Best way to use ATM in USA

Neil49

We were in Las Vegas and California last year and used a combination of a Clarity credit card and a Monzo card. We used the Clarity card once to get some cash out but used our cards for paying for virtually everything over a 2 week period and had to make a conscious effort to spend the cash before returning to the UK.

Monzo (and Starling) are debit cards that are purely internet based but give the Mastercard rate of exchange. Why I like these debit cards over the Clarity is that transactions appear on your mobile phone in seconds and you get the exchange rate details included. Many restaurants take your card away to process the transaction so with these cards you can see the amount charged and would also be aware of any fraudulent transactions in seconds. Blocking the card is a simple app based option.

Yes, you are paying up front for purchases, and for big amounts I would use the Clarity card, but for day to day use they are really convenient.

bagand96

You probably won't need that much cash on the US, even for 3 weeks. It's a credit card society and almost everywhere accepts them.

As you know, you can withdraw cash on your Halifax Clarity. You will pay interest from the moment you withdraw through. One way to minimize this is to pay it off as soon as it hits the account. this is easy to do with their mobile app you can see when the withdrawal appears in the account, then just pay off that amount from your bank app. You'll have plenty of wifi access to do this and it only takes 90 seconds or so. You do need to wait until it appears though - if you have purchases on the account and you send the money too early, it'll just pay off the purchase balance.

Another option is Starling Bank. It's just a current account you manage entirely through their mobile app. Fee free cash withdrawals on the Mastercard Debit. Can be opened in minutes and your card will arrive in a couple of days. I got this account for foreign withdrawals originally but quite like it - now use it daily as a 'spending' account separate from my main bank account.

As others have said - all US ATM's seem to charge, nobody seems to have found a way round it. Just find one with reasonable charges - supermarkets or McDonalds usually!

newatc

Warning on Halifax Clarity

On another thread I recommended use of Clarity and said I have never had trouble using it abroad.
Halifax no longer rely on you telling them that you are going abroad but use "intelligence". We have just returned from USA and my wife used her card successfully at Heathrow Duty Free but when trying to use it in the States it was declined (in restaurant). So much for their intelligence.
Fortunately I had a non-Halifax card with me so used that (was going to try to use my Halifax elsewhere for interest but forgot).
So do make sure you have other cards to fall back on.

happyhero

bagand96 wrote: »

One way to minimize this is to pay it off as soon as it hits the account. this is easy to do with their mobile app you can see when the withdrawal appears in the account, then just pay off that amount from your bank app. You'll have plenty of wifi access to do this and it only takes 90 seconds or so. You do need to wait until it appears though - if you have purchases on the account and you send the money too early, it'll just pay off the purchase balance.

Thanks bagand96, I was thinking of doing this and minimising how many ATM's I use and so how much ATM fees I suffer as this could prove to be a simple way to manage it but I'm struggling with working out the daily interest charge. I just tried from their site working out what £500 worth of dollars would cost in interest and came up with 26p per day but thats using their lowest rate of 18.95% per annum, does that sound right?

They show 2 rates on their site so don't know what thats all about and which would apply to me 18.95 and 25.95?

Also looking at their site it seems that any payments come off the cash withdrawals if I read it right.... I've noticed in the past with credit cards you need to watch how they apply any payments you make on things like this, so this seems to be ok, ie I could leave my purchases on the card until statement date to pay off then and just pay the ATM withdrawals off.

How quickly will you see an ATM withdrawal on the online view and did you just pay it as soon as you saw it?

If it appears on the day you do the withdrawal and you pay it off later that day does that mean zero interest in charges or will they make one charge immediately, I know we are talking small charges here but I'm just trying to understand how it works?

NoodleDoodleMan

Get a Barclaycard Platinum Travel Card, and unlike Halifax Clarity, you won't have any daily interest fees on ATM usage.

Simply settle up the full amount when you return home.

The fee free deal runs until August 2022 - a nice little earner for foreign travel.

mchale

happyhero wrote: »

came up with 26p per day but thats using their lowest rate of 18.95% per annum, does that sound right?

Is it really worth worrying about ? on a 21 day holiday its going to cost you £5.46.

happyhero

mchale wrote: »

Is it really worth worrying about ? on a 21 day holiday its going to cost you £5.46.

Youre right of course if I have worked it out correctly so thats what I was asking as it seemed too little on £500.

hollie.weimeraner

We had no issues with a Clarity card whilst on our road trip from SF to Las Vegas but I took my Nationwide card as back up (free for purchases only). I withdrew a couple of hundred dollars at SF airport and didn't need any more cash.

You can always do a bank transfer whilst you're out there as there is free wi fi almost everywhere.

Me and my wife split our cards and cash just in case as well.

If you're hiring a car make sure you don't leave anything at all visible when you leave it. Hire cars stand out like a sore thumb in the states as they all have barcodes in the rear windows.

Enjoy your holiday it was probably the best holiday we ever had.:D

Marmaduke123

NoodleDoodleMan wrote: »

Get a Barclaycard Platinum Travel Card, and unlike Halifax Clarity, you won't have any daily interest fees on ATM usage.

Simply settle up the full amount when you return home.

The fee free deal runs until August 2022 - a nice little earner for foreign travel.

You don't need to pay anything until your next normal payment date following the statement showing the transactions. If you get the app you can see all your transactions as they appear , helps to monitor your spending.

stephen160

There are several chain garages in Florida that offers free cash withdrawal
WAWa is one that i use in Kissimmee