Halifax Clarity - Withdraw larger sums from a branch?

YorkshireBoy

zerog wrote: »

Agreed, I thought I was being smart once and "paid off" a cash advance almost immediately, but it paid off an earlier purchase instead and I got charged full interest.

Actually that's a very good point. I'd forgotten Halifax apply payments to statemented transactions first.

If the OP has an existing purchases balance on the card, and they're a few weeks away from the next statement date, they'll need to clear the full balance to stop the interest on the cash withdrawal.

aleenajoe

You have to keep all your documents with you...

baby_frogmella

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

I wouldn't do that!

The transaction may be posted to your account some 2 days after you make the withdrawal, and putting your account £3K in credit (or just a bit less if there are some purchases already on there) is likely* to raise an AML flag meaning your account could be blocked.

Sorry but not true...the OP would NOT be putting his account 3K in credit. As soon as you use your Halifax Clarity card your online available balance IMMEDIATELY decreases so if you make a faster payment to your account the same day (where payment sent = credit limit minus available balance) then you have not broken any T&C's...Halifax would only flag your account if your available balance is greater than your credit limit. I've paid off loads of overseas cash withdrawals (like the OP a few k's at a time) on my Clarity card the same day and never had a problem.

RRRRodgA

AdamJK wrote: »

The withdrawal limit for cash is 50% of the total credit limit on the Clarity.

For example £2k limit is a £1k cash limit over all cash or cash-like transactions. Once you hit the £1k cash all cash or cash-like trans would decline as overlimit. The remainder of your limit would be fine for regular merchant shopping if that helps you to plan things.

The funny thing is...I've never encountered that problem when on holiday. In therory I should only be able to withdraw £1.2k worth of cash but have managed to do more than that while on holiday

I'll ensure I'm making payments to the card continously though when I go on holiday in june to make sure I don't encounter this, so thanks. :cool2:

YorkshireBoy

baby_frogmella wrote: »

Sorry but not true...the OP would NOT be putting his account 3K in credit. As soon as you use your Halifax Clarity card your online available balance IMMEDIATELY decreases so if you make a faster payment to your account the same day (where payment sent = credit limit minus available balance) then you have not broken any T&C's...Halifax would only flag your account if your available balance is greater than your credit limit. I've paid off loads of overseas cash withdrawals (like the OP a few k's at a time) on my Clarity card the same day and never had a problem.

I should say I don't have the Clarity Card...I use Santander Zero abroad.

Last summer I made two £300 (equivalent) cash withdrawals on the last two days of my holiday, with the last day of my holiday also being my statement date.

On my arrival home I immediately paid the entire balance off by FP.

When I received my statement it showed that I was approximately £600 in credit. The cash withdrawals then hit my account (ie appreared on the recent transactions list) the day after statement date.

And that's why I said "The transaction may be posted to your account some 2 days after you make the withdrawal, and putting your account £3K in credit..."

So would you agree that if the OP did the same, ie made their £3K withdrawal the day before statement date or on the statement date itself, the same could happen to them?

baby_frogmella

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

So would you agree that if the OP did the same, ie made their £3K withdrawal the day before statement date or on the statement date itself, the same could happen to them?

I think you misunderstood what i was saying. I was trying to say Halifax or other credit card co's couldn't give a monkeys about your balance as long as your available balance doesn't exceed your credit limit. Obviously your account balance will be positive the following day if you make a FP on the same day as the overseas cash withdrawal (that's assuming your balance was zero previously) and from experience, Halifax can take up to a week to show foreign transactions. So in my case i regularly have a positive balance on my clarity card running in the 1000's yet the available balance is the same (or very close) to my credit limit. Which is why Halifax have never flagged my account. Think of your credit limit minus available balance as a real time balance

YorkshireBoy

baby_frogmella wrote: »

I was trying to say Halifax or other credit card co's couldn't give a monkeys about your balance as long as your available balance doesn't exceed your credit limit.

Thanks for clarifying what happens in practice with Halifax.

I was taking condition 7.7 literally...

"7.7 You must not make payments...to your account that would leave a credit balance on your account"

...and (reasonably?) assumed "balance" was what appeared on the statement (as in my Santander example), or online in the recent transactions list, not 'available balance' (which, as you say, includes transactions made but not yet posted to the account).

baby_frogmella

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Thanks for clarifying what happens in practice with Halifax.

I was taking condition 7.7 literally...

"7.7 You must not make payments...to your account that would leave a credit balance on your account"

...and (reasonably?) assumed "balance" was what appeared on the statement (as in my Santander example), or online in the recent transactions list, not 'available balance' (which, as you say, includes transactions made but not yet posted to the account).

I would have thought 'balance' means your real time balance which is your credit limit minus your available balance (since 'available balance' is always real time)

AdamJK_2

RRRRodgA wrote: »

The funny thing is...I've never encountered that problem when on holiday. In therory I should only be able to withdraw £1.2k worth of cash but have managed to do more than that while on holiday

I'll ensure I'm making payments to the card continously though when I go on holiday in june to make sure I don't encounter this, so thanks. :cool2:

Sorry buddy - after reading back what I posted I didn't make myself all too clear. Just to clarify; with Clarity cards starting 5253 things work as I posted.

However (and here's the confusing bit) cards starting with a different number (5286??) are based on a different legacy system with different and more relaxed rules regarding cash trans. I think it's full limit as cash but you'd need to contact card servicing for those cards to confirm that as I'm just basing that on a vague recollection from years ago!

themightyn

I have the clarity card and its the best card I have ever hard for travelling. For someone who is in S. America one weekend to Asia the next for work. I rely on my clarity card like there is on tomorrow.

As most people have said. There are not fees to withdraw money. However you will be incurring interest from the day you made the withdrawal.

To over come this. Make an early repayment to your credit card. So in other words you put your credit card into a prepaid mode. You still pay interest. But you only pay interest until it appears on your statement. So 1-2 todays.

So in other words you are paying 0.06% on Intrabank Currency! Remember all mastercards have the same FX rate at that moment in time which is set by mastercard which is more or less the intrabank FX rates (the rates at which currency is sold/bought by the banks).

Now most cards charge a 'loading fee' of about 3%. This is effectively where the bank makes their profit.

So if done correctly, you can get currency cash at the intrabank rates which is very very rare.

Regarding withdrawing currency. You can do it from most banks. I have had a few issues though. So if one bank rejects. Try another.

Also from experience. If you have a limit of 10k on the card. Your cash limit would be £5k you can withdraw as cash. However if you prepay an extra 2k. So your total available balance is 12k. Your actual available withdrawal limit is 6k.

Regarding the Halifax condition. I spoke to a call centre agent about this and as long as your account is not in credit for more than a few weeks. Then its fine. So What I would do it pay off the transaction asap. Then make a small purchase to put your balance into owing the credit card company again.

Good luck!