Purchasing in dollars - mastercard or paypal

hulahoop09

Hiya

If I want to purchase something in dollars using a halifax one mastercard ($30) or through paypal using the mastercard which is best and also how do I find out the extra charge (non sterling) without having to call them?

TIA

eskbanker

According to http://www.halifax.co.uk/creditcards/balance-transfer-purchase/all-in-one-card/terms/ the extra charge for non-sterling is 2.95%:

7.9 Visa and MasterCard Transactions in foreign currencies will be converted into sterling the day they are added to your account. American Express Transactions will be converted the day the Transaction is processed by American Express, which may not be the same day the Transaction is added to your account.

• We use a wholesale payment scheme exchange rate set by MasterCard, Visa or American Express, depending on your Card Type. You can find out the current payment scheme exchange rate by calling us. To the converted sterling amount, we add a non-sterling transaction fee of 2.95%.

grumbler

Paypal is more expensive:
https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/cross-border-and-conversion-fees

However, if Halifax card is 'Clarity', the currency conversion fee is 0%, not 2.95%.

hulahoop09

Thanks. No its a halifax one card.

brendon

I actually did two similar transactions last week, one via PayPal and one via the Halifax Card (coincidental). The Halifax Card was cheaper, even before the fee.

hillcats

The Halifax clarity credit card (or another fee free card of course) is the best option in this case I'd think...

waqasahmed

Using this highly scientific method

I've noticed that Mastercard's "perfect" exchange rates for today were 1 GBP = 1.612399 USD

And 1 GBP = 1.57090 USD with PayPal

Which is a 2.64% difference

Personally, I'd stick with a perfect travel card

zerog

waqasahmed wrote: »

Using this highly scientific method

I've noticed that Mastercard's (perfect) exchange rates for today were 1 GBP = 1.612399 USD

And 1GBP = 1.57090

Which is a 2.64% difference

Personally, I'd stick with a perfect travel card

There is no such thing as a perfect exchange rate, or if there was, it would be GBP 1 = USD 4.03.

Mastercard has its own rates. It just happens the Mastercard rate for the UK tends be better than the interbank rate, probably because UK customers tend to buy lots of other currencies more than other customers are buying GBP, therefore Mastercard ends up with a shortage of GBP at the end of each day. Unfortunately, you can't find out the Mastercard exchange rate for a particular day until 1-3 days later.

waqasahmed

zerog wrote: »

There is no such thing as a perfect exchange rate, or if there was, it would be GBP 1 = USD 4.03.

Mastercard has its own rates. It just happens the Mastercard rate for the UK tends be better than the interbank rate, probably because UK customers tend to buy lots of other currencies more than other customers are buying GBP, therefore Mastercard ends up with a shortage of GBP at the end of each day. Unfortunately, you can't find out the Mastercard exchange rate for a particular day until 1-3 days later.

Sorry, I were meant to put perfect in quotation marks and not brackets

Tbh, I think it takes less than a day, or it goes by US time:

https://www.mastercard.com/global/currencyconversion/

Because I was able to see the rates for 19/11 yesterday, but I can't see any rates for 20/11 just yet

It's also normally marginally better than Visa

dzug1

waqasahmed wrote: »

Using this highly scientific method

I've noticed that Mastercard's "perfect" exchange rates for today were 1 GBP = 1.612399 USD

And 1 GBP = 1.57090 USD with PayPal

Which is a 2.64% difference

Personally, I'd stick with a perfect travel card

Surely getting $1.61 for your £ is better than getting $1.57??

1.62 was the mid market rate yesterday according to xe.com

Atidi

hulahoop09 wrote: »

Hiya

If I want to purchase something in dollars using a halifax one mastercard ($30) or through paypal using the mastercard which is best and also how do I find out the extra charge (non sterling) without having to call them?

TIA

Paypal make no charge for purchases as long as you buy in the original sales currency.

(Never let paypal convert the currency; their rates/charges are abysmal)

You will be charged the same fees by mastercard whether you purchase directly using the card, or via paypal with them.