm pretty IT-savvy myself and I disagree.

Yes, sure.
I stated it as my own choice and not an authoritative fact as others are entitled to their own views and choices and to disagree.

It's to do with safety and our passwords and data being potentially captured by either the internet cafe themsleves or by a remote hacker because their network is not secure.
Personally I choose not to open myself up to that possibility for the sake of a few quid, but I fully accept it's down to personal choice.

Just warning people that it's an aspect to consider.
If you consider yourself savvy in aspects of computer security you may be safer than others because you will know what to look for.

I don't think it would be right to say every internet cafe and wifi in the entire world is totally safe to access banking sites.

You also need to consider these charges are very low (0.5% per week), so the internet access may well cost more than the interest if you don't get it for free.
It's also a personal choices whether you want to spend your holiday going round to internet cafes or whether you'd rather scuba dive etc.

My interest was £3.83 on a two week holiday when I withdrew £1200 during that period.
I consider that a very good deal for the security of not having to carry around and not have to pay commission.

Degenerate

lisyloo wrote: »

It's to do with safety and our passwords and data being potentially captured by either the internet cafe themsleves or by a remote hacker because their network is not secure.

You've moved the goalposts here from "foreign internet" to "internet cafe". I would NEVER advise anyone to visit banking sites or other sensitive stuff on a shared computer in an internet cafe.

Using your own laptop should be fine though, regardless of the security of the network you are connecting through. The whole point of SSL encrypted connections is that they cannot be eavesdropped upon. If the user had to be able to trust every network between themselves and their bank then you could never regard it as secure, whether in London or Timbuktu.

lisyloo

The whole point of SSL encrypted connections is that they cannot be eavesdropped upon.

Are you saying every laptop has this by default?

I wasn't deliberately moving the goalposts and I'm not trying to be clever either.
We need to be clear on the terms of reference.

So are you saying.
Our own laptops are ok because they ALL by default have this security, but other computers unknown to us are not?

I think the wirelesss encryption on mine is configurable (Asus EEE), so I think it needs to be your own PC AND you need to have this configured which requires some level of understanding, so I'm sure it's fine for some people.
I'm not yet convinced it's fine for everyone configuring their own WIFI connections.

Degenerate

lisyloo wrote: »

Are you saying every laptop has this by default?

Every web browser has this by default. Every banking site uses it. It's what the padlock icon that appears in the address or status bar indicates. It means that the session is being carried out over an encrypted "tunnel" (Secure Socket Layer) between the browser and the server that prevents anyone in between from listening in.

So are you saying.
Our own laptops are ok because they ALL by default have this security, but other computers unknown to us are not?

The web browsers on unknown computers will still have SSL, but it's useless when other people have access to and administrative control over the end-point. An attacker could find sensitive information using a key logger, remote screen viewer or fishing through the browser cache etc.

I think the wirelesss encryption on mine is configurable (Asus EEE), so I think it needs to be your own PC AND you need to have this configured which requires some level of understanding, so I'm sure it's fine for some people.
I'm not yet convinced it's fine for everyone configuring their own WIFI connections.

SSL is independent of wifi security. Wifi security restricts access to authorised users and protects against eavesdropping for the whole connection. Public wifi networks generally don't use it, so someone listening in to the wifi signal could potentially see where you are browsing etc, but when you get to an SSL secured site all they will be able to see is a stream of garbled gibberish passing back and forth between you and your bank that is useless without the encryption key.

lisyloo

Cheers. Thanks for the info.

I'd still rather go scuba diving and pay £3.83 when I get back than research SSL encryption to the point where I understand it, but I accept that's a choice.

atlantis187

I'm going to Pakistan in february for about 4 weeks, If I took out £2000 from the ATM matchine - £500 over 4 days how much interest would I pay if I payed it back imediately when returning to the UK. The rate on my clarity card is 12.9%

R34GTT

atlantis187 wrote: »

I'm going to Pakistan in february for about 4 weeks, If I took out £2000 from the ATM matchine - £500 over 4 days how much interest would I pay if I payed it back imediately when returning to the UK. The rate on my clarity card is 12.9%

Use this formula:

lisyloo wrote: »

You can estimate as follows

Cash taken * 0.129 /365 * number of days money borrowed

This assumes the typical interest rate of 12.9%.