Natwest YourPoints

[Deleted User]

Bought 600 euros and 69000 HUF on my Natwest Your Points.

Didn't read T&C's regarding cash advance, have been stung for £20 on top of the initial £700.

How will the interest on this be calculated? Is £20 for the month?

guesswho2000

No, £20 is the cash advance fee (3%). Interest at an annual rate of 27.9% will be about £16 per month.

[Deleted User]

Right, so is it still considered a purchase? I have 18 months interest free, for example.

guesswho2000

Unfortunately no (at least I very much doubt, I've never used mine to purchase currency), it'll be counted as a cash advance, there'll be no interest free period at all (even if repaid in full when the statement comes).

[Deleted User]

Cool, so 2% i'll pay on this? Not too bad I suppose for a silly mistake.

Used an M&S card before, this must have been waivered because I bought the currency from an M&S bureau.

unimaginative_user_name

You can reduce the interest by paying your card off right away without waiting for your bill to arrive! With most cards you would still be stung for the cash advance fee unless you have a specialist card like Halifax Clarity. There's a list of the best cards for travelling under the travel tab at the top of the home page.

The M&S card certainly used to allow you to buy currency without extra charges from in store exchange bureaux. I don't know if they still do but I think they've always charged for withdrawals abroad.

guesswho2000

[quote=[Deleted User];55605227]Cool, so 2% i'll pay on this? Not too bad I suppose for a silly mistake.

Used an M&S card before, this must have been waivered because I bought the currency from an M&S bureau.[/QUOTE]

Yeah approximately, interest wise, plus the advance fee you've already been charged, assuming you'll pay it off in full. Don't forget there'll be trailing interest next month, it won't be much though.

M&S, Post Office & Tesco don't charge the cash fee for buying currency in their respective stores, they class them as purchases and you get the usual benefits, and of course Halifax Clarity/Santander Zero don't charge fees for cash anyway, but the majority of cards do. :beer: