Halifax Clarity cash withdrawal vs Credit file

Bravehearted_2

Hello,

So I have the Halifax Clarity in my "Abroad" wallet for spending whilst away. Now, I'm aware that you can withdraw abroad for free.


But I have two questions:

1) It is believed that withdrawing cash on a CC is bad for your credit file and is recorded as an Advance, so how does work with the Clarity - does its free withdrawals translate into negative marks on your file.

2) When they say free abroad, do they just mean countries like the US, Canada, Aus etc? If for instance, I went to random, remote, less popular destination and made use of it, would this still be free?

Many thanks

R34GTT

1. It shows as a cash advance on your credit report. I know as I withdrew cash in Spain last summer. Not a negative, just stating a fact. If you were doing it every month it may look negative to potential lenders.

2. Fee free withdrawals abroad, anywhere, just make sure the ATM you use is free of charge and decline any offers to debit your account in your own currency. Same goes for purchases e.g. in a hotel where they'll offer a very poor exchange rate. Just pay in the local currency for the best conversion rates done by Halifax/Mastercard.

chattychappy

I agree with the above.

Except that with me it's Santander Zero. I'm withdrawing cash every month, usually multiple times and usually in Asia. Currently trousering Euros in Germany.

Mighty generous of them to let me use it so much - they don't get much in interest from me.

No obvious impact on my ability to get credit. Works fine in far flung places - no reason to assume Clarity would be any different. Generally if one visa/mastercard works in an ATM, they all should.

callum9999

R34GTT wrote: »

1. It shows as a cash advance on your credit report. I know as I withdrew cash in Spain last summer. Not a negative, just stating a fact. If you were doing it every month it may look negative to potential lenders.

2. Fee free withdrawals abroad, anywhere, just make sure the ATM you use is free of charge and decline any offers to debit your account in your own currency. Same goes for purchases e.g. in a hotel where they'll offer a very poor exchange rate. Just pay in the local currency for the best conversion rates done by Halifax/Mastercard.

I always used to do that automatically, but more and more ATMS etc are offering 0% commission, 0% exchange mark up and no charges. Of course it doesn't really matter either way with the Clarity, but it's no longer a case of automatically rejecting DCC (dynamic currency conversion - i.e. local to GBP) on other cards.