Halifax Clarity Card Warning!

cdavies1960

Hi all,

I have seen many posts regarding the Halifax Clarity Card and people relying on it when abroad. Now me? Without going into to much I do a lot of travelling. (Last year I spent more time out of the country than in it) While I write this post i'm in Peru enjoying the sun we should be having around about no in the UK at the mo.

Although the Halifax Clarity Card is very good when considering there are no international fees imposed by Halifax when making international and foreign transactions as well as having no cash withdrawal fee for both national and international payments. There are some downsides.

This will most likely effect anyone who goes out more to Asia or Americas.

I use my Halifax credit card abroad like if I was using a card normally in the UK. In a way its my main life line to funds. I've fallen into the habit that when I travel I usually don't take more than £50 worth of local currency (just enough to get to the hotel). As a result I have fallen fowl to Halifax Maintenance times.

In 2012 on 18 (I can actually recall as i've noted them down) separate occasions I was in the Americas/Asia and had my card rejected. On some occasions I've been in a restaurant or just paying for petrol. Also having the embarrassment that comes with it.

The long story short is that Halifax like other banks perform updates on their system which last between 30 mins > 5 hours meaning any transactions made between these times do not go through and get blocked. From what I've been told, these updates actually rarely effect UK transactions. These are usually done very early hours of the morning.

So as a word of caution.. Because this happened to me. Make sure you take a backup card with yourself (perhaps the post office credit card) or just a debit card for those emergency times when Halifax update their system.

This has happened to me already 3 times this year and now it has got to the point where I've been left stranded on one occasion.

This will only effect those going out by 3+ hours of the UK's time due to the timezone... But worth keeping it in mind.

Remember this is just not Halifax, every bank updates their system so its worth taking 2 cards with you if you rely on them alot.

chattychappy

A timely reminder - you're singing from my hymn sheet.

Whenever "which travel card for use abroad" threads get started, I always chip in about backups. People get hung up on saving a % or two, but don't appreciate that these cards do not work as reliably abroad as they do at home. Without backups you can face real costs in fixing a situation - Western Union fees, expensive phone calls, taxi fares to embassies/friend's house etc.

I travel alot - Taiwan, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Germany mainly, but also to other parts.

I use Nationwide Select, Post Office Mastercard, Santander Zero. All have got themselves blocked from time to time or suffer transient failures. A couple of times I've had two fail at the same time. But I've never had a problem with all three at the same time. Over time I have developed an intuition about when they will fail, but I still get surprised. Most of my spend is foreign.

I also take a number of other cards, "just in case". Usually Barclaycard, Natwest, MBNA. Barclaycard is useful as a cash alternative as although it is loaded for foreign currency, the transaction is treated as a purchase - ie you get an interest free period. Zero (no longer available, I fear) is like Clarity for cash - no loading/fee, but interest from date of withdrawal. Zero gets me £300/day, Barclaycard £500/day. Quite handy last week when I needed 800euros in a hurry in Munich.

I also take my debit card but I never use it except in the card reader needed to operate my current account. I always seem to have a BT offer on my Barclaycard account. I use this as a backup to pay other cards in the event my current account becomes inaccessible or is compromised.

So - in my case I travel with 7 cards, 3 of which I regularly use.

opinions4u

Always take backup cards, even if they charge.

Make sure they are with different banking groups and make sure some are MasterCard and some are Visa. Possibly a free AMEX card too for good measure.

Between me and my other half we'll have 8 cards when we're next overseas. These will span Halifax, Barclays, Tesco and HSBC. If something goes wrong with Clarity plan B will involve a charge but won't have us washing dishes in the restaurant.

Unless the whole network crashes for both Matercard and Visa!

Katzen

We almost got stuck in Manilla as we hadn't accounted for the exit tax of PHP500 when we made our last cash withdrawal in the town. Got the the airport and the one cash machine that accepted MasterCard was broken down. Fortunately DH had brought his cash card as my back up card was also MC!

NiftyDigits

Visa Debit: N&P Gold account
Visa Credit: Nationwide Select and older Nationwide CCs and perhaps Sainsburys Gold(Subscription).
Visa Prepaid: Caxton Global Traveller.

The Mastercard options are well known.

Have at least one decent Visa option to hand. Especially if you are a global traveller.

reclusive46

NiftyDigits wrote: »

Visa Debit: N&P Gold account
Visa Credit: Nationwide Select and older Nationwide CCs and perhaps Sainsburys Gold(Subscription).
Visa Prepaid: Caxton Global Traveller.

The Mastercard options are well known.

Have at least one decent Visa option to hand. Especially if you are a global traveller.

While American Express is not accepted as much abroad, I've found it to be the most reliable card/network. It is the only card I've never had any problems using abroad. Its also the only one that doesn't seem to want to instant block my first transaction in the USA.

chattychappy

NiftyDigits wrote: »

Sainsburys Gold(Subscription)..

No longer available AFAIK.

OllyM

chattychappy wrote: »

No longer available AFAIK.

And it was a MasterCard anyway!

jackieblack

Isn't taking a backup card just common sense?
Why would anyone travel with only one method of paying for anything?

NiftyDigits

OllyM wrote: »

And it was a MasterCard anyway!

I did write perhaps.

chattychappy

jackieblack wrote: »

Isn't taking a backup card just common sense?
Why would anyone travel with only one method of paying for anything?

Because they never have a problem in the UK, the marketing talks about "worldwide acceptance", banks are international organisations and we live in an age of global networks. People assume that provided they have sufficient credit limit, their card will work. In fact they feel entitled to expect it to work - hence threads from people moaning about how they were left stranded somewhere having to make expensive calls back home.