Credit Card Abroad

bigadaj

Traceywacey wrote: »

Of course - I'm such and idiot. I will be paying it off immediately and only using the card for holidays so no idea why I set the DD up!!!! I'll get it cancelled - Thank you

Not an idiot, sensible thing to do until you work out how you're going to use it and what can happen, as I found out.

chattychappy

Yep, I never use DDs for this and other reasons.

Not sure about Clarity, but for some cards payments will be applied first to statemented transactions before unstatemented transactions. Bear this in mind if you are making a payment to clear a cash transaction which has yet to appear on a statement if you haven't yet cleared the previous statement balance. If unsure, send a payment to clear the entire outstanding balance (statemented and unstatemented) after making a cash withdrawal.

Perhaps a Clarity user can "clarify" !!

bigadaj

chattychappy wrote: »

Yep, I never use DDs for this and other reasons.

Not sure about Clarity, but for some cards payments will be applied first to statemented transactions before unstatemented transactions. Bear this in mind if you are making a payment to clear a cash transaction which has yet to appear on a statement if you haven't yet cleared the previous statement balance. If unsure, send a payment to clear the entire outstanding balance (statemented and unstatemented) after making a cash withdrawal.

Perhaps a Clarity user can "clarify" !!

As stated I have a clarity but not sure about this.

I only intend to use it for overseas transactions in any case, generally cash withdrawals. I have used it for payment abroad but paid the whole balance on my return.

The sensible thing to me would be to treat it like a balance transfer card and not spend on it, I have other cards with reward and cash back so would use those in preference for my normal uk expenditure.

YorkshireBoy

chattychappy wrote: »

Perhaps a Clarity user can "clarify" !!

Not a Clarity user, but here's your requested 'clarification' ...

6. ALLOCATION OF PAYMENTS

6.1 We use any payments you make to pay off Transactions that appear on your statement starting with those on which we charge the highest rate of interest, and so on down to the lowest rate of interest. If the payment is not enough to pay off all Transactions at a particular interest rate, we will pay off Transactions charged at that interest rate in the following order:- Cash Withdrawals, Purchases, Balance Transfers and Cheques, followed by the charges in conditions 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3. If you pay more than the amount due shown on your statement, we will use any remaining payment to pay off Transactions that have not yet appeared on your statement in the same order as those that do appear on your statement. In this condition, "Transaction" includes the amount of the Purchase, Cash Withdrawal, Cheque or Balance Transfer plus any interest, charges or insurance payment charged as a result of that Transaction.

https://www.halifax.co.uk/creditcards/low-rate-no-fee/clarity-card/terms/

AMG762

Just wondered with the clarity card, if you kept it in your "holiday wallet" and only used it for a couple of times a year, surely you are risking having your credit limit massively reduced.

Have heard of credit card companies reducing limits from several thousand to £500 when the card has not been used for long periods of time.

Would be bad news if you were caught out abroad with a reduced limit and insufficient funds

reclusive46

AMG762 wrote: »

Just wondered with the clarity card, if you kept it in your "holiday wallet" and only used it for a couple of times a year, surely you are risking having your credit limit massively reduced.

Have heard of credit card companies reducing limits from several thousand to £500 when the card has not been used for long periods of time.

Would be bad news if you were caught out abroad with a reduced limit and insufficient funds

Haven't heard of this happening with the Clarity, most only really use it for being abroad, so would be a bit stupid if Halifax did that.

AMG762

reclusive46 wrote: »

Haven't heard of this happening with the Clarity, most only really use it for being abroad, so would be a bit stupid if Halifax did that.

Thanks for that, good to know

chattychappy

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Not a Clarity user, but here's your requested 'clarification' ...

https://www.halifax.co.uk/creditcards/low-rate-no-fee/clarity-card/terms/

Well done for that! (Actually I thought you might look them up....)

AMG762 wrote: »

Just wondered with the clarity card, if you kept it in your "holiday wallet" and only used it for a couple of times a year, surely you are risking having your credit limit massively reduced.

This has never happened to me for cards I've stop using for a while. Only if they remain dormant for well over a year - and then they usually get cancelled (sometimes with the chance for me to keep them if I ring up).

reclusive46 wrote: »

Haven't heard of this happening with the Clarity, most only really use it for being abroad, so would be a bit stupid if Halifax did that.

Actually I disagree with it being stupid if it did happen this way. Zero loading is a key feature to attract people to the product, but if people just used them for overseas holidays I doubt whether they would make much profit. This is especially the case for ATM withdrawals if cardholders pay back a few days later before more than pennies in interest has accumulated.

Buzby

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the fact that using any credit card in a non-sterling area means you will be hit with currency conversion charges and possibly even a foreign purchase fee.

You need to look for those cards which ADDITIONALLY do not penalise you over and above your interest fears.

slopemaster

I use my Clarity card for spending - UK and abroad - enough each month to get the £5 - as well as for cash withdrawals abroad.

What I do is to pay off just the cash withdrawal straight away, but leave the purchases to be paid by direct debit.

In order for this to work reliably though, you need to
a) NOT pay off the cash withdrawal until it appears on your online statement - maybe 2 or 3 days
b) Preferably, not spend anything on the card until AFTER you've paid off the cash withdrawal - (I have an Aqua card to cover this situation)
c) Not pay anything off too close to the direct debit going out (4-5 days) or it will be taken anyway.

This is probably inordinately complex if its just for the occasional holiday, when it might be better to just pay the lot off when you get home.
But I spend a lot of time abroad, and this is my main way of turning sterling income into euro expenditure (since I closed my Citibank accounts when they started charging.) Works well so far for me.