YNAB bank charges?!

FalseEconomist

Have recently set up a direct debit to subscribe to YNAB as I enjoyed my free trial. 5$ a month so £3.56. Only to find the Halifax have charged me an extra £1.59 for international charges?

Does any other bank charge this? Not sure I want to pay over 5 pounds a month to use YNAB.

Have only recently joined Halifax so was just wondering if this was something just they did or whether all UK ynab subscribers have to pay these monthly fees too?

Sanctioned_Parts_List

Yes, foreign currency transaction fees are not unusual - happens with all my bank accounts.

lambda

Yes, it's an international transaction. I just paid for the year in one go - works out cheaper, and only one transaction fee.

SalsaDanca

Most current accounts and credit cards will charge you a fee for foreign currency transactions. This will usually be a percentage of what you spent (usually about 2.5%) plus a fixed fee per transaction.

There are a few credit cards which do not charge this fee. Halifax have a Clarity Credit Card, and Nationwide have had a similar offer for a long time.

As mentioned above, you can also reduce the fees by paying for YNAB a year at a time. You'll still be charged the percentage of the annual price plus the fixed fee, but you would save money on the fixed part of the fee because you'd only be making one transaction per year instead of twelve.

sourcrates

Pay by PayPal, if you can ?, I don't think you pay any extra fees for transactions in other currencies.

SpekySquarehead

Glad I saw this. Was about to sign up myself. Handy to know.

patman99

I thought YNAB was a one-off payment. At least it was when I boought it.

Sanctioned_Parts_List

+1 for using PayPal to avoid these fees - although note that they handle the exchange and their exchange rate isn't brilliant. After a certain value it becomes cheaper to use the bank, even with the fee. Though the tipping point is in the order of hundreds, not tens, of pounds.