Halifax Clarity Credit Card for GBP - USD

Schmutz_2

I just followed through the application and it worked this time. It gave the minimum pretty much, 21.9% APR and an estimated limit of £600. Hopefully when they process they'll give £1200 limit... £600 will only just pay for some hotel bills -

Just for an example scenario (supposing the limit is £600), and the hotel fee for 8 nights is £1000 in $...

I'd need to withdraw cash in $ i.e. £600 worth, pay off the limit straight away - and then pay with card and cash. Is that how it would work? That wouldn't be too much effort to be honest, if I was saving over debenhams/post office. But - is it possible? Is the credit limit something I need to wait a day to recover? Lots of questions!

YorkshireBoy

Halifax's estimated limits are very seldom different from the one you'll get, speaking from personal experience of 6 or 7 guaranteed pre-approved cards over the years.


It's going to be very difficult for you to manage with such a low credit limit I'd imagine? I certainly wouldn't want to be spending/repaying/spending/etc whilst abroad. What was your back up card going to be? Or maybe you were originally planning on taking it all in cash?


Maybe you could look at the pre-paid cards available...check out the long thread on the overseas holidays board.

snowcat75

In the US your hardly need any cash, you seldom need to carry much more than a few dollars for tips. The problem you have is that a low limit card will be an impossibility in reality to use, check-in to a hotel and there ring fence a couple of hundred dollars for security, hire a car and they could want a $1000 depending on the company, although sometimes there just go through the motions.



The worst scenario is medical in the US where they may want a guarantee of payment before the steps of insurance kicks in.

Ideally you want an emergency card tucked away for the worst case scenario, and your Clarity for everyday spending, but really with limits in the thousand's not hundreds to be useful.

A word of warning, however you take your money have a contingency plan, About 10 years ago whilst in the states I lost my wallet containing CCs and my UK driving licence, My credit cards could not be re issued for 6-12 days and only sent to my UK address, luckily I had some money on a Travelex card which could be collected from western union, and I borrowed a CC card from my brother who lives in the US, otherwise I would have been stuffed.

Happychappy

Schmutz wrote: »

"linked account"

I am really new to this, so I guess that would be my Natwest (main bank) I'd just have that current account linked up and the payments can be made to clear the Halifax credit card when I need - via online banking when I'm out in US.

I linked in my Uk bank account to my Clarity card and paid in £1 just to make sure it worked ok, I then had a £1 credit for a while :j now whilst abroad I withdraw cash as normal and every few days log on to my IPAD and pay off the Clarity card from my bank account.

In June £2k of cash in Turkey, cost just over £1 in interest, same in November in Euros, and presently have the other half in Australia, currently getting between 1.96 and 1.98 Aud which is really good as the Thomas Cook etc is giving a rob dog rate of 1.88 and the MasterCard exchange rate today is 1.96 :T

Schmutz_2

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Halifax's estimated limits are very seldom different from the one you'll get, speaking from personal experience of 6 or 7 guaranteed pre-approved cards over the years.


It's going to be very difficult for you to manage with such a low credit limit I'd imagine? I certainly wouldn't want to be spending/repaying/spending/etc whilst abroad. What was your back up card going to be? Or maybe you were originally planning on taking it all in cash?


Maybe you could look at the pre-paid cards available...check out the long thread on the overseas holidays board.

Original plan was Debenhams/Post office, convert about £6000 into USD... (I'm going with my brother, so £3000 each).

So, what if we withdraw our £600/day limit i.e. 10 times in cash, we'd get a better deal than at foreign exchange companies like debenhams right?

Or just spend/repay a lot. Doesn't seem like a big deal if I use online banking? But I dont have any clue about how long information would update - ringfencing etc etc. Is that a feasible option? in theory it sounds straightforward but I don't even know if a £600 limit would be a monthly or daily limit I need some basic perspective on everything to be honest.

Schmutz_2

snowcat75 wrote: »

In the US your hardly need any cash, you seldom need to carry much more than a few dollars for tips. The problem you have is that a low limit card will be an impossibility in reality to use, check-in to a hotel and there ring fence a couple of hundred dollars for security, hire a car and they could want a $1000 depending on the company, although sometimes there just go through the motions.



The worst scenario is medical in the US where they may want a guarantee of payment before the steps of insurance kicks in.

Ideally you want an emergency card tucked away for the worst case scenario, and your Clarity for everyday spending, but really with limits in the thousand's not hundreds to be useful.

A word of warning, however you take your money have a contingency plan, About 10 years ago whilst in the states I lost my wallet containing CCs and my UK driving licence, My credit cards could not be re issued for 6-12 days and only sent to my UK address, luckily I had some money on a Travelex card which could be collected from western union, and I borrowed a CC card from my brother who lives in the US, otherwise I would have been stuffed.

I have four hotels booked, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Las Vegas, Los Angeles.

Here is another scenario then.

Pay up the SF hotel using the Card (it's less than £600 for the four days I'm there) - pay it off on day 1.

Limit is £600 again, pay up the SC hotel with the card (less than £600 for the three days I'm there) - pay it off asap. Withdraw £600 from ATM, pay it off, withdraw another £600, pay it off.

Check into Las Vegas hotel, which is for 8 nights, and will be >£600... pay up part card, part cash. Pay off card

Check into LA hotel, pay up with card/cash withdrawn over previous days.

It sounds like a lot of messing around - but surely with online banking this is going to be a lot easier than it seems - unless I'm missing something fundamental. What do you think?

snowcat75

A car hire company could fence off funds for a waiver long after your back home, as it never shows as a balance just unavailable funds I'm not sure how paying onto the card would work.

The other option is to pay for us hotels on a uk site, expedia, ebookers etc, a day a ahead of arriving and as your paying fro a uk address from a uk debit card there's no fees and often a better rate, something I've done plenty of.

Although things like budget flights, northwest and like are very expensive borked third party outside the US.

Schmutz_2

Happychappy wrote: »

I linked in my Uk bank account to my Clarity card and paid in £1 just to make sure it worked ok, I then had a £1 credit for a while :j now whilst abroad I withdraw cash as normal and every few days log on to my IPAD and pay off the Clarity card from my bank account.

In June £2k of cash in Turkey, cost just over £1 in interest, same in November in Euros, and presently have the other half in Australia, currently getting between 1.96 and 1.98 Aud which is really good as the Thomas Cook etc is giving a rob dog rate of 1.88 and the MasterCard exchange rate today is 1.96 :T

Nice. I understand the information from the Mastercard currency conversion page is what I refer to for exchange rates. That's ~1.52. Debenhams exchange is ~1.48

Supposing I use £6000 worth.

Debenhams - $8880
Halifax CC - $9120

=$240 - pretty significant then?

Bear in mind I'm going with my brother. Again, no CC history so will probably get the same kind of offer I did - if we had one each is that going to help a bit you think?

Schmutz_2

snowcat75 wrote: »

A car hire company could fence off funds for a waiver long after your back home, as it never shows as a balance just unavailable funds I'm not sure how paying onto the card would work.

I don't think we're renting a car. We've got the public transport/taxi's/internal flights down - very heavily researched into that. Bearing in mind that the hotel fees will be the big payments, with a maximum single fee of around $1600 - does it look any better?

TBeckett100

I think Expedia have 12% cash back on Quidco. You may be wise to book and pay in GBP before you go and make a bit of cash back along the way