Halifax Clarity Credit Card for Travelling

bigadaj

shennan wrote: »

The exchange rate I checked this morning was for a USD/GBP, and it was 1.4 something (as was Mastercards), so their exchange rate was close to the nearest .1.

For the record, the Covent Garden exchange seems to change its rates throughout the day. I don't know if MasterCard does the same.


In terms of a fee, no. Last time I went there was no fee. Though that was last summer (I need a god dang holiday already).


I do think there's added value to the exchanges in speculating on changes in exchange rates. And it's always nice to arrive in a country with some local currency in your back pocket.

It's fine if you want to change physically for convenience before you travel but don't try to claim its as efficient.

Your statement that its 'closest to the nearest 0.1' suggests your understanding and maths isn't great. For the cable exchange rate you've used then a difference in 0.1 would be around 7%, so significantly worse. The nominal £500 that is being compared would result in being worse off by around £35.

shennan

It's not that my maths is bad, it's that my lexical field for explaining this stuff is lacking (especially after a beer).

The difference as I saw it was probably 1.46 (Mastercard) and 1.45 (Bricks-and-Morter) which is about 0.01 differenc, which is 1% in percentage terms. And 1% of your (dubiously named) "nominal" £500 is £5 difference.

Is that a lot? Maybe for someone who has 3,339 'thanks' on MSE forum and has been crunching the numbers for years. But in the context of convenience and in my particular life, I don't think it is a great deal.

System

So you realistically suggest taking a large bundle of foreign currency that you'd have to spend, keep or change back to Sterling?! This obviously excludes any security issues and exchange rate fluctuations.

The only reason to do something like that is going to a cash economy or to hide your spending for someone.

[Deleted User] wrote:

Cash withdrawals abroad? Generally you don't do this as you should be purchasing your currency beforehand at a good exchange rate. If you run out of cash though, using your debit card is the only other option as credit cards should never be used for cash withdrawals.

adindas

shennan

Just to make you aware. Mastercard that you see here
https://www.mastercard.com/global/currencyconversion/

will never show the current (today) exchange rate in the morning, afternoon or evening. The today settlement exchange rate will only be published close to midnight.

So if you are comparing it in the morning, you are actually not comparing it with the same time frame as the figure you saw was the yesterday exchange rate.

shennan wrote: »

It's not that my maths is bad, it's that my lexical field for explaining this stuff is lacking (especially after a beer).

The difference as I saw it was probably 1.46 (Mastercard) and 1.45 (Bricks-and-Morter) which is about 0.01 differenc, which is 1% in percentage terms. And 1% of your (dubiously named) "nominal" £500 is £5 difference.

Is that a lot? Maybe for someone who has 3,339 'thanks' on MSE forum and has been crunching the numbers for years. But in the context of convenience and in my particular life, I don't think it is a great deal.

shennan

Again, not so much of a mathematical misunderstanding as a technical one.

bigadaj

shennan wrote: »

It's not that my maths is bad, it's that my lexical field for explaining this stuff is lacking (especially after a beer).

The difference as I saw it was probably 1.46 (Mastercard) and 1.45 (Bricks-and-Morter) which is about 0.01 differenc, which is 1% in percentage terms. And 1% of your (dubiously named) "nominal" £500 is £5 difference.

Is that a lot? Maybe for someone who has 3,339 'thanks' on MSE forum and has been crunching the numbers for years. But in the context of convenience and in my particular life, I don't think it is a great deal.

No, but you need to be specific about your claims.

You claimed that your preferred bricks and mortar provider could match or beat the clarity exchange rate and that is simply not true. You can't come up with anything specific and seem to have a problem with calculating it as you can't determine the difference between 0.1 and 0.01.

The best approximation by others has shown your exchange company to offer rates that are around 2% worse than MasterCard. If that's convenient then that your choice but carrying large amounts of currency around with you also carries risks. Also this comparison is with dollars, euros may be similar, but if you review their advertised rates the spreads are much greater for other less well traded currencies and so your costs would be much greater for them.

shennan

bigadaj wrote: »

No, but you need to be specific about your claims.

You claimed that your preferred bricks and mortar provider could match or beat the clarity exchange rate and that is simply not true. You can't come up with anything specific and seem to have a problem with calculating it as you can't determine the difference between 0.1 and 0.01.

