Travel Credit Card - Visa or Mastercard
CG2017
Forumite 40 Posts
in Credit Cards
Good evening everyone
We go on holiday in a few months and we are just trying to plan our spending.
I am unsure whether to apply for the Barclaycard Platinum Travelcard (Visa) as there are no fees on cash or spending, but the exchange rate wont be as good as a Mastercard
Or. to apply for a travel master card (i'm unsure if we will be accepted for the Halifax Clarity card but I think there are some others) and take some cash as there is a charge on cash withdrawals?
Any feedback would be very welcome :j
We go on holiday in a few months and we are just trying to plan our spending.
I am unsure whether to apply for the Barclaycard Platinum Travelcard (Visa) as there are no fees on cash or spending, but the exchange rate wont be as good as a Mastercard
Or. to apply for a travel master card (i'm unsure if we will be accepted for the Halifax Clarity card but I think there are some others) and take some cash as there is a charge on cash withdrawals?
Any feedback would be very welcome :j
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I have a Halifax Clarity card following advice from MSE. It works exactly as promised with one exception - we spend a couple of months in the Algarve every year and have found that the card is not accepted in a number of retail outlets, returning a message of card invalid or not accepted or not authorised ..... can't remember the exact text, but result the same. One assistant said 'we always have problems with these blue cards from the UK'. It seems that it may be something from the Halifax side as the shops where the card is rejected tend to be small establishments, and maybe not recognised by the Halifax? I asked the question of the Halifax and was told that their card is accepted everywhere?? I haven't got around to putting the question in writing yet. So we use another MasterCard in these instances and also take some cash with us as there are restaurants that only accept cash.
Hope this helps!
Taking one of each would be best, and you should never rely on only one card anyway - any card can sometimes fail for obscure reasons, as Savvybird's story illustrates, or be lost or stolen etc.
Apart from credit cards there's Starling Bank, Monzo, Loot prepaid {all MasterCard} and Revolut {usually Visa}.
With regards to Halifax being accepted, it would not be due to the card being issued by Halifax but most probably to the card type and potential different fee charged to the retailer. Although it has no World or World Elite written on it, I suspect the card number correspond to some sort of semi-Premium MasterCard that result in retailers being charged higher fee, so they have the option to simply set up their system to reject it.
FWIW, I would always change some cash and take it with me, I do not recommend ever withdrawing cash on a credit card, irrespective of whether they charge conversion fees.
You cant apply for that one though, only for existing cardholders of MBNA's airline cards which are being replaced.
It's your choice but you will almost certainly be paying more for your FX if you change it here rather than from an ATM abroad using a Clarity card.
Almost certainly doesn't apply as the EEA/EU interchange fees are capped by type i.e. credit or debit - no extra for premium cards.