Drawing cash abroad

robatwork

Yorkshire_Pud wrote: »

Nationwide FlexDirect or Flexclusive Regular saver for saving it, Halifax Clarity credit card for spending it then paying it off as soon as possible.

Plus some GBP clean crisp or is it squeaky new £20 notes to exchange over there.

Be careful with those new £20s (and £10s and £5s) at customs in case they stop you from bringing animal products into the country....

mt99

The advantage of the Halifax Clarity card is that you always get the wholesale Visa/Mastercard exchange rate which is miles better than you'd get at Sainsbury or Post Office or banks etc.

You can use it in the local cash machines to withdraw cash. You get the same wholesale exchange rate, and Halifax don't charge you eg £3 or £5 to withdraw the cash (like Nationwide do) - your card just gets debited using the exchange rate.

Of course you then start paying interest on your cash advance on the card but if you logon to your bank and make a payment to your Clarity Card then the interest is only for a couple of days until the payment arrives.

Katiehound

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Isn't that false economy? Assuming Euros, Tesco's rate is currently 1.146, around 2.2% worse than Halifax's 1.172 rate. At the Clarity's 18.9% APR representative rate, you could afford to carry a cash balance for 6 weeks* and still be in pocket! Even if they didn't have internet access overseas, most holidaymakers would have been back home at least a month before that point!


* If you're still on the old 12.9% APR rate that period is extended to over 2 months (but worst case scenario you'd have paid it off within 7 weeks anyway).

Okay, I've slipped up! But just to say I hang onto my euros from year to year and I think the purse looks fairly healthy! I really very rarely use cash- if the minimum spend by card is E5 .. whatever then I use the card. You certainly need coins for the car park machines....

Instead of logging onto online banking - I don't have access abroad (me, I'm in the dark ages!!) I would probably just phone and transfer money from my Reward a/c. Last year it was 1cent per min to UK but of course things may have changed!

jimjames

Yorkshire_Pud wrote: »

Nationwide FlexDirect or Flexclusive Regular saver for saving it, Halifax Clarity credit card for spending it then paying it off as soon as possible.

Just to clarify that there is zero point paying it off as soon as possible. Pay off by the required date on your statement, even better set the DD to pay the full balance so you don't forget.

badger09

jimjames wrote: »

Just to clarify that there is zero point paying it off as soon as possible. Pay off by the required date on your statement, even better set the DD to pay the full balance so you don't forget.

There is a point paying it off as soon as possible in the circumstances being discussed, ie when the Halifax Clarity Credit card has been used to withdraw cash abroad, because it limits the interest charge;)

dggar

jimjames wrote: »

Just to clarify that there is zero point paying it off as soon as possible. Pay off by the required date on your statement, even better set the DD to pay the full balance so you don't forget.

You pay interest on Cash Withdrawals from the date of the withdrawal until it has been paid off.

redux

dggar wrote: »

You pay interest on Cash Withdrawals from the date of the withdrawal until it has been paid off.

Yes, but usually a payment to a card account goes towards the last statement balance, and not towards items which have not yet appeared on a statement.

I assume that is what jimjames is hinting at.

Whether that is actually the case with the Halifax card, I don't know but would assume so. Perhaps those with the card would find it interesting to check.

YorkshireBoy

redux wrote: »

Whether that is actually the case with the Halifax card, I don't know but would assume so.

It is, yes.

mt99

Yes it is best to be absolutely clear about this if you want to avoid any interest charges.

Any payments you make towards a Clarity card first of all goes to any outstanding balance on a statement only then will any payments go towards items that have not yet appeared on a statement

you need to make sure that you pay everything off if you want to avoid interest charges on cash withdrawals

That said, if you use your Clarity card to withdraw cash from a cash machine abroad you get an excellent exchange rate and if you then log on to online banking and pay off everything you owe you won't get charged any interest or at least very very little

eDicky

Payments made towards a Clarity card are used to clear balances in the following order:

1. Any outstanding balance on a previous statement.
2. Any cash withdrawals since the last statement.
3. Any other items that have not yet appeared on a statement.

So if you know you are paying enough to cover the first two, you've got the withdrawals paid off.