Halifax Clarity problems in India

jimb1177

Hi,

First of all, apologies if this has been mentioned before or I'm posting in the wrong section.

I'm currently travelling for 6 months and signed up for the halifax clarity card due to the recommendation on this site. I have used the card without any problems for 4 weeks in croatia. However, I've now been in india for about 10 days and have been having problems getting it to work at ATMs. When I first arrived I was able to withdraw money from the ATM at the airport. But since then, it hasn't worked at all.

I've called halifax several times. It's turns out at first the issue was because I'd withdrawn the total amount in cash that I could (half of my credit limit). However. I've since paid off my balance in full but I'm still unable to withdraw cash. I paid off my balance about 5 days ago and halifax have acknowledged it. Since then I've tried probably a dozen or so ATMs from a number of different banks, in different cities on different days with no luck. The error they normally report is 'Invalid account or transaction'.

Having spoken to Halifax again today, they have said that no attempts to use the ATMs since paying off my balance are beig shown on my account. They aren't seeing error codes or anything. As far as they can see, I'm not even attempting to use the card. So without any error codes or information, there's little they can do.

By comparison, I also have an HSBC MasterCard with me as a back up which has worked first time, every time I've tried it. However, this I obviously costing me a lot more to use than the clarity and with another few months of travelling ahead, I don't want to rack up loads of charges on that card.

I was just wondering if anyone else had had any probers in India with the clarity, or any other card, and if anyone had any advice.

Apologies for the essay, I just wanted to be as thorough as possible.

Thanks

Westin

I used my Halifax Clarity card in Goa in March and found it was very hit and miss as to which ATM's accepted it.

I suspect your withdrawal limit did freeze it for a while and perhaps hasn't helped.

Have you tried other bank ATM's? I recall at least two banks not allowing me to withdraw cash but was successful in others. I wondered at the time if there was some sort of time-out on a transaction session which caused it to fail.

Well done for at least having a back up card.

YorkshireBoy

jimb1177 wrote: »

It's turns out at first the issue was because I'd withdrawn the total amount in cash that I could (half of my credit limit). However. I've since paid off my balance in full but I'm still unable to withdraw cash.

I wonder if the 'cash limit' clock doesn't reset until you start a new statement period?

jonesMUFCforever

The cash limit is 50% of your credit limit on an annual basis.#
Me thinks you need to have a Plan B from now on.

ManAtHome

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

The cash limit is 50% of your credit limit on an annual basis.

Don't think so - I had more than twice my credit limit (4 times the cash limit) 'last year' (Sept 12 to Sept 13). Never hit the cash limit in any one month though.

jonesMUFCforever

It is a rolling 12 months - sorry if I did not make it clear.

reclusive46

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

The cash limit is 50% of your credit limit on an annual basis.#
Me thinks you need to have a Plan B from now on.

I'm not sure I follow. Do you mean that you can only withdraw your cash limit once in a 12 month period? Even if you pay the withdrawal off?

jonesMUFCforever

No - say you have a limit of £5000 then you cash limit will be £2500.
Some months you may not take cash out of the card at all.
If the card is new (under 12 months) then you will be restricted to £2500 in total. After that any cash withdrawn in month 1 will drop off your ''available'' cash withdrawal limit in month 13 and so on.

YorkshireBoy

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

No - say you have a limit of £5000 then you cash limit will be £2500.
Some months you may not take cash out of the card at all.
If the card is new (under 12 months) then you will be restricted to £2500 in total. After that any cash withdrawn in month 1 will drop off your ''available'' cash withdrawal limit in month 13 and so on.

I don't think you're correct ...but can't prove it as I don't have a Halifax card at the moment so can't check the detail on cash limits (the online T&Cs don't cover it in enough detail).

However, a quick google search seems to confirm that:

1. The "cash limit" is the most you're allowed to carry as a cash balance at any one time, and

2. It's per month, so my earlier speculation appears to be correct.

Happy to be corrected though. Do you have a link at all?

ejc81

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

I don't think you're correct ...but can't prove it as I don't have a Halifax card at the moment so can't check the detail on cash limits (the online T&Cs don't cover it in enough detail).

However, a quick google search seems to confirm that:

1. The "cash limit" is the most you're allowed to carry as a cash balance at any one time, and

2. It's per month, so my earlier speculation appears to be correct.

Happy to be corrected though. Do you have a link at all?

without scrolling through my T&C's I wold agree completely. If cash limit is 50% of credit limit that should be on rolling monthly basis, ie Credit limit £5000 =cash limit of £2500. If that's withdrawn in September and paid off for October then you should still have £2500 available! Nothing else makes sense! :undecided

jimb1177

Thanks for your help everyone.

@westin - yes, I've tried half a dozen banks, maybe more. Including, off the top of my head - Citibank, Axis, ICICI, jodhpur state bank, Punjab state bank.

I guess all I can do is keep trying every ATM I pass to see if I get lucky. I'll be heading to Thailand in about 10 days, if the problem is resolved there ill know it was something specific to Indian ATMs.

In the meantime, if I do have a breakthrough, I'll be sure to update this thread if anyone else should run into a similar problem in future.

Thanks again.