Spending Overseas: The cheapest way to pay Article Discussion Area

squiggle_21

Hi
has anyone had any dealings with Thomas cokk credit card?
Just had application come through with deal
0% interest on all purchase at TC for 3 months
0% balance transfer for 9 months 2.99 fee
0% foreign exchange fee
no credit card booking fee with TC
collect TC travel pounds

looks ok on the face of it & Im just wondering if anyone has any feedback on this

Cheers

:cool:

Born2Save_3

Thanks for the reply cepheus

I've had a quick look at the Yahoo answers and it seems that the xe.com site came from the CC provider/issuer of the person - GEMoney - as the information published on xe.com is not from mastercard then, I guess, it may not be the actual rate, but is a good indication !

Ideally, what I was looking for for mastercard was something like this, which is for Visa :

http://corporate.visa.com/pd/consumer_services/consumer_ex_rates.jsp

Having said that the timing of when the money is actually taken from the account (not the time of the transaction) is important as it can be 2/3 days after the transaction. Also, the exchange rates change during the day, and the visa site just gives a single rate which may well be the average for the day. Again it is close to what a no loading/forex charges Visa card should be providing.

What I wanted to do was to compare the Visa and Mastercard rates as, if over a longer preiod one is better than the other for a specific currency, then if a person is make many transactions, then you would know which card is better to use. Also, if you have already made several transactions you can see how the rate you have got compares to the published rate. In this was you can see the difference and know if there are extra charges that have been added for certain transactions - ie local ATM fees with certain ATMs. By doing several transactions over say a weekend you can find out if the exchange rate is fixed/semifixed during non-working day times. I am making the assumption here that a Credit Card can be pre-loaded and incur no charges for ATM withdrawal.

On preloading there is an Austrailian Credit Card, that allows you to do this and has done so for some time. Not much use to most MSEers, but as there seems to be a number of Credit Cards being issued not that do not charge for Foreign Currency transactions, this will hopefully give more selection on the cards that are available and would allow for better comparison between them. Previously there has only been 2/3 that have this, so it was just a case of use one of them and your saving a lot compared to one with charges.

I have noticed that whilst there may be no charges the Exchange Rate used is a way for the company to make money - ie Buying money in the post office, sending foreign currency using Alliance & Leicester etc.

cepheus wrote: »

Does anyone have a link to mastercard website which tells you what exchange rates are given from GBP on a particular day ?

Not directly but according to http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070812210440AAB7GSE mastercard uses the exchange rates quoted at http://www.xe.com/ I cannot find actual buying and selling prices at present only mid prices, perhaps the market has to be open.

Edit Perhaps this conversion calculator is what we are looking for?

http://www.xe.com/tec/table.shtml

Born2Save_3

squiggle_21 wrote: »

Hi
has anyone had any dealings with Thomas cokk credit card?
Just had application come through with deal
0% interest on all purchase at TC for 3 months
0% balance transfer for 9 months 2.99 fee
0% foreign exchange fee
no credit card booking fee with TC
collect TC travel pounds

looks ok on the face of it & Im just wondering if anyone has any feedback on this

Cheers

:cool:

The Thomas Cook card looks very interesting - and it appears to be a Visa card too !

By applying online they can give you an instant decision as well !

Before going for this I would want to see the full T&C's. There is a summary here :

http://www.thomascook.com/pdf/SummaryBox.pdf

One interesting feature of this is that you can buy foreign currency and travellers cheques in there stores with no handling fee. I wonder, does this mean that I could buy travellers cheques in GBP and get them for the same amount I am actually paying on the card i.e. I want £100 of travellers cheques and the card would be debited for £100 ?

jameslawtonhome

Hi Everyone,

I'm brand new to this forum fun, so let's see if it works!!!!

I've applied for an Abbey Zero Credit Card, and the down side seems to be that it has a high interest rate for cash withdrawals. Does anybody know if you can pre-load it for use abroad and pay no interest at all?

Cheers :beer:

James.

chrisjtt1

I was recently called into a meeting at work for a presentation from a company called FairFX. The website is www.fairfx.com. They were looking to put their cards into the hands of our travellers. As we have about 300 staff that travel very frequently, it was worth considering, but as we travel to a lot of African and Far East nations, their offering is not there yet.
As an individual however, I have signed up to one of their cards.
I am posting this, because I am surprised this card does not get mentioned in any posts or views i have seen so far and also wanted a second opinion on it.
I have purchased a Euro Card, buying £600 of Euros. As such I did not have to pay for the card, (it is a tenner if less than £500 put on card). The card comes with all the same security as any other card, it is Pin and signature protected.
The rate I purchased Euros at was approx 3 cents above the next best rate I could see anywhere, including Post office, and the Exchange shop in Victoria Street, London SW1 that always delivered a better rate than elsewhere for currency. Having loaded up the card, i can use it as a normal Mastercard, or I can put it in an ATM abroad and take out currency. They have a flat fee for withdrawals of I think £1.50, but could be £1.75.
The added benefit for me, is not only that I use it when travelling for work, but also that in two weeks my 19 year old son goes on holiday, so I can give him the card, with the pin, that he can set, and he has a far more secure means of carrying his money. Clearly if he lost the card, I could lose what is loaded onto it, but without the pin, i have a chance of reporting it and stopping the card before the money is lost.
In addition, if he had an emergency, I could load more money onto the card and he is able to use it within 15 minutes.
When he returns, I get the card back, change the pin and then reload it for my daughter to use later in the year.
Compared to other means of getting currency this seems a great option.
Downside, they only have dollar and Euro Cards at the moment. Also it is a new company, so I am sure they need to make money, will it all change and the rates offered get eroded after a period of time ??? who knows.
Also it is cash up front, but it is no different to going to a booth and purchasing actual notes.

