Using Halifax Clarity CC for Euros

Terry98

The travel money app http://travelmoney.moneysavingexpert.com/?_ga=1.130963279.1378405868.1451377600 always shows the Clarity card as the best exchange rate for Euros.

Using a CC for cash is not normally a good idea so what is the best way of getting the best rate using the Clarity CC and not paying a premium for it when the monthly bill arrives?

hollie.weimeraner

Withdraw your cash and transfer the £ equivalent to your clarity card asap.

grumbler

Did you try to calculate how big the 'premium' is?
Regardless, the best and the only way of making it negligibly small is not to wait for a monthly bill and to make payments to the CC as soon as a cash withdrawals appear in the online transactions. And for this to work your last monthly statement has to be paid already.

chattychappy

You will get the best rate and won't pay a premium - Clarity is the exception.

With Clarity you get the Mastercard rate without loading or other fees - pretty much the same as the interbank rate. The only extras you pay are:

1) Any locally ATM-applied charge. (Just as in pubs and small shops in this country.)
2) Interest from the date of transaction until you pay it off. This will be peanuts.. but if you want to minimise it, simply send a payment to cover the transaction (plus any previously outstanding statement balance) a few days later. Typically £100 will cost you about 50p in interest if you pay two weeks later.

If an ATM offers to bill you in a local currency, choose "WITHOUT CONVERSION", ie do not agree to the GBP amount. If you agree to the GBP amount, you will be accepting the ATM's exchange rate rather than Clarity's and you will pay through the nose.

People sometimes worry about the effect on their credit rating of cash advances. Ignore! I get cash out every week on Clarity (or others) and don't have a problem. Only likely to be a problem when combined with other factors (eg only paying minimum, being close to limits).

eDicky

Just to be clear, the Clarity card is for use when overseas to obtain the top Mastercard exchange rate on cash withdrawals and purchases without charges. Somebody before was confused by the info that the OP quotes and thought they should get that rate when buying euros with Clarity in a UK bank or exchange bureau!

Smartphone users can now use Revolut prepaid Mastercard in the same way to get the interbank rate (very slightly off on weekends) on foreign purchases and withdrawals with no fees, without having to worry about interest payments.

lisyloo

Use the card at ATMs.
If you have safe and cheap internet access then make a transfer right away.
If you don't have Internet access then it'll still be cheap for normal length holidays, so make the transfer as soon as you can when you get back.

Many of us do this with no issue at all getting credit.

grumbler

lisyloo wrote: »

...make a transfer right away....

As I said above, generally it's not as simple as that.

southantrim3

I agree with the above poster and it is really easy to use.
When I was in Canada, I used the Clarity card to take out $500 CAD (approx £275 at time.)
Paid the money when I came back to the UK (about 2 weeks later) and it cost me the some total of £2.50 in interest.
Got the exchange rate of the day with no commission (I checked the BBC website to be sure.)

Simples - by far the best card to get cash out abroad (any country.)
Also, as advised, charge card in local currency (not GBP or you'll be fleeced!)

Terry98

Many thanks for the replies.

It seems quite straightforward but I am a little unclear about getting the money to my Halifax cc account between normal payment times.

It appears you cannot load money into your Halifax account before the foreign transaction appears on your account. And you can only pay for the transaction once the previous statement has been paid.

The Revolut prepaid Mastercard looks interesting but I will see how the Clarity works this time.

grumbler

Terry98 wrote: »

It appears you cannot load money into your Halifax account before the foreign transaction appears on your account.

You can, but this is against the T&C. If you use the card in UK, the legitimate way of putting it into credit is to make an extra payment after the statement is issued, then allow the full statement amount to get collected by a DD. AFAIK, Halifax don't adjust the DD amount after manual payments are made.

And you can only pay for the transaction once the previous statement has been paid.

Is it really a problem?

Stuart107

grumbler wrote: »

AFAIK Halifax don't adjust the DD amount after manual payments are made.

They do... at least for manual payments made more than 4 days before the DD is collected.