Halifax clarity card

Jockanory

Having read some of the threads on here about paying for expenditure abroad I've got myself one of the above cards and it is my intention to pay for my hotel booking(booked direct) on my arrival in Majorca(interest free for purchases?).
I'm still a little confused on reading other posts about whether I should also take some euros with me or use the clarity card to withdraw cash whilst I'm out there,we have full board so probably looking at about £500 for day to day expenses but what will be the charges for using the card presuming I pay the full amount off on my return in a fortnight.

Lil_Me_2

I believe there isn't a fee for taking out cash (either at home or abroad), but you'll be at their mercy for the exchange rate plus you'll start being charged interest from day one, so you're probably better off taking euros with you.

CountryGoose

Lil_Me wrote: »

I believe there isn't a fee for taking out cash

OK - so you're giving advice on something you don't really know. Do you also believe in Fairies? (FYI: there is no charge for spend or ATM use)

Lil_Me wrote: »

but you'll be at their mercy for the exchange rate

That's right. Just as with any Foreign Exchange Transaction. What's important is that the Halifax has one of the best rates on the market: the Mastercard rate with no loading.

Lil_Me wrote: »

plus you'll start being charged interest from day one

This bit is right - but only on cash drawn from the ATM. What's more important is the OPs rate on the card. If it's 12.9%, that's a good deal.

Lil_Me wrote: »

so you're probably better off taking euros with you.

Err, No. In all proability not. Depends where and when they are purchased and the rate (including loading and commission). Unlikely that a walk-up transaction in the UK willl give a better rate than an ATM transaction on the Clarity card.

Jockanory The easiest and one of the cheapest ways to get your cash is to use the Clarity Card in the ATM if you have a rate of 12.9%. You can minimise any interest if you have (cheap) access to internet, text, or phone banking by sending £500 to the Halifax as soon as you've drawn the cash.

Debbie_A_3

Hi Jockanory,
As CountryGoose has said, there are no charges whatsoever applied to purchases as long as you pay off the balance by your statement date. You will get the "middle" rate which is the best exchange rate that you can ever get.

The only charge that you will pay is the interest on cash withdrawn from an ATM. If your rate is 12.9% then this works out at about 0.5% over 15 days. This would cost you £2.50 on £500. Another way of looking at it is a loading of 0.5% in the exchange rate. So instead of getting the current rate of 1.137, you will be effectively getting 1.131. I really can't see a B de C matching that.

Debbie

Grey_Rabbit

Debbie A works out the interest rate cost. Travel report MSE reckons over a month £1ish for £100. Tallies with my reckoning of about 50p for 15 days.
When getting some euro's today I was told that someone had experienced a fee applied by the foreign ATM owner even though no fee applied by Halifax. Anyone else experienced this?

Jockanory

Thanks for the replies,I do get the 12.9% rate on my clarity card so that looks a good bet.

dzug1

Grey_Rabbit wrote: »

I was told that someone had experienced a fee applied by the foreign ATM owner even though no fee applied by Halifax. Anyone else experienced this?

Hundreds if not thousands of people probably - certain types of ATM charge in every country and in some countries virtually all ATMs charge

amf

dzug1 wrote: »

Hundreds if not thousands of people probably - certain types of ATM charge in every country and in some countries virtually all ATMs charge

Yes, you need to check which, if any, ATMs are free. I made a query on Tripadvisor before a very recent holiday in Spain and was advised to use a Servired operated ATM. These are easily found and I can confirm that the ATM operator made no charge for my Clarity cash withdrawal. I'd already arranged to send £900 from my Halifax current account a week after departure. I withdrew approx £1,050 over the first week on holiday and my statement shows that I was charged a very nice 86p interest :beer: