Halifax Clarity Credit Card

daz_free

Hi,

Just got a Halifax Calrity Credit Card for travel purposes.

I want to top it up before I go away? Is this possible as a friend has told me I won't be able to have a positive balance on the credit card?! Is that true?

Just thought I could go into Halifax and "pay off" £2,500 on my credit card and have a positive balance.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Darrell

sariebeth

Hi Darrell, you're friend is correct, you can't have a positive balance on a credit card. If you want to pre-pay, they why not look at getting a pre-pay credit card. Some of this are also fee free to use abroad.

Hope this helps!

YorkshireBoy

daz_free wrote: »

Just got a Halifax Calrity Credit Card

Then now would be a good time to familiarise yourself with your terms and conditions...

http://www.halifax.co.uk/creditcards/conditions_7785.asp

Start with condition 11.7

Venusflytrap

Also important to familiarise yourself with your CC Ts&Cs. It is clearly stated in certain terms that CCs are not to be credited with a positive balance.

As advised, a prepay card may be best or a debit card that doesn't charge overseas usage/transaction fees.

Biggles

If you're just interested in avoiding/minimising the interest on cash withdrawals, I'd be inclined to try just set the DD up to pay off in full and buy as much on the card instead of with cash as possible. You may also be able to pay a lump sum off as soon as you get back, so there is a debit balance for only a few days.

The amount of interest is pretty small, less than the charges on prepay cards for sure.

lisyloo

I always pay off the balance as soon as I return.
Very low interest.

If you put the card in credit you risk having it cancelled whilst you are abroad.

I woudl not recommend using a shared computer abroad and even with wifi you have to be careful.

SecLender

Yesterday, while in a hurry, I paid £1140 onto my Clarity card by accident, ooops. Was trying to pay it into my Halifax ISA. My Clarity card had a 0 balance.

The money has now gone from my Halifax current account but not appeared on the card.

Going to go and speak to Halifax and lunch time and see whats going on.

opinions4u

SecLender wrote: »

Yesterday, while in a hurry, I paid £1140 onto my Clarity card by accident, ooops. Was trying to pay it into my Halifax ISA. My Clarity card had a 0 balance.

The money has now gone from my Halifax current account but not appeared on the card.

Going to go and speak to Halifax and lunch time and see whats going on.

The credit card account won't update immediately. Indeed, if paid over a branch counter I'd expect it show tomorrow or Thursday.

SecLender

I went to the branch and they said they couldn't help, I needed to call the credit card number.

I checked my account online this morning and the money was there on my credit card, so it seems you can load your card up with credit even though it's against the terms. If I a had a holiday coming up I might be tempted to leave it there.

I called them up just now and they said they would send the money back to my current account, only took a few minutes.

glider3560

SecLender wrote: »

I checked my account online this morning and the money was there on my credit card, so it seems you can load your card up with credit even though it's against the terms. If I a had a holiday coming up I might be tempted to leave it there.

But what if they blocked your card whilst you are on holiday?

My plan for my holiday is to carefully prepare how much I think I'll spend each day. Before leaving, I'll set up future dated transfers into the credit card for the rough amount of each spend. The maximum interest I'll then get charged is three days, which is about 18p for every £100 on the maximum 21.9% rate. Anything not paid off by these future dated payments will be paid off immediately on my return.

lisyloo

I checked my account online this morning and the money was there on my credit card, so it seems you can load your card up with credit even though it's against the terms. If I a had a holiday coming up I might be tempted to leave it there.

Personally I wouldn't take the chance.
You risk your card being cancelled. Just because you "got away with it" once, does not mean thats a guarantee for the future.

My plan for my holiday is to carefully prepare how much I think I'll spend each day. Before leaving, I'll set up future dated transfers into the credit card for the rough amount of each spend.

We got to Egypt, my card didn't work at either of the ATMs at the airport.
ATM at the hotel was broken.
I'm jsut saying things aren't always predictable.
If you are going to a big city like Pairs you should be ok, but we were hoping to use the ATM at our hotel which wasn't centrally located and it didn't get fixed for a few days.
So I'd say allow a bit of leeway in your payments for delays, take a spare card, or just forget it and pay when you get back.
I paid about £3 on £1200 cash withdrawals.
It was only a couple of quid on top of a £4K holiday.
I know this is a moneysaving site, but it really is not getting too worked up over a few quid considering that you'd pay a lot more if you get your card cancelled if you breach the Ts & Cs.
Personally I'd like to get on enjoying my holiday rather than worry about £3.