Halifax Clarity - Cash Withdrawal Abroad vs UK Exchange

lisyloo

it will charge you cash advance APR from the time you draw cash out of the wall.

Which at 12.9% apr (0.5% for two weeks) is one of the cheapest ways to get cash.
What do you think high st currency places charge? A lot more than 0.5%.
Do the sume rather than make wrong assumptions.

If I were you, i will exchange the cash

Illoigcal. The exchange commission fees are a lot more expensive than the cash advance APR especially if you pay off the bill very quickly and only pay a few days interest.

make sure you spend all the cash before holiday

How can that possibly be good MSE advice ?

IWantToBeFree_2

lisyloo wrote: »

Unless it explicitly says 0% then I would not assume that.
it is certainly the case that shops, cruiseships etc. add a mark up and I would expect most machines to as well.
Even if it sayd 0% then why take the chance?
Would you rather have a dispute with Halifax in the UK where you have the FSA and FOS at your disposal or some bank in a foreign country?

They could certainly ask you more questions and put you through another level of security whilst the costs are mounting up rather than "ah yes I see you called us earlier, I'll do that straight away".

Having used my Clarity card extensively abroad, I agree with this point - always get it in local currency rather than GBP as most places do the mark up. I had no option on one machine in South America and it was quite a bit different.

I used my card in Dublin at the zoo, the guy automatically charged it in GBP and I only noticed once I had put my pin into the machine - I was fuming as I had not asked him to and he didn't ask me either. It was only €20 but not the point - I was very close to asking him to refund the transaction and start again but he couldn't quite grasp what I was telling him so I ended up just walking away.

I was worried about my card getting blocked whilst I was away in South America for 3 months, I did tell them in advance but couldn't tell them exactly what dates I was going to be in what country and had no problems at all - including when I used it in countries I'd not originally planned on visiting. I never tell them when I am going to Ireland and not been blocked once.

lisyloo

the guy automatically charged it in GBP and I only noticed once I had put my pin into the machine

I had a similar experience recently on holiday.
I'd been on holiday for two weeks and just had a massage so fairly chilled out.
I was paying on credit card as it was our last meal and we didn't have cash.
The waitress put it in GBP but the Thai Baht figure was much bigger and the exchange rate and GBP was much smaller at the bottom (on paper).
It was about 4%. It was a small amount, but just goes to show how easy it is to slip up as you really do have to look quite carefully.
Some people that work in shops aren't actually that familiar with how to do it and their machines are automatically set up that way.

chattychappy

callum9999 wrote: »

Just out of curiosity, why does it make it easier to unblock? You'd have to go through the exact same security either way, and it's not as if once you've passed security the agent is going to accuse you of lying and refuse to unblock it!.

I probably didn't say exactly what I meant, but the comment came out of a discussion with meer53 a while back.

I have found that blocked cards sometimes unblock themselves a few days later, particularly if I am in my usual foreign haunts. This could be because the block is applied automatically by a fraud prevention system. Subsequently a check is done - which may or may not involve manual intervention by someone at the CC. Your previously telling them that you would be in the country concerned might then result in the card being unblocked even though you have not yet called to get it unblocked.

Aside from this, there is a risk that an overseas user of a UK cloned card will attempt to unblock it. When I have tried to get a card unblocked, the amount of security I have to go through seems to vary (even for the same card). Sometimes having gone through the usual security I've then been passed to somebody else to answer more questions. I assume that there is some kind of risk assessment/profiling going on which might involve whether I've used the card in that location before and/or whether I've told them.

callum9999 wrote: »

Hopefully it will decrease the chance of it getting blocked in the first place though.

Not in my experience, so I've long stopped telling CCs where I'm going. But of course once it is blocked and I call up, I am telling them where I am. However it doesn't seem to prevent further blocks. (They tend to go in waves.) But on calling back, unblocking seems easier, contrary to:

callum9999 wrote: »

...You'd have to go through the exact same security either way

As I noted above, sometimes I am asked additional stuff.

Most of my spend is overseas, so I'm a bit of an aficionado of these things. (Or like to think I am!)

Perhaps because I do so much foreign spend, my spending pattern means that there is indeed no longer any extra benefit in my telling them in advance. This could be different of less frequent travellers.

The only thing I can say with certainty is that it won't do any harm to call up in advance.

missile

lisyloo wrote: »

Why? That will incurr higher fees.

There are no fees, she may loose a few pennies on the exchange rate. If OP requires Michael O'Leary's luxury in flight cuisine, she could save more paying by euros rather than sterling.

lisyloo wrote: »

Although I would accept it's handy to have a few Euros. I've twice been unable to get money at the destination airport and once been stuck without water in a hot country.

That is exactly why I suggested OP should get some euros before she goes. In addition, I would not want to waste my holiday time looking for a cash machine / queuing at a bureau de change.

More importantly, I have found Halifax often block my card when using it overseas. Not really a big problem for me as I have a debit card for my euro account. I can only imagine how stressful this could be for OP, to stranded @ charles de gaulle with no euros.