Have i missed something with this card, or has it just not been publicised in the market enough that people are using it ??

Born2Save_3

Nationwide Flex card is the best option for ATM use, currently (although pre-loading some credit cards may now also be an option as many people on this thread would like to know, but there appears to have been no reports of this working with say the Abbey Zero Card, Thomas Cook card or any of the other no charge forex credit cards) - no charges and near inter bank exchange rates - if you can get a joint account you get 2 cards ! No charges from Nationwide for withdrawal - only charge could be from local ATM - but asking in advance or trying for a small withdrawal will reveal this. Can be used in any ATM network that supports Visa or Cirrus (depending on the card you have) - in many emerging countries, such as Laos and Cambodia now have ATM's they can be used in - but whether you would want the local currency is another thing ! (your potentially safer with USD and some ATMs there dispense USD!). I think it is now possible to use Visa in Burma/Myanmar in some banks/money changers and just get a cash advance on a card from where ever will accept it - and Nationwide will not charge - it is the local charges and currency of the transaction you need to be wary of - don't let your card be charged in a currency other than the local currency - if you do then you will be almost likely be getting a poor rate and are probably getting ripped off !

chrisjtt1 wrote: »

I was recently called into a meeting at work for a presentation from a company called FairFX. The website is www.fairfx.com. They were looking to put their cards into the hands of our travellers. As we have about 300 staff that travel very frequently, it was worth considering, but as we travel to a lot of African and Far East nations, their offering is not there yet.
As an individual however, I have signed up to one of their cards.
I am posting this, because I am surprised this card does not get mentioned in any posts or views i have seen so far and also wanted a second opinion on it.
I have purchased a Euro Card, buying £600 of Euros. As such I did not have to pay for the card, (it is a tenner if less than £500 put on card). The card comes with all the same security as any other card, it is Pin and signature protected.
The rate I purchased Euros at was approx 3 cents above the next best rate I could see anywhere, including Post office, and the Exchange shop in Victoria Street, London SW1 that always delivered a better rate than elsewhere for currency. Having loaded up the card, i can use it as a normal Mastercard, or I can put it in an ATM abroad and take out currency. They have a flat fee for withdrawals of I think £1.50, but could be £1.75.
The added benefit for me, is not only that I use it when travelling for work, but also that in two weeks my 19 year old son goes on holiday, so I can give him the card, with the pin, that he can set, and he has a far more secure means of carrying his money. Clearly if he lost the card, I could lose what is loaded onto it, but without the pin, i have a chance of reporting it and stopping the card before the money is lost.
In addition, if he had an emergency, I could load more money onto the card and he is able to use it within 15 minutes.
When he returns, I get the card back, change the pin and then reload it for my daughter to use later in the year.
Compared to other means of getting currency this seems a great option.
Downside, they only have dollar and Euro Cards at the moment. Also it is a new company, so I am sure they need to make money, will it all change and the rates offered get eroded after a period of time ??? who knows.
Also it is cash up front, but it is no different to going to a booth and purchasing actual notes.

Have i missed something with this card, or has it just not been publicised in the market enough that people are using it ??

NoDebtForMe_2

Question for all you knowledgable ones. I have applied and been accepted for a Nationwide Debit card. I go to USA at end August. I will have all my spends in the next 3 weeks or so saved up. With the exchange rate as it is now (obviously going in the wrong direction) would I be better to get my money exchanged through the best people over here in 3 weeks time or leave it in a savings account and then use the debit card for atm transactions when I get there at end August ? Wouldnt the daily rate by end Aug be worse than it is in 3 weeks (obviously no one can answer that precisely) with it's forecast showing as a decline ?
Any ideas of the best thing to do ? I will be taking £2500 to 3.
Thanks
Sarah

steveblower

Most ATMs in USA have a sticker on them saying that they will levy a charge of (usually) 2USD for any withdrawals.

My experience on the last few trips is, they do.

Except, even though they have the sticker, ATMs for the Washington Mutual Bank (sometimes labelled as WAMU) have consistently not made the extra charge, when I have used my (of course) Nationwide Flexaccount card to get cash.

This bank seems to have ATMS all over the USA, not just Washington!

Hope this saves y'all a fistfull of dollars...........

Steve.

gregnbaker

I am going to be travelling around Europe in July as a recent graduate (and start work in August). I will mainly be in Euro countries...
I have a current account and various savers with LTSB and I see they offer an Internation Euro-denominated account here: http://www.lloydstsb-offshore.com/International/InternationalAccount
They charge EUR7.50 a month, but nothing for the first 3 months, and a EUR100 initial transfer.
Does anyone have any experience of these type of accounts?
Thanks
G

chrisstiles

Hi -

I'm going to need to pay for something in Lithuania - a single purchase of around 600 pounds.

I'd normally load up my Nationwide Card when travelling and then withdraw cash abroad - however in this case I think I'm going to run into the maximum value of cash I can withdraw in a single day.

Short of withdrawing this money over a few days - is there any other way that might be an efficient way of converting pounds into the local currency?

Regards,