Halifax Clarity card

Gerry1

derrick wrote: »

YMMV?

Never been to China before.

.

Your Mileage May Vary. Used to warn that someting may not be as good as it appears to be initially. You'll need to do your homework as you haven't been there before !

adindas

derrick wrote: »

But they will charge interest for cash withdrawals from the day of withdrawal.

This is a credit card (not debit card) so in general if you withdraw cash you are actually borrowing their money and counted as cash advancement that's why you will need to pay interest. There is only one Creditcard AFAIK that does not charge you any interest e.g Specialist Barclaycards but as far as I know the new one will not come with this perks.

derrick wrote: »

Any way of getting cash from and ATM in China interest and cash free?

As above the old Specialist Barclaycards. Otherwise specialist debit card such as Starling, Bo, Santander Zero (no more available for new customers). Otherwise prepaid card.

derrick wrote: »

Is this card the best for a trip to China?

No (see above)

Gerry1

adindas wrote: »

Santander Zero (no more available for new customers).

It was briefly withdrawn, but it's been available again for quite a while.

https://www.santander.co.uk/personal/credit-cards/zero-credit-card

derrick

Gerry1 wrote: »

It was briefly withdrawn, but It's been available again for quite a while.

https://www.santander.co.uk/personal/credit-cards/zero-credit-card

But still pay interest if withdrawing cash:

"You won’t be charged a cash withdrawal fee if you need to withdraw any cash but interest will be charged on the cash you take out from the day it’s withdrawn."


.

Gerry1

True, but the great advantage is that you're not stung by foreign loading and / or a cash withdrawal fee, so the overall cost is much lower. As previously explained, it can be minimised or avoided completely.

Also as previously explained, Barclaycard has (or had) a promotional offer until 31 Aug 2022 where there was no cash advance interest if paid back by the due date.

adindas

Gerry1 wrote: »

It was briefly withdrawn, but It's been available again for quite a while.

https://www.santander.co.uk/personal/credit-cards/zero-credit-card

derrick wrote: »

But still pay interest if withdrawing cash:

"You won’t be charged a cash withdrawal fee if you need to withdraw any cash but interest will be charged on the cash you take out from the day it’s withdrawn."

.

Well, I am actually talking about Santander Zero debit card as part of Santander Zero Current account, not a creditcard. This current account is no longer available for new customer. The same function with Starling Bank Account which come with debit card. No interest at all as with debit card it is your own money you are taking out. The most important thing is that you are getting favourable exchange rate either MAster or Visa exchange rate.

buglawton

adindas wrote: »

Euronet cash machines have come into the spotlight many times in this forum and another forum. With so many complains I wonder why people especially MSEr are still using it.
Is it because their machines are normally eye catching, e.g they have the largest cash machines in the tourist areas ?? But for your own use the size of cash machines does not really matter. In many instances, you could easily find out another ATMs from local banks or reputable Multinational Banks about less than 100m walk, a few are even standing next to Euronet cash machines.

Many of their cash machines are there to con the clueless tourist. In many cases they do everything they could legally do to trick you as if you were making the wrong decision to reject their conversion rate. Also in many cases they will only allow the highest denomination of the banknotes from their machines expecting people to withdraw a lot of cash in one go.

Rather than asking Halifax to block them, what about the cards users take responsibility for their own action? If People start avoiding the Euronet cash machines, and keep campaigning in any opportunity to stop them to con people than in a few years they will cease to exist.

In my instance Euronet had a monopoly of all ATMs in the main rail station concourse and apparently, for a large part of the touristy city centre of Warsaw.

If I'd had a decent app showing where a 'reasonable fee' ATM was available, that would have been ideal. Hence my (ignored) suggestion to Halifax. On a more recent trip I had to pay a £2 handling fee to the ATM provider when using Clarity. For a 100 Euro withdrawal I thought that was OK, as no other fees apart from possibly, interest to Halifax and in stark contrast to tricky Euronet, the ATM dialogue was fully clear and understandable.

Anther withdrawal on that same recent trip was completely free of ATM fees. I prefer to use hole-in-the-walls on the front of banks as most honest bet.