Halifax Clarity - Travel Cash Abroad WARNING

zagfles

RRRRodgA wrote: »

Well to be fair Halifax advertise the Card as No Fees for Foreign Cash Withdrawls and Foreign Purchases. The key word here being Fees, these are always seperate to any Interest Charges and on Cash Withdrawls on all Credit Cards you pay interest on them the day you make a cash withdrawl.

What you will find however is despite the interest charge of approx 1.5% per month the exchange you recieved your cash out far outweighs that.

For example the exchange rate on the Mastercard today for $US is 1.558101
Tesco online currency is 1.508900

So after factoring in the approx 1.5% your rate works in at 1.534729

I find this is really still a good deal

Yes, it is. And anyway, the trick with the Clarity is to pay it off as soon as you get back off holiday, don't wait for the statement. Then if you've been on a 3-4 week holiday, you'll probably pay on average about 2 weeks interest (as some of your withdrawals will be later in the holiday).

So even if you have a 20% APR you'll only pay about 0.75% on cash advances.

Compare that with getting cash at the post office, tesco, any high street bank or travel agent, where a 3-5% charge will be hidden in the rate, as above.

RRRRodgA

zagfles wrote: »

Yes, it is. And anyway, the trick with the Clarity is to pay it off as soon as you get back off holiday, don't wait for the statement. Then if you've been on a 3-4 week holiday, you'll probably pay on average about 2 weeks interest (as some of your withdrawals will be later in the holiday).

So even if you have a 20% APR you'll only pay about 0.75% on cash advances.

Compare that with getting cash at the post office, tesco, any high street bank or travel agent, where a 3-5% charge will be hidden in the rate, as above.

Good point :beer: