Avoiding interest on cash withdrawals abroad?

d123

worried_jim wrote: »

Or as in post 3, simply open a Starling account then there is no faffing about or fees.

Agreed, Starling convert at the MasterCard rate with no fees.

https://www.starlingbank.com/travel/

NoodleDoodleMan

Best credit card for travel - no fees at ATMs and for purchases.

https://www.barclaycard.co.uk/personal/credit-cards/platinum-cashback-plus

You need to be able to settle the monthly balance of course when back home to avoid interest

bd10

I would opt for a credit and debit card combination. The credit card (such as Clarity or Barclay's Platinum Travel card) for non-GBP non-cash transactions and a debit card such as Starling's for cash transactions. Cash withdrawals are recorded as cash advances on the credit file and that may not be looked at favourably by lenders. Even if the credit card issuer might not penalise these as they know why you're doing it (fee-fresh cheap cash abroad), others may not see the details of the cash withdrawal and may be less keen on it. That's why I opened an account with Starling. But then again it also depends where one is travelling to. In some countries you may not need any cash (e.g. Singapore), in others you may well need it (e.g. NL).

tryin

zerog wrote: »

If you withdraw £105 equivalent, you can pay off £100 immediately and then wait until the transaction posts to pay off the exact remaining amount. Never been charged a penny of interest on my Clarity.

Also pay off any existing balance completely before leaving on your trip, otherwise payments will go towards previous statements first.

You can probably just pay a bit more than you think it is. As long as it doesn't look like your deliberately putting it in credit, I don't see why they would mind. I've done it many times with the halifax clarity, without a problem.

vacheron

I posted this on another thread a while back:

As an example I spent 12 days in Greece last month and used my Clarity card for payments and for withdrawing about 400-500 euros from cash machines .

I paid off the balance about 10 days in to the holiday and the second when I came home and all outstanding payments had settled down.

The total interest came to 41 pence. It would have been less had I paid the balance off every couple of days or so, (or attempted to pre-load the card) but even "I" can live with 41p.