How best to load a Clarity Credit Card to minimize foreign withdrawal interest fees?

unhinged

Dear all,

Am I right in thinking that if I authorise a payment on a Tuesday of say £200 to my Halifax Clarity Card and then on Friday use it withdraw 220 euros from a foreign ATM (or whatever euro amount without putting my account into credit when the money arrives). I will pay as little interest as possible and not infringe terms and conditions ?

Or would the Faster Payments system dictate that I should authorise payment on the Friday instead.
cheers
unhigned

dzug1

Well it depends on whether Halifax receive faster payments and if they do how long it takes to get from their receiving account to your Clarity account. I don't know the answer to either of those questions.


I'd think the risk of things going wrong was too high just to save a few pence interest.

benjus

I don't have a Halifax Clarity card, but I do have a Santander Zero card for the same reasons. When I transfer money into it, it goes into the receiving account via Faster Payments and takes very little time to appear on my credit card account. I'm not sure exactly how quickly, but less than a day certainly. Why not withdraw the money first, then send the payment, and see how long it takes to arrive? Even if it takes a couple of days it will only be a few pence interest.

fifeken

Halifax Clarity card does not accept Faster Payments so your plan is sound. Even if you delay it by a day or two the interest will be pennies as benjus says.

Baldur

Even paying into my Clarity card account from one of my Reward current accounts on the same day isn't possible, the system only permits the selection of the following day for the payment to be made.

LiamJS

I 'accidentally' overpaid by £100 3 days ago, I fly today. I called the bank and asked what the consequences of this are, they said my card should work fine and I wasn't asked if I wanted the money sending back.

Will report back when I get back in a week. Don't think I'd have bothered if I had the better rate though as that's only 1% interest for a whole month or 0.25 a week...but I think I'm on the horrific 20% rate due to being a student.

Liam

NFH

benjus wrote: »

I don't have a Halifax Clarity card, but I do have a Santander Zero card for the same reasons. When I transfer money into it, it goes into the receiving account via Faster Payments and takes very little time to appear on my credit card account. I'm not sure exactly how quickly, but less than a day certainly.

It's not just less than a day but much less than a minute. I've done this twice while logged into Barclays and Santander Zero at the same time and I see the money arrive in under 10 seconds. I also have a Clarity Card and I can confirm that payments cannot be sent by FPS so the money arrives on T + 2 business days.

Biggles

It normally takes two days for the withdrawal to reach your Halifax account, so there's no need send the payment ahead of the time you withdraw cash.

But I agree with dzug1; for a few pence, don't get stressed out about it, send the funds when you get back, when you know how much is required.

NFH

Biggles wrote: »

It normally takes two days for the withdrawal to reach your Halifax account, so there's no need send the payment ahead of the time you withdraw cash.

I believe that Halifax will charge interest from the transaction date rather than from the posting date. Whereas the value date for card transactions on bank accounts is the posting date, the value date is normally the transaction date on credit card accounts.

Biggles

NFH wrote: »

I believe that Halifax will charge interest from the transaction date rather than from the posting date.

I wasn't thinking of interest so much, more that the OP's plan would involve the card being preloaded and therefore breaching the T&Cs, however briefly and technically, which was what he was trying to avoid.

But maybe their systems log the cash withdrawal at the time (much as bank accounts 'earmark' them), in which case it might not be seen as preloaded.

superflygal

Does this card charge for foreign withdrawals?

SFG x