Travelex Supercard

adindas

For the benefit of all I just want to inform, I have also got written confirmation from Travellex that cash withdrawal abroad is flagged as purchase (Below is the email confirmation)

With this conformation, imho it is our best interest to link the card with any cash-back with credit card you have which will earn you the maximum cash back when doing purchase. AMEX card cannot be linked to Travelex Super card.

Few of the best options for non-sterlingcash back available indefinitely (not just for a short period) are

- Halifax clarity for cash Withdrawal of £300+ with reward of £5 AND
- Capital one Classic EXTRA card which will give cash back of 0.5% i

Dear Mr. ADINDAS (name changed)

Reference : (Deleted)

Thank you for writing to customer care.

Please be informed that the cash withdrawal from your Supercard with the linked Credit card will be considered as purchase from your credit card provider.

Should you require any further information then, please contact us on support@supercard.io

Abhishek Tiwari
Customer Care
Travelex SuperCard

donna1979

lpgm wrote: »

I expect this advice is just about where to swap sterling notes for lira - better in Turkey than in the UK (I don't know if this is true or not). But I imagine using a specialist travel card instead is still going to win - even one that's Visa rather than MasterCard.

Yes sorry that's what I meant! I was planning on withdrawing cash and changing it to lira there. I wasn't really thinking of just using it a a card but this seems to make more sense. It's the first time I'll have been abroad and not been all inclusive for a long time. Last time I did I took travellers cheques! I think I'll email them direct to ask.

adindas

donna1979 wrote: »

Yes sorry that's what I meant! I was planning on withdrawing cash and changing it to lira there. I wasn't really thinking of just using it a a card but this seems to make more sense. It's the first time I'll have been abroad and not been all inclusive for a long time. Last time I did I took travellers cheques! I think I'll email them direct to ask.

@donna1979
The advice you get is misleading, or you might have misunderstood the instruction. If you are using Travelex Supercard for purchase and cash withdrawal abroad, you will get the Visa global exchange rate. At the moment for small -medium transaction, there has not been any report of a money changer could beat this rate, even the best money changer you could ever find. Just the contrary there have been few stories where people have been conned by money changer on the street by various charger, small prints, etc. etc.

Also doing this you undermines the benefit of having Travelex supercard.

The best thing is that.
- Use your travellex supercard to buy everything you could using Travelex card abroad
- For item which can only be purchased using cash use your travellex card to withdraw cash from cash machines abroad.

KTF

donna1979 wrote: »

Yes sorry that's what I meant! I was planning on withdrawing cash and changing it to lira there. I wasn't really thinking of just using it a a card but this seems to make more sense. It's the first time I'll have been abroad and not been all inclusive for a long time. Last time I did I took travellers cheques! I think I'll email them direct to ask.

The aim of this card is to withdraw the cash overseas in the local currency and get the visa exchange rate - which is better than any foreign exchange shop rate.

Using it to withdraw sterling overseas then taking it somewhere to exchange into local currency is pointless.

Petetobin

eaton wrote: »

I've been using my card extensively since 28th May in the USA (California and Hawaii mainly).


few things I've observed.
Ive racked up about £2000 worth of spend so far, and none of it has hit my online statement unbilled or otherwise. I'm using a Tesco cc. I can see available credit is reduced, but doesn't reflect total spend.


Also, USA doesn't use chip and pin, swipe only. This has caused some declined messages back to the retailer, however the amount has shown up as a successful transaction on the app. Ive had to use an alternate card to pay for my goods. Currently in discussion with Travelex about a refund of these transactions.


Cash is being dispensed via ATM Machines, and I've only got a Tesco cc linked.


Horizontal placement of text is confusing a lot of retailers who swipe it!


So mixed experiences, mainly positive. Concerned about lack of visibility of my purchases on my Tesco cc but will give it a few more days before raising with travelex.

Good information. Cards in general work (but not always) in what is known as Dual Message Mode, this means that the authorisation is completely separate to the ultimate transaction which is posted to your account. This means two things:

In certain circumstance rough authorisations may end up on your account but these will be dropped off after about 7 days when no financial transaction turns up.

Travelex need to resubmit the clearing transactions they receive from Visa back to Visa or Mastercard to get the money back from the Issuer of the linked card. This will add a substantial delay to the transaction ultimately hitting your linked account. It shouldn't be more than a week though.

Hope this makes sense.

donna1979

@adindas it was me misunderstanding. I hadn't realised the rate was essentially the best you could get. I had thought the aim of the card was more to avoid the charges most cards get. As I have a natwest card from hell that was my initial aim when applying for the card. To find that the rate is good as well is a huge bonus. Haven't been a big traveller since having kids so have fallen behind the times lol. Thanks for your help

adindas

You could find out the rate you should expect to get from here
http://www.visaeurope.com/making-payments/exchange-rates

Using your Travelex supercard you will enjoy your holiday as you will be rest assured that you get one of the best exchange rate an individual could get. Also you avoid falling into the trap of greedy street money changers ....

donna1979 wrote: »

@adindas it was me misunderstanding. I hadn't realised the rate was essentially the best you could get. I had thought the aim of the card was more to avoid the charges most cards get. As I have a natwest card from hell that was my initial aim when applying for the card. To find that the rate is good as well is a huge bonus. Haven't been a big traveller since having kids so have fallen behind the times lol. Thanks for your help

eaton

azzap wrote: »

Heading to The States soon. Why was this card declined? Surely the swipe facility worked just as good as chip and pin (which the U.S. have never had)? Should I be aware of any particular places where this card could be declined?

Hi. Should have mentioned it was a swipe reader in a taxi also that failed. I had to pay on Amex instead which went through ok. Unfortunately the swipe on supercard showed up on my online billing app.

CassarJ

just did another online transaction of $24.50

website card processor = 1.51048 = £16.22
paypal = 1.53861 = £15.92
supercard rate = 1.58371 = £15.47

OK my halifax clarity would probably have been cheap to use too, but the thing i like about the Supercard is the flexibility it offers in terms of cards you link it too, and fee free cash.

lpgm

Something I noticed in the terms and conditions (paragraph 4.1): you can't spend more than £20,000 on the card in a year.