Credit card or debit card when abroad?

vickisprings

We're going to Italy - on honeymoon:j - in 2 weeks time.
During that time, we need to pay the bill on 3 hotels, and will draw money from an ATM probably 3-4 times.

Credit cards - we have Santander Zero and Barclaycard
Current accounts - we have Barclays, Santander and NatWest

What best to use? I know that Santander Zero has no fee, but you still pay interest daily, so would that start to add up until you got home to pay it? I presume you pay a fee on current cards, but then we wouldn't pay interest?

Your help much appreciated - my brain is a bit overloaded with wedding plans....

zagfles

vickisprings wrote: »

We're going to Italy - on honeymoon:j - in 2 weeks time.
During that time, we need to pay the bill on 3 hotels, and will draw money from an ATM probably 3-4 times.

Credit cards - we have Santander Zero and Barclaycard
Current accounts - we have Barclays, Santander and NatWest

What best to use? I know that Santander Zero has no fee, but you still pay interest daily, so would that start to add up until you got home to pay it? I presume you pay a fee on current cards, but then we wouldn't pay interest?

Your help much appreciated - my brain is a bit overloaded with wedding plans....

You're probably best using the Santander Zero for everything - then check the balance and pay it off as soon as you get back (don't wait for the statement). The charges on the other accounts will add up to far more than the interest you'll be charged on the Santander.

For future - get a Halifax Clarity for ATM withdrawals - it's similar to SZ but the interest is a lot lower. Then you can use SZ for purchases, and Halifax for ATMs, and you'll only need to pay the Halifax off when you get back, you can wait till the statement for the SZ.

cepheus

It's unlikely that the Interest on Santander would mount up to much during your holiday assuming its no longer than a few weeks. If you drew a hundred quid out it should only be about 8 pence a day at 28% interest. You can probably pay the card off whilst on holiday through via an Internet Cafe. Of course you need to set up access Internet access for the relevent accounts beforehand. It may also be possible via telephone banking but the phone call might cost you more!

The exchange rate and charges on those other cards will be substantially more, although take them just in case the Santander card doesn't work.

You could always post a cheque just before you leave

Cheque payment to Santander
You can pay by posting your cheque to Santander Cards using the envelope

Preloading the card is technically against the T&C but I did it with £300 for a week.

Tip: Always remember to actually say I wish to pay in Euros, don't get caught out like me!

vickisprings

Thank you - that's nice and clear, really helpful.

vickisprings

Thansk Cepheus - yes we're only going for 12 days. We estimate we'll withdraw about 800 for spending while we're there, and spend about 1800 on hotel bills.

MarkBargain

Yes, use Santander Zero for everything. Is it not possible to load money onto it so it has a credit balance before going away so that they don't charge interest on withdrawals? I am not sure if that is possible.

I wouldn't access ebanking from an internet cafe for security reasons.

vickisprings

Thanks Mark - does anyone know if that is an option then, to load money onto a Santander Zero credit card so the balance is paid off automatically?

cepheus

vickisprings wrote: »

Thanks Mark - does anyone know if that is an option then, to load money onto a Santander Zero credit card so the balance is paid off automatically?

I provided some info on this in my last post (I edited it)

You could always post a cheque just before you leave so your cheque will be cashed around the same time as you use the cash dispenser.

Quote:
Cheque payment to Santander
You can pay by posting your cheque to Santander Cards using the envelope

However, I found Santander seem to charge 4 days interest even if you pay on the same day you extract the cash. Preloading the card is technically against the T&C but I did it with £300 for a week. They unofficially told me they allow this for small amounts. It's probably not worth the risk for a couple of quid interest though, since they could change their mind and block the card.

johnfarquhar74

It is possible to preload the Santander Zero card, whether it is against the T's&C's or not is for the cardholder to be aware off.

The way I do it is by transferring money from my current account to the sort code 09-00-99, a/c 01000007 and in the reference you put your 16 digit card number 5286************. Fast Payments from my HBOS account normally appear on the card within a few minutes!

If the above looks a little dodgy(to be honest, even I don't like the look of published sort codes/account numbers when it comes to transferring my money), feel free to call Santander and ask them the details so that you can do an electronic transfer to clear your card balance, the above info is what you should receive.

johnfarquhar74

,,,,,and with a little more thought, for those that are worried about loading the card and breaching any potential T's & C's, if you follow the above advice but schedule payments instead of 'Faster Payment', so, for example, schedule £xx to go in on the first Saturday and £xx to go in the second Saturday. If you did end up preloading by accident, you could easily explain it off by saying you thought that would have been your holiday budget spend but for whatever reason (perhaps being a money saving expert) you didn't spend as much as you thought you might:D