Avoiding interest when using the Halifax Clarity Credit Card

david39

If you have the money to pre-pay the Clarity card, instead of doing that, get yourself a Starling Bank debit card and put the money into that account. It's an App-only account and can be set up in a few minutes from your phone
You can use it anywhere at home and abroad and there are no foreign transaction fees, even for withdrawing cash from an ATM. Exchange rate is standard MasterCard rate.
I got one for a holiday in Lanzarote, but now use it as a secondary account on an everyday basis.
Google Starling Bank for details and write ups.

pochisoldi

Rich0200 wrote: »

Hi all,

So on the basis of MSE advice I have applied and been accepted for the Halifax Clarity card, which I intend to use to support my foreign travel. My plan is to access my online banking and immediately pay off any purchase spending so to avoid the daily interest rate (18%). However, I was thinking that the alternative would be to overpay into the card before I go (say for example £500) and go into negative balance, that way avoiding the daily interest fee. If I have money left, it's then a straight cash withdrawal back in the UK, but if I need more I can 'overpay' some more into the card when I'm away. I understand banks will refund any negative balance but probably not for a couple of months, by which time I'll be home.

Is this a good idea? Will it work?

Thanks

Here's my method - I have the Halifax banking app on my phone:

1) Make the cash withdrawal

2) Use the app to confirm when the withdrawal has actually been posted on the account. (Note "posted" means showing as a recent transaction, not a pending transaction). Make a note of the amount.

3) If I haven't paid off last month's balance, I do a bill payment for last month's balance+amount of cash withdrawal.
If I have already paid off last month's balance, I do a bill payment for the amount of the cash withdrawal

Note that any payment is applied in the order:
Last month's balance
Cash withdrawals
This month's purchases.
Unposted transactions in the order that they come in.

Note:
If you don't wait until the cash withdrawal has been posted, your early payment will pay off this month's purchases rather than your cash withdrawal.

If you can, withdraw money Monday-Thursday. Withdrawing cash on Friday means it will take at least 4 calendar days to post and during that time you are paying interest.

PochiSoldi