Getting USD/Euro fee free without a loaded exchange rate

reclusive46

Heng_Leng wrote: »

N&P debit can use the LINK network whereas a credit card can't.
I would suspect that is the reason for no option.

IIRC Chattychappy uses a MasterCard Zero credit card.

Thats not true. ALL UK cards have the link application on chip (As do all Chip American Express cards issued worldwide).

msallen

chattychappy wrote: »

I suppose if enough people use this facility, they'll withdraw it!

If they didn't want people to do this they wouldn't offer it!

I suspect they simply have an excess of Euros from overseas visitors, and it is the most cost effective way for them to dispose of them.

chocolatelover93

I work in FX and tbh airports will always have lower rates than anywhere else, so you're best off getting your currency before you get to the airport and shop around because a lot of places will price match.
I know I probably cannot put where I work but we price match and sometimes have some really good promotions on e.g. £5 off every £500 spent which makes the rate quite good. Plus when the OP wrote this post I don't know where you got the USD rate at 1.49 because it was a lot lower than that at the begninng of April, unless you looked at the online rate which is the rate that banks get for sending millions across so you will never get that rate.

lpgm

chocolatelover93 wrote: »

unless you looked at the online rate which is the rate that banks get for sending millions across so you will never get that rate.

My Clarity card regularly beats the XE app rate I'm aiming for!

eDicky

I am also concerned that if the situation is widely publicised Moneycorp will be alerted to the potential loss and rectify what may be a glitch or default configuration of their machines. I suspect they may not even be aware of it, or perhaps just rely on customers naturally selecting 'with conversion' when faced with the choice, because of course they want to convert their money. If there was any legal obligation to give a choice, however obscure, then surely the Travelex ATMs would behave similarly.

chattychappy

I was airside in Gatwick this morning and happened to notice a bloke jab the "conversion" option as I walked by. Poor chap.

With normal purchases, people are meant to be offered a choice to opt out of DCC. I wonder if that applies to ATMs also - and it's just that the likes of Raphael's/Travellex simply don't comply and don't get challenged. Unlikely, but a thought.

I also wonder whether at some point a regulator will cough at the way machines without a choice offer "free Euro/USD" withdrawals when in fact thye are nothing of the sort. Perhaps that's why Moneycorp offer the choice? Some bloke in their compliance department thought it safer - they can claim they really do offer genuine free withdrawals if people want them, or optional conversion as a "service".

chattychappy

adindas wrote: »

For this bloke it might be very little different if they do not have a specialist zero fee card for foreign transaction.

I think it would be. Moneycorp were offering to convert at the awful rates of GBP1=1.2500euros and GBP1=USD1.3583 the day before yesterday. I can't access the mastercard site at the moment, but those loadings must be at least 8%.

adindas wrote: »

About Raphael Cash Machines, I have tried a Raphael Cash Machine in one of the tube station in London. There is no way I could withdraw cash in EURO without DCC conversion.

Yep. Ditto the Travellex machines. Moneycorp are the only ones I've discovered that allow you to avoid DCC - and so far all their multi-currency ATMs I have tried are the same. (But not all their ATMs offer multiple currencies. Eg at Gatwick you have to go to departures.)

System

I've used my Clarity card in a UK GBP machine and it clearly didn't use LINK.

reclusive46 wrote: »

Thats not true. ALL UK cards have the link application on chip (As do all Chip American Express cards issued worldwide).

chocolatelover93

lpgm wrote: »

My Clarity card regularly beats the XE app rate I'm aiming for!

I think you're thinking of a dfferent rate, I'm talking about the stock exchang rates that people think that in store bureau and companies like Travelex can do, which they can't because they can't even get it in at that. Plus most banks tend to have a terrible exchange rate and then some sort of feee on top of that.

grumbler

Heng_Leng wrote: »

I've used my Clarity card in a UK GBP machine and it clearly didn't use LINK.

Do you mean that if it didn't use LINK it cannot use LINK at all?