Have I understood these barclaycard rates correctly?

Maestro.

Hi all. I hold a barclaycard and have been reading the following:
http://www.barclaycard.co.uk/personal/new-transaction-fee

Am I correct in thinking that I can withdraw money from a foreign ATM and not have daily interest applied? I.e., the only charges would be the commissions fee and foreign exchange fee, but I could let it be taken in my monthly direct debit without accruing daily interest?

Also, would an ATM in Dublin, Ireland come under the category of "foreign cash" (I assume it would)

Thanks ever so much.

brendon

Yes, as long as you pay off in full, there is no interest. This is made explicitly clear in the table they have provided. If you withdraw in Euros in Dublin, then then it will come under the category of foreign cash.

Biggles

If you make foreign cash withdrawals very often, you would do far better to get one of the cards, eg Halifax Clarity, that doesn't make either a transaction fee or foreign exchange fee but does charge interest, which is by a long way the lowest cost of the three.

Maestro.

It's not something I do often, first time this year and probably around once a year thereafter. Have considered clarity, but just wouldn't use it enough. I know the table is obvious but these things have a habit of catching folk out so I thought I'd ask - looks like I have understood it correctly though.

cautiousjon

Biggles wrote: »

If you make foreign cash withdrawals very often, you would do far better to get one of the cards, eg Halifax Clarity, that doesn't make either a transaction fee or foreign exchange fee but does charge interest, which is by a long way the lowest cost of the three.

Maestro. wrote: »

It's not something I do often, first time this year and probably around once a year thereafter. Have considered clarity, but just wouldn't use it enough. I know the table is obvious but these things have a habit of catching folk out so I thought I'd ask - looks like I have understood it correctly though.

As brendon said, the table states that there is no interest charged on foreign cash withdrawals. However, as Biggles has already stated, a daily interest charge is still cheaper than the 2.99% fee that Barclaycard charges.

For example, if you had a Halifax Clarity card and was on the not-so-cheap 21.9% APR (like I am), this is what it would cost you to withdraw £100 if you didn't pay the cash withdrawal transaction off for 30 days.

£100 * (21.9/100) / 12 = ~£1.83

If you were to withdraw the same amount on the Barclaycard, you would pay £2.99, which is ~33% more.

If it were possible (and safe to do so), you would likely want to pay off the cash withdrawal transaction quicker than 30 days later, and thus pay even less interest. I recently withdrew about £60 from a foreign cash machine and paid about £0.08 in interest after I had paid off the initial transaction.

Maestro.

Thanks, Jon.

I already have a card with the HBOS group so getting a clarity would not likely be difficult. But for the sake of a few quid a year if that, it doesn't seem worth it, but I'll definitely bear it in mind should I start needing foreign currency more often.