travel money cards

zagfles

bigadaj wrote: »

It's a very minor consideration and effectively a choice between paying the difference between say 0.25and 1% on a cash advance and losing up to say 5 weeks interest free on a free purchase.

Yes, but it's important people understand it otherwise they'll waste time and effort in making payments which save them no interest.

For instance those who have DDs to pay the balance in full. If you have an outstanding statement balance waiting to be paid by DD, and you make a cash advance, it's pointless running around to pay off the cash advance immediately as your payment will go towards the statement first not the cash advance. You'll be charged interest on the cash advance until the entire balance of the previous statement plus cash advance is paid.

bigadaj

zagfles wrote: »

Yes, but it's important people understand it otherwise they'll waste time and effort in making payments which save them no interest.

For instance those who have DDs to pay the balance in full. If you have an outstanding statement balance waiting to be paid by DD, and you make a cash advance, it's pointless running around to pay off the cash advance immediately as your payment will go towards the statement first not the cash advance. You'll be charged interest on the cash advance until the entire balance of the previous statement plus cash advance is paid.

Yes that's what I was saying. Ideally keep purchases separate and pay cash advances immediately on return, or alternatively pay off all purchases as well to reduce interest.

I just use my clarity for travel, so any purchases I make would be made overseas as well as cash, meaning at worst I'd just have to pay everything off at once. I use cashback or reward cards otherwise but if people are using clarity in the uk for the £5 monthly reward for example then this might complicate things slightly, or at least deserve their attention.