The best approximation by others has shown your exchange company to offer rates that are around 2% worse than MasterCard. If that's convenient then that your choice but carrying large amounts of currency around with you also carries risks. Also this comparison is with dollars, euros may be similar, but if you review their advertised rates the spreads are much greater for other less well traded currencies and so your costs would be much greater for them.

Let me clear a few things up.

Firstly, the ".1" that I mentioned a few posts ago was a typo. I had had a beer and was using my mobile phone to reply (MSE hasn't been particularly well optimised for the phone). I went on to correct this in a later post to ".01". So yes, I do know the difference between .1 and .01 (9% o be exact).

Secondly, you have a problem with my claims being very 'unspecific' (i.e you want hard facts, numbers and evidence). Fair enough. I've gone ahead and checked the USD/GBP exchange rate this morning (at 07:25 GMT) and found them to have 0.0182 (1.82%) difference.

Mastercard: 1.463400
CGFX: 1.445200

In the nominal example mentioned earlier (£500) that is a $9.10 USD difference, which is (depending on which exchange you take) roughly £6.21 GBP difference. So my ball-park figure of £5 was close. Now, in reality I'll probably take out around £100 worth of USD at CGFX, so I'll be stung for around £1.24.

Finally, I'm not saying I'm going to go and exchange all my cash at the bricks-and-mortar exchange before travelling out. I'm saying that it is nice to carry cash with you into a country, and that I may well take out some initial dollars there to compliment my use of the Clarity Credit Card.

I believe that Covent Garden Currency Exchange is quite a good service when measured up against other bricks-and-mortar exchanges that I've been to. Disclaimer; that is a personal opinion based on subjective personal experiences.

I hope the above clears some things up for anyone who was worried about the lack of clarity, or indeed the seeming lack of respect for the Clarity Card.

P.S I've screensgrabbed the rates as I saw them, just in case any of you wanted harder evidence.

Mastercard:



CGFX:

Biggles

Fair enough, their rates aren't bad. Just not as good as the Clarity card.

And you still have the other problem with bureaux - knowing in advance how much you will need. If you don't buy enough, you need to get more while away, if you buy too much, you'r stitched up for the second time when you want to sell it back.

I only ever use cards like Clarity at ATMs abroad to get my cash. That way, I know I'm getting the best deal and can adjust my last few withdrawals so that I'm only ever left with a few Euros/Dollars/whatever at the end of my trip.

eDicky

shennan wrote: »

My go-to exchange is in the middle of central London (a stratospherically expensive city) and it offers pretty much the same rate of exchange as Mastercard.

Many people take their information from this forum, so an untrue or misleading statement such as this needs to be corrected - that's all we are doing. A 'bricks and mortar' exchange bureau needs to make some profit, so they could never give a rate equal to that of MasterCard, there is always a spread.

Yesterday afternoon I saw the Covent Garden FX rate for USD at 1.4434
Today I see the MasterCard rate for USD settlement yesterday at 1.4735

So if I'm not mistaken, for your £100 you would have got $3 more by using your Clarity card yesterday than by exchanging at CG FX, or just over 2%. Plus there could be the travel cost of going to their shop, unless your order for £750 or more with free delivery. They seem to be a decent bureau, but nothing special.

shennan

eDicky wrote: »

Many people take their information from this forum, so an untrue or misleading statement such as this needs to be corrected - that's all we are doing.

"Pretty much" is a subjective comparative phrase - which means my statement about the similarity between the two offerings is subjective. I did not state as fact that these two exchange rates were equal. Many here have suggested that the £1.50 interest mark on a cash withdrawal of €100 over a month is negligible. That is also subjective.

eDicky wrote: »

Yesterday afternoon I saw the Covent Garden FX rate for USD at 1.4434
Today I see the MasterCard rate for USD settlement yesterday at 1.4735

My last post had screenshots of the Mastercard/CGFX exchange rates at the same time this morning. I correctly calculated the difference, so there's no need for you to unfairly take yesterdays exchange rate vs todays.

eDicky wrote: »

A 'bricks and mortar' exchange bureau needs to make some profit, so they could never give a rate equal to that of MasterCard

While we're correcting misleading statements, are you saying that Mastercard (and their entire infrastructure) do not feel the need to yield profit also?