Best card(s) for a multi-country trip

PeacefulWaters

Nifty's post above pretty much nails it.

The credit card costs to consider are:

1) cash advance fee c3%. This often comes with a minimum fee of c£3. Withdraw a tenner and it costs you £13. Withdraw £300 and it costs you £303. Halifax Clarity and Creation Everyday are among those that avoid this fee.

2) Foreign currency conversion fee, again c3% on most credit cards. Many debit cards charge a flat fee plus a percentage which makes a series of low value transactions very expensive. Halifax Clarity and Creation Everyday are again among those cards that avoid this fee.

3) Interest. Often something you can minimise by clearing card balances in full when wifi etc allows. The Halifax card charges 4p per £100 cash per day and Creation is cheaper.

I'd suggest having a good range of cards in your possession and Nifty has highlighted those that offer best value.

But a belt and braces approach of numerous backup cards, regardless of fees, is a good idea.

1) Each member of your party to have multiple cards in their name. Then if one person finds everything blocked the other person shouldn't be.

2) A MasterCard, Visa and Amex card each as a minimum.

3) A selection of the above across different banking groups. If Lloyds banking group systems fail and you have Halifax, Lloyds and Bos cards only you're pretty screwed. If you've got Halifax clarity, British Airways AMEX and Virgin Visa you have three banking systems that need to fail before you're completely done for.

Enjoy.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/travel-credit-cards

JJ2017

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies – really appreciate it! I have a few more questions for you all if that’s okay!!

I’ve always been incredibly weary of credit cards, but when you lay it out like that they don’t seem so bad! I’m still unsure on the benefits, other than safety though – am I correct in thinking:

If an ATM charges a withdrawal fee, it will charge that regardless of which card I have;
Rates for both cards are the same, i.e. the Creation, Clarity, Monzo and Revolut are all Mastercard rates?

If so I can’t see a clear benefit to using a credit card other than safety (which has never been an issue for us before)? And additionally I’ll have to ensure I go online to transfer the money I’ve just withdrawn back to the credit card which wouldn’t be an issue with say the Revoult.

Having said that, I can see on the description of the Creation “You will initially be charged a foreign exchange fee, but it will be refunded back to you automatically – you'll see it on your statement.”. Also on PeacefulWater’s post it states “2) Foreign currency conversion fee, again c3% on most credit cards. Many debit cards charge a flat fee plus a percentage which makes a series of low value transactions very expensive. Halifax Clarity and Creation Everyday are again among those cards that avoid this fee.”

So can someone confirm that assuming I can do an immediate credit card payment of what I have just withdrawn from an ATM, a good credit card such as the Clarity / Creation will definitely give less fees than a prepaid card?! In fact, if I’m reading this correctly, if you make the payment the same day, there should technically be no fees at all (except ATM fees), in addition to the best possible (Mastercard) rate? If this is true then I can certainly see why credit cards are more popular, and will apply for those, as the saving there will offset the hassle of the transfering for withdrawals.

Also, would it be possible to transfer say £1000 to a credit card before you even withdraw/made a purchase on it and therefore skip the whole hassle of transferring after withdrawing, or do you have to make the payment after?

And I have often heard that the 150/180 baht ATM charge could be avoided but I’ve never know how – NiftyDigits above wrote “In addition, the only two ways to avoid the greedy, grabbing Thai bank's ATMs is to either withdraw over the bank counter using a credit card or to take cash with you to exchange” – is this really the case? Could I actually walk into one of those yellow Siam banks and withdraw cash over the counter and avoid absolutely all fees? If so that is a life saver!!

And lastly (promise!) I’m not sure where I read it but I recently heard that it was always better to withdraw cash midweek (overseas) rather than on the weekend as the markets close and the rates go up – is this true? Or have I misheard something?

Thank you so much in advance – advice like this could save hundreds/thousands over the course of a long trip! Really appreciate your help!

JJ

eDicky

All banks in Thailand now charge Bt200 per ATM withdrawal, for any foreign card. You can draw a maximum of Bt20-30,000 depending on the bank, I don't remember which gives the most. You can try Nifty's over the counter method, I never did so far. You can get good exchange rates for cash in Thai exchange shops (not banks).

The Virgin Money card is a VISA, the others are MasterCard, these give the daily VISA or MasterCard rates. Revolut differs in giving the interbank rate, updated every half second, at the moment of transaction. This is the the one that's best not to use on weekends, because they put a bit of spread on their rate when the markets are closed. For other cards it makes no difference. Revolut is also not good for Thai baht, one of their 'illiquid' currencies that they can't give the pure interbank rates for. There's not much difference in practice between the three 'perfect' rates - Interbank (mid-market), MasterCard and VISA.

