Halifax Clarity Vs Cheapest Travel Cash?

Kamran

Hey all,

I was wondering what would be better, to use the Halifax Clarity to spend abroad (off to South Africa in August), or to get the best travel cash here (via the comparison tool)?

How can i check what rate I'd be getting with the Clarity?

thanks!

:T

guesswho2000

Halifax Clarity for sure, you'll get the daily MasterCard exchange rate, visible here https://www.mastercard.com/global/currencyconversion/index.html

sabretoothtigger

What if someone wants to buy ahead of time. I know clarity is cheaper on the day but presuming the exchange rate is going to go against Sterling, who is best then ?

guesswho2000

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

What if someone wants to buy ahead of time. I know clarity is cheaper on the day but presuming the exchange rate is going to go against Sterling, who is best then ?

Well without a crystal ball that'd be very difficult to predict. The Clarity will give the best rate at any given time, if you buy a month in advance, the Clarity will give you the best rate at that time - there's no way to cheat the system in that way, otherwise we'd all be forex millionaires!

For example, even if you load a global prepaid card with sterling and it uses it's exchange rate to convert to your currency of choice at the time, the Clarity card will still beat it if the transactions take place simultaneously.

The only way this would change would be if Halifax decided to use their own exchange rates rather than the MC exchange rate at some point in future, but I assume they'd have to let us know about the change.

sabretoothtigger

Yea Halifax sounds good. The person Im asking for wants to exchange now but actually purchase/travel later and I dont think the clarity card could do that so it would have to be cash or some other kind of account

dzug1

To buy now it's either cash, as you say, or a prepaid card of some sort. Not a normal credit or debit card.

chattychappy

Agree with the gist so far, Clarity is the way to go (though I don't have this card myself).

But one point is that CCs can get blocked or simply fail to work at all. Always take backups - this could be other CCs (albeit not as competitive), a small wedge of cash - either local currency bought in advance or GBP to change "over there".

callum9999

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

Yea Halifax sounds good. The person Im asking for wants to exchange now but actually purchase/travel later and I dont think the clarity card could do that so it would have to be cash or some other kind of account

Why do they want to exchange now? I don't understand why they can't just leave the money in a bank account, use the Clarity at the time and pay it off with that money?

Or are they gambling that the exchange rate is going to significantly change and they're betting they will be better off buying now?

guesswho2000

callum9999 wrote: »

Or are they gambling that the exchange rate is going to significantly change and they're betting they will be better off buying now?

This can surely be the only reason - in this case, if the exchange rate swings significantly in their favour they may well make a profit on the money, providing it swings far enough the cover the rate charged by the bank for the cash, or for loading the prepaid card.

Personally, over a few months I can't see it being significant enough to bother, not for the amount needed for a holiday. I'm no currency speculator though!

sabretoothtigger

Thats roughly it. Swings in currency can be quite large. Say 3% fees potentially, I'll see if thats likely to be profitable

Myself I think just using the card is probably easiest but everyone has to buy some cash too

callum9999

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

Thats roughly it. Swings in currency can be quite large. Say 3% fees potentially, I'll see if thats likely to be profitable

Myself I think just using the card is probably easiest but everyone has to buy some cash too

They can be, but they rarely are. Not to mention that it's equally likely to go the other way and make you lose out even further! If some professional currency traders lose money when they are dealing in the millions over years, it's fairly unlikely an amateur with a few hundred over a few weeks is going to make much at all!