Clarity withdrawal abroad

Sncjw

Hi I’m going to Spain in the future and I am wondering about the clarity card abroad.

I have never withdrawn cash from the card in the UK. I’ve just used it for purchases.

Can someone explain it to a novice how the clarity card works abroad. My interest is 19%.

I will be taking euros but have card as a backup and to spend in the airport in the UK.

Thank you

eDicky

Sncjw wrote: »

I will be taking euros but have card as a backup

It should be the opposite, using your Clarity card for everything and avoiding the expense of buying cash euros, except perhaps a few for backup if you're not confident.

Pay with the card whenever possible, withdraw from an ATM when needed, many charge a few euros so try to find one that doesn't. The minimal daily interest on withdrawals can be limited to pennies if you pay it off early.

The thing to beware of is DCC (Dynamic Currency Conversion), a legal scam whereby attempts are made to charge your card in pounds at a terrible exchange rate. At an ATM reject the offer of an exchange rate for pounds by selecting 'Without Conversion' or similar, and make sure when paying by card that the choice of euros is selected before and/or after you input your PIN.

Sncjw

We have already got the Euro!!!8217;s. It!!!8217;s because there!!!8217;s many of us going and we are going to pool money in certain places.

Craig1981

even though there is no charge for withdrawal on Clarity, surely this is still classed as a cash advance? Cash advances hurt your credit score, or so i believe
I would however use it for anything and everything to purchase with chip and pin - using euro rate and NOT £ rate as eDicky suggested, and use your euros you have for the small things where you cannot use your card

[Deleted User]

Cash advances in a well managed account aren't anything to be concerned about. And of course, your credit score isn't a real thing.

Craig1981

Craig1981 wrote: »

even though there is no charge for withdrawal on Clarity, surely this is still classed as a cash advance? Cash advances hurt your credit score, or so i believe
I would however use it for anything and everything to purchase with chip and pin - using euro rate and NOT £ rate as eDicky suggested, and use your euros you have for the small things where you cannot use your card

apologies - not credit score, but credit file

chattychappy

I regularly use Clarity and Santander Zero to pull out cash.

My "score" with Experian is 999 for those who are interested in such things.

pochisoldi

Craig1981 wrote: »

Cash advances hurt your credit score, or so i believe

I've regularly used a Clarity card for cash withdrawals abroad, and it has had zero impact on my credit score.

The only thing that has caused my credit score to drop was running one card at full limit for 6 months, and even then it was a drop of around 50 points. Some 3 months after paying off the balance the score is back to its original level.

chattychappy

pochisoldi wrote: »

I've regularly used a Clarity card for cash withdrawals abroad, and it has had zero impact on my credit score.

The only thing that has caused my credit score to drop was running one card at full limit for 6 months, and even then it was a drop of around 50 points. Some 3 months after paying off the balance the score is back to its original level.

Yep, they recover pretty quickly. I had a "late payment" logged (CC error, by the way). I dropped from 999 to something like 800, but 3 months later it was something like 990 before returning to 999.

As we all know by now, lenders make their own decisions not based on the "score" but the raw data from the CRAs plus what you write on the form, any previous history you have with the lender and fraud checks. The "score" that people see is something created by CRAs on their data only (which includes time on electoral roll as well as credit history) so is only a partial view.

lisyloo

apologies - not credit score, but credit file

Taking out holiday money on a well-managed credit file does not have a negative impact.
In the context of a poor credit file, then taking out cash on credit cards could of course be interpreted negatively.

chattychappy

lisyloo wrote: »

Taking out holiday money on a well-managed credit file does not have a negative impact.
In the context of a poor credit file, then taking out cash on credit cards could of course be interpreted negatively.

Yep. At one time, I was making at least a couple of withdrawals every week for a couple of years. Still no problems.