India Travel Money

fyfestuart

pampanua wrote: »

heading off to india in ten days - our solution was to get a halifax clarity mastercard - there are no withdrawal fees overseas and the exchange rate is set to the mastercard exchange rate (checked yesterday was about 1 to 70 rupees) with no additional charges. We figure if we load it up before we go and set to pay off in full each month this makes it overall the cheapest way to go.
i haven't however tested this theory yet....

I had seriously considered this option. But as you say its all good in theory but then you have a credit card with a balance which in my experience might start creeping up
When you say load it up before you go, is it possible to have a 'positive' balance on it. In other words if i apply and get accepted can I pay a few hundred on to it? As far as I'm aware with credit cards this isn't allowed?

pampanua

fyfestuart wrote: »

I had seriously considered this option. But as you say its all good in theory but then you have a credit card with a balance which in my experience might start creeping up
When you say load it up before you go, is it possible to have a 'positive' balance on it. In other words if i apply and get accepted can I pay a few hundred on to it? As far as I'm aware with credit cards this isn't allowed?

you're right, i've never had a credit card before so i had just presumed, so thanks for the tip. instead i have loaded up my current account which i will use to automatically pay the card off in full whilst away so there's enough to cover all expenditure and some contingency money. i don't use a credit card usually so the discipline of not using it when i get back won't be too much of a burden