Clarity card-few questions

tali

i have a clarity card and i have heard it is best for use abroad.I pay off in full and my spend will be less than £100.i believe it is @1 % per month- so iirc £100 will cost me £101
Can anyone tell me how much that £100 would cost me roughly (i appreciate rates flucuate) if i exchanged £s for euros ?
Also i have heard that i should insist any payment is in euros- but what is there to stop the merchant taking payment automatically in £s instead ?
Thxs

dzug1

You've worked the answer out for yourself - roughly £101 if you take cash. Exactly £100 for spending.


There's only your vigilance against unscrupulous (or even just dozy or ignorant) retailers - unfortunately once they have put it through there's not a lot you can do about it. The machine you type your PIN into should tell you what currency is being charged.

Kernow666

if you mean how many euros you will get then it changes daily , for example today its 1.20

check out travelmoneymax (link on this page right hand side )

zagfles

tali wrote: »

i have a clarity card and i have heard it is best for use abroad.I pay off in full and my spend will be less than £100.i believe it is @1 % per month- so iirc £100 will cost me £101
Can anyone tell me how much that £100 would cost me roughly (i appreciate rates flucuate) if i exchanged £s for euros ?

What do you mean "if i exchanged £s for euros?". You mean if you withdraw euros cash using the Clarity? Pay it off as soon as you get back off holiday (don't wait for the statement) and it'll cost you about 0.25% per week if you've got the 12.9% APR.

Also i have heard that i should insist any payment is in euros- but what is there to stop the merchant taking payment automatically in £s instead ?
Thxs

1) Tell them you want to pay in euros every time you hand the card over (some will give you a funny look as they don't do or know about DCC).

2) Check the amount displayed on the terminal is euros not GBP.

3) If the receipt shows GBP even though EUR was displayed on the terminal (some people have reported this happening), insist on them voiding the transaction or report it to your bank as fraud. Changing the amount you authorised, after you authorised it, is not really any different to altering the amount on a cheque after you've signed it.

YorkshireBoy

Also watch out for messages on ATM screens when withdrawing cash.


I withdrew (not with Clarity, but with my Metrobank debit card) recently from a Santander branch ATM in the Canaries and was asked if I wanted them to do the conversion (for a 2% fee). The answer, of course, was no.

Wammer

zagfles wrote: »

2) Check the amount displayed on the terminal is euros not GBP.

3) If the receipt shows GBP even though EUR was displayed on the terminal (some people have reported this happening), insist on them voiding the transaction or report it to your bank as fraud. Changing the amount you authorised, after you authorised it, is not really any different to altering the amount on a cheque after you've signed it.

I used my Clarity 5 times in the past week in the Eurozone and each time asked to be charged in euro.

Every time I have ever used a credit card abroad it has ALWAYS shown euro or USD on the terminal when I input my PIN number. It is after you have entered it that it asks the merchant whether to charged in euro/USD or GBP. They need to press 0 or OK for local currency or 1 for GBP so watch what they are pressing.

I had a hotel charge me in GBP after asking to be charged in euro, but I think it was an automatic reaction on that occasion rather than deliberate. They had no problem voiding it and redoing the transaction.

Wammer

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Also watch out for messages on ATM screens when withdrawing cash.

This ^^^^

It was always the case that you pressed No when the question was asked. However I was caught out with an ATM over a year ago when I automatically press No and was charged in GBP. It looks like some ATMs have changed the question so you need to read it rather than automatically pressing No.

Doshwaster

Wammer wrote: »

This ^^^^

It was always the case that you pressed No when the question was asked. However I was caught out with an ATM over a year ago when I automatically press No and was charged in GBP. It looks like some ATMs have changed the question so you need to read it rather than automatically pressing No.

Yes, you have to be very careful as sometimes the wording is deliberately confusing.

I've even seen an ATM in Spain in a tourist are which had a sticker next to the keypad which said "To avoid any nasty surprises from your bank always select the option to be charged in pounds"

This tends only to be a problem in Europe. I have yet to come across DCC in the USA as, of course, they don't recognise any other currencies exist.

Wammer

Doshwaster wrote: »

This tends only to be a problem in Europe. I have yet to come across DCC in the USA as, of course, they don't recognise any other currencies exist.

Unfortunately this may no longer be true.

I have never in my life been charged in GBP in the US after hundreds of transactions. However, 2 years ago, I made a purchase at a store in Vegas and didn't notice until I was back at the hotel that I had been charged in GBP. The annoy thing is when it states on the receipt that you have been offered DCC and accepted it when it was never mentioned at any time.

Last year at the same store I was ready for them. However this time you were given the choice of paying in USD or GBP when you signed the terminal.

Also at check in at the MGM Grand in Vegas last year I was told to sign in 2 or 3 different places. Despite the form being a full A4 sheet, I read it and one of the things I would have been signing for is to be charged in GBP.

photome

Doshwaster wrote: »

Yes, you have to be very careful as sometimes the wording is deliberately confusing.

I've even seen an ATM in Spain in a tourist are which had a sticker next to the keypad which said "To avoid any nasty surprises from your bank always select the option to be charged in pounds"

This tends only to be a problem in Europe. I have yet to come across DCC in the USA as, of course, they don't recognise any other currencies exist.

Definitely happening in Vegas last year at one ATM I used

Doshwaster

photome wrote: »

Definitely happening in Vegas last year at one ATM I used

Vegas seems to be the exception to most rules in the US