Personally I don't have a preference for using credit card for cash withdrawal, the rates are not superior to those of the best prepaid cards, and we are only discussing cards that are free of overseas fees. But credit cards don't usually put such strict limits on cash withdrawals as prepaid cards do. The exception is Creation, which has quite low daily and weekly cash limits so is probably not suitable for you. Some people say they get away with 'preloading' their Clarity cards before withdrawals, but it's against the T&Cs so can cause you problems.

Did I miss anything? I need a beer...

z1a

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

You didn't read the post above yours very well.

You're right, I didn't.

benjus

With credit cards you should really wait for a transaction to appear on your card's recent transactions list (not "pending transactions") before paying it off. This is especially important if you intend to only pay off the cash withdrawals, as the payment will be allocated to your existing purchase balance if you pay it too early.

There's also a small risk that paying off too early might be against the T&C of your card if it puts the card into a credit balance and the card issuer might take some action such as blocking the card. I've never heard of this actually happening, but you may want to avoid the risk, especially if you're away for a long time.

Also, you should expect to have to cancel at least one card due to it being lost/stolen/cloned/etc. Especially if you're going to Brazil...

JJ2017

Thanks again for the repies.

I'm still a little sceptical though! On my last trip to Thailand (exactly a year ago) I ordered what was recommended as one of the best travel money pre-paid cards at the time (likely on this website) - I believe it was a my Travel Cash card, which we got in the hope of avoiding all ATM fees and foreign currency conversion fees etc, yet off the top of my head I believe we still paid lots of fees (not including unavoidable ATM fees).

Would anyone be able to clarify whether all, or any of these cards, will charge fees, and if so what do they charge?

As far as I have read, both the Clarity and Creation will charge a fee (currency conversion?) which is then automatically refunded? Leaving the only fee as the ATM fee (which is down to the ATM and not the card) and the interest, which is avoided by being paid off instantly via telephone banking?

Thanks again in advance!

benjus

JJ2017 wrote: »

Thanks again for the repies.

I'm still a little sceptical though! On my last trip to Thailand (exactly a year ago) I ordered what was recommended as one of the best travel money pre-paid cards at the time (likely on this website) - I believe it was a my Travel Cash card, which we got in the hope of avoiding all ATM fees and foreign currency conversion fees etc, yet off the top of my head I believe we still paid lots of fees (not including unavoidable ATM fees).

Would anyone be able to clarify whether all, or any of these cards, will charge fees, and if so what do they charge?

As far as I have read, both the Clarity and Creation will charge a fee (currency conversion?) which is then automatically refunded? Leaving the only fee as the ATM fee (which is down to the ATM and not the card) and the interest, which is avoided by being paid off instantly via telephone banking?

Thanks again in advance!

I use the Clarity and Santander Zero (which has very similar terms and benefits to Clarity's but is no longer available to new customers) cards when travelling.

Neither card charges any fees at all. The only thing they charge is interest, which I reduce to virtually zero by paying off transactions as soon as they hit the account.

The Creation card may do this thing of charging a fee then refunding it, but Clarity just doesn't charge the fee in the first place.

NiftyDigits

JJ2017 wrote: »

Thanks again for the repies.

I'm still a little sceptical though! On my last trip to Thailand (exactly a year ago) I ordered what was recommended as one of the best travel money pre-paid cards at the time (likely on this website) - I believe it was a my Travel Cash card, which we got in the hope of avoiding all ATM fees and foreign currency conversion fees etc, yet off the top of my head I believe we still paid lots of fees (not including unavoidable ATM fees).

Would anyone be able to clarify whether all, or any of these cards, will charge fees, and if so what do they charge?

As far as I have read, both the Clarity and Creation will charge a fee (currency conversion?) which is then automatically refunded? Leaving the only fee as the ATM fee (which is down to the ATM and not the card) and the interest, which is avoided by being paid off instantly via telephone banking?

Thanks again in advance!

Can guarantee that no one here recommended that card to you. You probably ignored all the much better advice on the forums and decided that was the best for you.
Find the post where it was recommended and I will eat my words.

Once again, you have been given the best advice, but you are still trying to second guess it.
So then we have to re-post what was written previously.

If you pre-load the card and then there is fraud, that will be your money that is frozen/taken.
So just listen to what you are being told, rather than thinking you have a great idea, eh?

The Yellow bank is the Bank of Ayudhya. I don't use them for anything. One of the first to use DCC via ATMs.
You'll need to take your passport with you and likely stick to the daily withdrawal limit of your card. Creation perhaps £500 per week. Clarity £300 to £500 per day. Don't remember exactly.

Keep debit and prepaid cards out of it, apart from emergencies.
Drip feed the Virgin card as and when you need VISA. Don't load it with large amounts of cash, because again, it's your money if it goes missing.