Santander Zero - Not so Zero?

ToLeadABetterLife

Hi,

I noticed when I bought goods in Auz on the internet that my Santander Zero credit card account showed a debit against my limit of £77.84 - The item and details were not posted for a few days but the transaction on the website in Auz hit my a/c as expected in a few minutes. But a week later when I looked at my account the amount posted was £79.09 - Why would this amount change by 1.6% in their favour? Does this card now carry a hidden loading?

thanks

Angus

chattychappy

I've put thousands of USD through Zero as well as some Asian currencies, Euros and Swiss Francs.

I've never noticed a loading compared with interbank rates. Actually I care alot about this because some individual transactions are over £1K equivalent.

I have noticed a delay in stuff going through sometimes - during which time the forex rate can change. Between authorisation and the transaction hitting the account, an amount is blocked from the card. The amount that hits the card is usually a bit different (can be better/can be worse) as the rate changes. This seems to be what you have noticed. Forex rates can easily change 1 or 2% in a day.

The forex rate you get is the rate when the transaction reaches Zero, not when you performed the transaction or when it was authorised.

I think this two-hit process goes back to the days when most transactions were offline (shops used manual imprinters) but certain large/high risk transactions got phoned through for authorisation with the paperwork catching up later.

I wouldn't worry - I've found Zero really great. Just recently had problems with it getting blocked by their so-called fraud prevention systems.

I've also found the PO Mastercard just as good. Nationwide Gold is 1% behind. Halifax Clarity is also supposed to be 0% - but one poster did note an apparent loading which was never resolved. I don't have Clarity.

Thanks for the report though. We do need to keep an eye on these CCs and first-hand experience is valuable.

PS could you post the date the transaction was posted to the Zero account and the amount in AUD?

ToLeadABetterLife

Sequence of events.
1. Santader card has zero balance
2. Spent 159.98 NZD in NZ Dollars (I should have said) at a major store on the internet
3. Checked Santander statement 5 minutes later and available credit limit had dropped by the purchase price 28/01/2011 - £77.84
4. Nothing posted in the transaction part, as this normally takes a few days, that I understand
5. Few days later I note 28-Jan-2011 xxxx5 PURCHASE - INTERNATIONAL KIR............ (+159.98 NZD) 79.09

I intend to put some large transactions through shortly so will be keeping a close eye on things!

chattychappy

On that basis, you got 2.0228. The OANDA.COM rate was 2.0542 - so you're about 1.5% off. However the Mastercard rate was 2.0308 - you were only 0.4% off that. (https://www.mastercard.com/us/personal/en/cardholderservices/currencyconversion/index.html). I'm surprised there is such a difference between Oanda and the Mastercard rate - always seems to be closer when I've looked in the past. Besides I compare with Oanda and generally get pretty close to that.

Perhaps 28Jan wasn't the settlement date.

Just done a random look through my last 3 months transactions - I've been within 1% of the Oanda rate each time. Twice in my favour, 5 times in Zero's favour. Overall I'm very marginally down, but not much in it.