Cheaper cash abroad

Sonay

I have just come home from far away travels. Prior to travelling I took the HALIFAX Clarity card with me, also my Nationwide Flexaccount card.

At the ATM, I made two withdrawels in one day equating in total to £400. The transcation with the Clarity card showed an exchange rate (ER) of 44.5 Thai bahts to the Pound, my Nationwide statement on my return showed a (ER) of 47.2 Thai bahts to the Pound, so although MSE reccommended the Clarity for cash withdrawels, it seems MASTERCARD must be taking a percentage of each transaction. Thus making the Superior CLARITY card, INFERIOR.

Has anyone else noticed this anomaly???

guli

I confirm that Clarity has a 1% loading charge wrt to xe.com mid market rate Tested it repeatedly online, beauty of Halifax CC balance online, you can tell the pending transaction value

Degenerate

Sonay wrote: »

At the ATM, I made two withdrawels in one day equating in total to £400. The transcation with the Clarity card showed an exchange rate (ER) of 44.5 Thai bahts to the Pound, my Nationwide statement on my return showed a (ER) of 47.2 Thai bahts to the Pound

To try and get to the bottom of this we need to know several things:

Were these both at the same ATM?
What Thai bank owned the ATM(s)?
Were you presented with any currency options by the ATM(s)?
What was the date and exact times of the withdrawals?
What were the dates they were posted to your accounts?
What was the exact wording of the transactions on your statements?

My suspicion is that the Clarity withdrawal used DCC.

Sonay

They were from the same ATM, owned by the same Thai Bank, and both within a minute of each other. All Thai Banks do charge 150 Baht per transaction (approx £3), so it pays to withdraw to the daily limit of the card.

With regards to when they appear on the statement, I cannot answer that, as all my clarity card statements (now fully paid off) have been destroyed. But I will say that the Thai Baht/Pound exchange while I was away, only very slightly fluctuated.