cash withdrawal on credit card

JANEFIELDER1

I have been looking at various options for my holiday to USA. I have a Santander Zero credit card, so good for spending, but see that for cash withdrawals 26.7% is charged. I know I'm being a bit dense, but what does this mean in practise, say for withdrawing $500 per time cash? Have looked at cash passports for use in ATM's but what would readers recommend as best method of accessing cash - I am there for 6 weeks.

CLAPTON

well, 26.7% mean per annum

so if you withdraw 500 in cash and repay the money in full within 6 weeks you would pay
500 x 26.7% x 6/52 = 15.4 in interest approximately


however, you can obviously pay earlier via internet banking or DD etc so the interest charged would then be less

Degenerate

The Zero card is very good, but for cash your best options are the debit cards offered with certain bank accounts.

Depending on where you live and what other financial products you have, the options are Metrobank current account, Norwich & Peterborough Gold current account, or Santander Zero current account. See the MSE article on travel money:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-travel-money

chattychappy

I use Zero all the time for foreign ATM withdrawals. Works well. Costs me peanuts as I pay back a few days later.

If looking to buy travel insurance, consider Sainsburys Gold Credit card. No ATM fees, no interest on cash if paid back by the due-by date (rather like a purchase!), no loading. You pay £5 a month for which you get insurance for family too. (I've not checked the detail as it's not use to me for my circumstances.)

hunsbury0

Checkout Halifax CLARITY credit card. Just keep on tranfering to the Halifax Clarity card ( via internet banking) everytime you make a cash withdrawl at ATM & also set up direct debit to setlle the Halifax monthly statement in full.
Set up the internet banking for Halifax well in advance & do a test tranfer of £1 (after doing a small test purchase) to see that everything is in order.
You should also advise them of the dates & countries that you will be visiting to avoid "block" on the card for suspicious transactions.

chattychappy

hunsbury0 wrote: »

You should also advise them of the dates & countries that you will be visiting to avoid "block" on the card for suspicious transactions.

Whilst it probably won't do any harm, ringing up in advance doesn't really prevent blocks in my experience. Despite what they say!

Hence it is worth having backups... (perhaps Clarity, as you suggest).