Santander Zero credit card and cash withdrawals

christhedon

Hi,

I have a Santander Zero credit card. I want to know if I use the credit card abroad to withdraw cash from an ATM will I get charged anything. I always pay my balance off in full automatically via direct debit. So lets say at the beggining of the month I take out 100£ worth of Euros. Will I be charged interest on the 100£ when I pay off in the full the amount when its due?

I have conflicting information

1) I phoned Santander zero - they said it would cost me 1/12 of 27.9% in interest
2) My friend has Santander zero and says he doesn't get charged anything.

Anyone else have an opinion or know how to get the exact answer?

Thanks,

Chris

maimee_magic

I too have this card and I'm sure I read that I would be charged if I withdrew cash on it. So only use my Nationwide Flexi for this. No charge is only when using it to pay for things abroad. Think I'd be inclined to believe Santander.

jen245

You will be charged interest on the cash withdrawals until the date they are paid off in full, regardless of the fact you pay your bill in full each month, as there is no interest free period on cash withdrawals. There won't be any other charges, except if the ATM itself levies withdrawal fees.

payless

and if you pay it off after the date of your statement, you will find interest on the following statement as well

chattychappy

Zero is an excellent way to obtain foreign currency. I use it all the time for this purpose.

Indeed, no charges and no forex loading. As noted before, you will pay interest from the date of withdrawal. Eg say you withdrew £100 and paid it back two weeks later it would cost around a quid. Some debit cards would charge you double that, and load the rate by 2.75%!

The only snag is that all cards are prone to blocking from time-to-time, so take backups and never rely on a card working in a particular situation. If it does get blocked, Santander will unblock it if you call them. Of course unless you have access to skype or something, the cost of the call could be more than paying the charges on another card.

Most cards (inc Zero) will tell you to tell them about your trip before you go, supposedly so fraud prevention systems are prepared. But I never bother - it seems to make no difference. Nothing to lose though.

Bear in mind that whatever the deal you get, just as in the UK some foreign ATMs levy their own charges.

PS most of my spend is overseas and I've withdrawn thousands in foreign ATMs on Zero. As I say, mostly Asia but also the US, Canada and Europe.

chattychappy

One more thing:

You might want to reconsider the DD as these are generally taken around the payment due date and you probably want to pay off the cash withdrawal before then. If you mix manual payments with a DD, be sure to understand how they interract. (Sometimes DDs are taken anyway, even if you're already paid manually. You'll have to check this as I don't use DDs.)

jpwjpw

I withdrew some euros this month and paid off the amounts via a faster payment once they hit my account (2-3 days later). Just got my statement and i've not been charged ANY interest

Also, the ATMs in Madrid asked if I wanted my account charged in £ or Euros. Obviously you need to choose Euros to get the better exchange rate.

firsttimestudent

jpwjpw wrote: »

I withdrew some euros this month and paid off the amounts via a faster payment once they hit my account (2-3 days later). Just got my statement and i've not been charged ANY interest

Also, the ATMs in Madrid asked if I wanted my account charged in £ or Euros. Obviously you need to choose Euros to get the better exchange rate.

Same here.

Santander only charges interest once the transaction HITS the statement (as seen in online banking), not from the day of withdrawal.

So if you pay that transaction once you see it on your account, you pay 0 interest. Otherwise you'll have to pay approximately 1/365 of 27.9% for each day the payment gets delayed.