Halifax Clarity Card

chattychappy

MCGONIS wrote: »

Hi. Yes I done a balance transfer to the clarity and was able to use it again before the end of my holiday as the balance went down to ZERO.

I don't think that that answers the question. Your balance went to zero, freeing up limit. That has always been my experience with CCs too - once you make a payment and reduce the balance, credit is immediately freed up.

But the question was specifically on the "cash" limit, rather than the overall credit limit. I'm guessing the treatment would be the same....

PeacefulWaters

ricz_1 wrote: »

So in the above example, there is a £700 cash withdrawal limit on the card. If the card was used to withdraw £700, then this was paid off, would there be £700 available again? Or is it a monthly limit?

It's a good question.

My guess is that you'll start again and be fine to draw cash. But I've never tested the theory.

Last time I travelled abroad I was able to get by quite easily using the card for purchases alone. Never needed cash.

Jason_G_2

Rather than start a new thread I thought I'd use this one. Say I use my Clarity card to withdraw the equivalent of £20 cash abroad, and also use it for £20 worth of purchases, if I were to then later credit my account using online banking for £20, is there a system in place that dictates which transaction that would clear?

In essence, to avoid the interest charges for withdrawing cash abroad, would it be necessary to keep track of daily transactions and clear the card in full daily? My experience of online banking is that it is not instant and so may take a few days to show (and thus accrue interest).

YorkshireBoy

Jason_G wrote: »

Rather than start a new thread I thought I'd use this one. Say I use my Clarity card to withdraw the equivalent of £20 cash abroad, and also use it for £20 worth of purchases, if I were to then later credit my account using online banking for £20, is there a system in place that dictates which transaction that would clear?

Your question is answered in condition 6.1 of your Clarity T&Cs. In essence, it depends on whether there's a pre-existing purchases balance. If there is, then you need to clear in full. If there isn't, then you can get away with paying just enough to cover the cash advance value (plus any marginal interest).


However, you do realise that even in a worst case scenario you're talking about pennies...literally!?

slopemaster

ricz_1 wrote: »

So in the above example, there is a £700 cash withdrawal limit on the card. If the card was used to withdraw £700, then this was paid off, would there be £700 available again? Or is it a monthly limit?

No, its a monthly limit.
Even call centre staff weren't sure of this, but I recently tried it out.
Paying it off makes NO difference, you can only draw out in cash 50% of your credit limit within a one month period.
I know this as I recently wanted a large amount of cash in euros.
After several days of 500 pounds a day I ran into the 50% limit, which I hadn't been aware of. There was no way round this, even if I paid off the entire balance.

(Only other way round it would be an increased credit limit.)

slopemaster

Jason_G wrote: »

Say I use my Clarity card to withdraw the equivalent of £20 cash abroad, and also use it for £20 worth of purchases, if I were to then later credit my account using online banking for £20, is there a system in place that dictates which transaction that would clear?

In essence, to avoid the interest charges for withdrawing cash abroad, would it be necessary to keep track of daily transactions and clear the card in full daily? My experience of online banking is that it is not instant and so may take a few days to show (and thus accrue interest).

The easiest way round this is to have 2 cards for use abroad so you can use one for spending and the other for drawing cash, then keep paying off the one you use for drawing cash.

darkidoe

6. ALLOCATION OF PAYMENTS

6.1 - We use any payments you make to pay off Transactions that appear on your statement starting with those on which we charge the highest rate of interest, and so on down to the lowest rate of interest If the payment is not enough to pay off all Transactions at a particular interest rate, we will pay off Transactions charged at that interest rate in the following order:- Cash Withdrawals, Purchases, Balance Transfers and Cheques, followed by the charges in conditions 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3 If you pay more than the amount due shown on your statement, we will use any remaining payment to pay off Transactions that have not yet appeared on your statement in the same order as those that do appear on your statement. In this condition, "Transaction" includes the amount of the Purchase, Cash Withdrawal, Cheque or Balance Transfer plus any interest, charges or insurance payment charged as a result of that Transaction.

There has been another suggested method of managing Overseas cash withdrawal on credit cards on the forum which is to have more than 1 travel credit card. Use one mainly for Cash Withdrawals, paying it off as soon as you spend and use the other for purchases, paying off by due date. This will make keeping track of cash withdrawals much simpler.

YorkshireBoy

darkidoe wrote: »

...<snip>...

I think you've emboldened the wrong bit.


The relevant bits for the OP's query are the very first sentence (specifically "that appear on your statement"), and the sentence immediately following your emboldened text (which details what happens after you've paid an amount equal to the previous statemented balance...if there was one).

SnowTiger

slopemaster wrote: »

The easiest way round this is to have 2 cards for use abroad so you can use one for spending and the other for drawing cash, then keep paying off the one you use for drawing cash.

I use my Clarity card for purchases and my N&P card for cash withdrawals, which works well.

YorkshireBoy

SnowTiger wrote: »

I use my Clarity card for purchases and my N&P card for cash withdrawals, which works well.

Similar situation here...

Most of my overseas travel is within the EU, and I use Nationwide Select for car hire (and absolutely nothing else!), Metro debit for cash, and Santander Zero for all other purchases and emergency cash back up should there be problems with Metro debit.