Dangers of the halifax clarity!

reclusive46

Archergirl wrote: »

I had a problem with a card in OZ. Even though it was a current account I had to press 'credit card' when making a purchase. I think it was Nationwide.

When you are out of the UK, always press credit (Apart from at ATMS if it is a debit card, then selecting checkig account is fine) as when you press debit your trying to press the transaction through one of the local debit card networks, which obviously won't work.

When you press credit all it means is that its going through the credit network (Visa, MasterCard, American Express or Discover/Diners Club), it doesn't actually mean its a credit card.

I have to say though, MasterCard and American Express (I've actually never even had my Corporate Amex blocked on a genuine transaction, or personal one when I've used it in places that only take Amex in the US) seem to be the more reliable networks from experience, but then Visa is effectively made up of three different networks so I guess there is more to go wrong.

I also find MasterCard to be more accepted than Visa overall, especially when it comes to paying for Taxi fares, its often MasterCard and Amex only (Especially in places like Singapore).

As a general rule of thumb as well, blocks happen a lot less in EMV (Chip card) countries but I've personally never had my card blocked in the USA (Which isn't).

guesswho2000

With regard to acceptance of the different networks, I've had experiences of all three (Visa/MC/Amex) not being accepted at one time or another (fair enough, we expect Amex acceptance to be a bit below par).

Romania - RBS ATM wouldn't take my RBS card, as it was Visa - MC only.

Ukraine - ATM wouldn't take my Halifax Clarity, took me ages to work out that it was because it was Visa only - this one was crucial, as I had no cash and needed a taxi (pushing it very fine to get to the airport) - luckily I had a Barclaycard Visa on me which I managed to get cash with.

Strangely it's only been Eastern Europe I've had these issues with, not Western Europe, Asia, Africa or North America.

Basically, the moral is, never rely on a single card, or even a single network. I now carry all three, just in case

fozmcfc

Some great posts/advice in this thread and I certainly have the back ups available to me.

However, obviously some people don't have back up cards, because their credit rating doesn't allow it.

But even they can have back ups, such as using money transferring services. So take a card, some cash and have cash with someone at home who can transfer it to you if your card and/or cash or blocked/stolen.

I don't have anywhere near the complexity of travel others do on this thread, but I always found travelling with my Natwest Maestro debit card to be hit and miss.

Although all the machines I tried said Maestro/Cirrus accepted, I had to use machines from certain banks only. Many machines used to go through the procedure, then just throw the card out and say check with your bank. The card wasn't blocked however. I remember it was always trail and error, until I hit upon a machine I could rely on.

This was the case regularly in several countries in Europe. Since I've had my visa debit card, I've not had any issues.

guesswho2000

fozmcfc wrote: »

...I don't have anywhere near the complexity of travel others do on this thread, but I always found travelling with my Natwest Maestro debit card to be hit and miss.

Although all the machines I tried said Maestro/Cirrus accepted, I had to use machines from certain banks only. Many machines used to go through the procedure, then just throw the card out and say check with your bank. The card wasn't blocked however. I remember it was always trail and error, until I hit upon a machine I could rely on.

This was the case regularly in several countries in Europe. Since I've had my visa debit card, I've not had any issues.

This was an anomaly of the Maestro system - while it was very popular in Europe, our Maestro network was actually the Switch network with a different badge - the two weren't compatible.

Maestro cards are all but gone in the UK now - I think the NAB group banks (Clydesdale and another? Yorkshire?) offer them on their basic accounts.

reclusive46

guesswho2000 wrote: »

Maestro cards are all but gone in the UK now - I think the NAB group banks (Clydesdale and another? Yorkshire?) offer them on their basic accounts.

Yes just the basic accounts but the UK maestro is now the same Maestro as the rest of Europe now. MasterCard merged them a year or two ago.

skippyste

I've just got back from New York where my Halifax Clarity was blocked twice and I could not use any ATM except EMV enabled. Was quite a nightmare to draw out cash!

provista_2

We have just returned from a three week road trip doing Route 66 across USA, so a different place every day and had no issues with halifax clarity at all. Never refused and never blocked. Even in remote tiny two house towns

Roger1

The thread title is surely misleading. The situations outlined were not specifically Clarity ones, except for the customer service problems calling Halifax from Nicaragua.

OP had problems in Nicaragua, both with his/her Mastercard credit card - which happened to be a Halifax Clarity card - and with his Nationwide Visa credit card - though s/he could presumably have used a debit card and saved a fee? FWIW my Nationwide debit card has 0% surcharge for cash withdrawals. (N.B. NW has several debit cards with differing fees which are described in detail on the NW website.) The Visa fee the OP mentions is a local one and nothing to do directly with NW.

Posters like chattychappy have regularly pointed out the wisdom of taking several cards and not just relying on one solution.

What am I doing wrong? FWIW I travel in Europe, the USA and South Africa and have never had my Clarity card blocked. I once had my NW Visa card blocked in Arizona. When checking later, I found out that I had made 4 transactions inside a couple of hours and the system shut me out as a security measure. Sounds fine to me. Of course, I had other cards on me so didn't feel abandoned.

OP may unintentionally have uncovered a problem using credit cards (not just Clarity) for cash. Cash withdrawal is not the prime purpose of credit cards. Many/most of us use debit cards. Perhaps heavy cash used raised alarm bells in this case? And there's always the cash limit on the card to be aware of.

GingerBob_3

For all my credit cards I have this in my T&Cs:

A Two Strikes and You're Out policy applies to this card. If you block it once without good reason I will warn you that any further such block will result in immediate cancellation of the card.

A second block will result in immediate termination of the account.

It's not too bad for me, having 10 cards at the moment, but I acknowledge others with just a couple of cards might find it more difficult. I've issued a couple of warning so far, one to MBNA and the other to Barclaycard. So far I've not had to invoke the ultimate sanction.

Generally, we are too forgiving of these financial institutions. We let them b***er us about and don't complain. It's about time they realised that it's US doing THEM a favour and not the other way round.

As for the case of the OP - I'd have trashed the Clarity card long since if they'd carried on like that with me (I do actually have a Clarity card amongst my collection).

System

I've never had my Clarity card blocked or not accepted in mainland Europe, Scandinavia or the USA.

In fact, it was only declined for a high value (online) UK transaction during the night and I got a text from Halifax asking me to call them.

I personally take some cash plus at least a MasterCard and Visa credit card plus a debit card or Amex and never had a problem even in Russia.