credit card v debit card in France

piair

I've just had my statements from Barclays on a debit card and Nationwide on a credit card and it makes interesting reading.
On a hypothetical €100 spend the Barclays card costs, including commission £83.74, whereas the Nationwide card costs £79.01 a difference of £4.73, or to put it another way, on a €1000 trip spend that's £47.30 or a minimum of €58.46. In my terms that's a nice meal out!

CLAPTON

piair wrote: »

I've just had my statements from Barclays on a debit card and Nationwide on a credit card and it makes interesting reading.
On a hypothetical €100 spend the Barclays card costs, including commission £83.74, whereas the Nationwide card costs £79.01 a difference of £4.73, or to put it another way, on a €1000 trip spend that's £47.30 or a minimum of €58.46. In my terms that's a nice meal out!

interesting

barclays debit card say they charge 2.99% for foreign purchase
whilst nationwide CC (depends upon which card ) charge 2% (for classic)
clearly this doesn't explain the difference
-any cash or cash like transaction
-any purchases in sterling (rather then euros)

stevenmwilliams

Most Nationwide CC's wont charge you for purchases abroad. Also, from my experience Nationwide have one of the best exchange rates going which may account for the rest of the difference.:D

reclusive46

stevenmwilliams wrote: »

Most Nationwide CC's wont charge you for purchases abroad. Also, from my experience Nationwide have one of the best exchange rates going which may account for the rest of the difference.:D

The exchange rate is set by the card network so the bank has nothing to do with it.

This is why credit cards with fees can still often be better than getting cash (Although a lot of debit cards charge a £1 fee on top, so debit cards can be pretty aweful)

Plxply

If it helps you might want to go in favour of the credit card as it's guaranteed to be offline, whereas your debit card may be online or offline which could cause problems depending on how remote the merchant is.

piair

To answer Clapton's query, my Nationwide card statement shows no commission charge for any purchase transaction and the exchange rate was at least 3 cents better on each transaction.