Halifax Clarity cc withdrawing cash abroad question!

chattychappy

english_bass wrote: »

I will be in Vietnam in a few weeks (starting off in Thailand - doing the Thai, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam run). I may send you a PM on the subject if you don't mind rather than filling up this thread.

I will be using the card to pay for goods and services (not street vendors or budget hotels) and to withdraw cash.

Sure you can PM me. Credit card acceptance isn't widespread in VN, so you will probably find yourself using cash alot. Sounds like a great trip.

firsttimestudent

Just to add, Halifax Clarity only accepts BACS transfers into it, and not Faster Payments. And if you make a payment from Halifax Online Banking, it can only leave the account the next working day. So it'll take approximately 3-4 working days for your payment to reach your account, to clear the amount that you withdrawn. So you may need to do some anticipation work if you really want to avoid interest, but again as others mentioned, the interest levied would be quite minimal anyway. Enjoy your trip!!

lisyloo

You've mentioned IT professionals before.

That's because I think it's relevant information.
I think giving your qualifications gives people something to judge your comments on as opposed to "a bloke down the pub told me".
What weight readers place on it is then down to them.

Actually software engineering was my first degree before going into financial regulation/compliance/financial crime. I consider myself as professional as anyone in this area. Plus I have the personal experience of living off public wifi networks for a few years now

I am in no was putting down anyone else's experience or views. I accept there are different views on this.
I am simply making others aware that there is some disagreement between experienced professionals on this subject.
Whether they then choose to take the risk for a few quid is then up to user.
Personally I have decided not to take the risk.
So I think it's important for people to know that some software professionals think this is a risk.
Equally I accept they shoudl know that some people do not agree with this view - and that's fine. I'm not stopping anyone expressing an alternative view.

chattychappy

lisyloo wrote: »

So I think it's important for people to know that some software professionals think this is a risk.

But it's not an issue of software vulnerability, it's legal liability. Ie not a matter for software professionals. It's not a risk to the CC holder unless there is gross negligence or fraud. The whole software issue is a read herring.

Now I appreciate that facilitating unauthorised transactions on an account is not what we want, and it can lead to blocks/inconvenience etc. But on the other hand, NOT checking your account online whilst away can also enable fraudsters to get away with it. Indeed this is exactly what DID happen to me - I spotted some transactions on my NW account and was able to get the account stopped. If I hadn't used public WiFi to do this, they would have gone unnoticed for at least another 4 weeks. £6800 had already been put through when I checked.

Degenerate

lisyloo wrote: »

Can someone cover off spoof access points please?
(We covered off encryption).
I am told it's not safe because of the possibility of spoof access points.

A very sophisticated attacker could attempt to perform a man-in-the-middle attack by providing a hostile hotspot. This would work by redirecting dns queries and/or rerouting ips to their own bogus phishing site in place of your bank.

Where this would fail is that the SSL standard I talked about before not only provides encryption, but identity verification. SSL websites (those accessed via https:// URLs instead of http://) have a cryptographic signature which cannot be forged, and these can be verified by independent certificate authorities that are trusted by your web browser. All ebanking websites use this facility. You just need to look at your address bar:





(This example is for Firefox, but all browsers handle this in similar ways.)

lisyloo

But it's not an issue of software vulnerability, it's legal liability. Ie not a matter for software professionals. It's not a risk to the CC holder unless there is gross negligence or fraud. The whole software issue is a read herring.

Great.
So what you are saying that fraud, dealing with call centers during your working hours (which can be incredibly difficult for some people), putting in a claim, stopping your cards, waiting for new ones, checking your credit reports etc. is not the least bit stressful.

I haven't been through it myself by it's something that I understand could be incredibly difficult or stressful or some people.
For example some people have not been able to use their cards whilst waiting for replacements.
Other people cannot make calls during the working day and actually have to take time off.

english_bass

lisyloo wrote: »

Another answer is simply to just forget it, pay when you get bakc and pay the £3.
I know the instinct is to want it as cheap as possible but you have to ask yourself are you going over the top to save a tiny amount.

As I said, I am new to credit cards and haven't fully grasped how much the interest actually would be when I withdraw cash then pay it back at the end of the month. If it is as little as £3 then I'd certainly be happy to just leave it and relax a little! Thanks.

On the subject of security, is there anything you can install to make browsing/online activity more private and secure when using public Wi-Fi? I'm on Mac!

kasper

Just to add: you don't need to wait until you're back to pay off you're credit card. If you're going to be away for more than a month you can have it set up to pay from your bank account automatically once a month. You should probably be doing this anyway.

firsttimestudent

english_bass wrote: »

On the subject of security, is there anything you can install to make browsing/online activity more private and secure when using public Wi-Fi? I'm on Mac!

Do you have an access to Virtual Private Networking (VPN)? I commonly connect to my university VPN when I'm using public WiFi - that way, all data gets routed to the university in encrypted mode, and from the university it accesses the outside world - and the reverse from the outside world to myself.

Not sure if other experts here will agree?

ManAtHome

english_bass wrote: »

If it is as little as £3 then I'd certainly be happy to just leave it and relax a little!

If you have their lowest rate card (12.92%) and pay off on time, you'll pay a smidge over a quid per hundred if you you withdraw the cash on the day after your statement date. If you get the cash the day before your statement date it'll cost you around 4p per hundred.

As suggested earlier, set up a Direct Debit to pay off in full then chillax and enjoy the hols. Not worth the hassle of part-paying unless you're pullling out thousands IMHO.