Barclaycard Rewards and Overseas

ColdIron

alm721 said:

Hi, I appreciate this is an old thread now, but wondered if anyone could confirm whether you should pay in Stirling or the foreign currency when using this card (if given the option) or does it not matter? Many thanks 

Going all the way to Scotland to use your card seems very inconvenient 

CliveOfIndia

alm721 said:

Hi, I appreciate this is an old thread now, but wondered if anyone could confirm whether you should pay in Stirling or the foreign currency when using this card (if given the option) or does it not matter? Many thanks 

Always pay in local (i.e. foreign) currency, let your card do the conversion for you.  The reason being, the exchange rate used by either Mastercard or Visa is pretty much the best rate the average Joe Public can get.  If you let the retailer convert it to GBP for you, more often than not they'll use a rate that is advantageous to them.

The credit card exchange rate will vary on a daily basis, so if you spend 100 Euros one day, it'll be a slightly different amount of GBP than if you spend 100 Euros the next day.  But pretty much, you can relax knowing that you've got near-as-dammit the best rate you're likely to get for all practical purposes.

alm721 said:

(if given the option)

You should always be given the option.  I've no idea what the actual laws are from country to country, but in my experience there's always an option on the card-reader terminal to switch from one to the other.  The retailer may set it to GBP by default, for the reasons explained above, but you should be able to ask them to change it to local currency, or do it yourself on the terminal.  Most honest traders (again, only going by personal experience) will ask you which currency you want to pay in anyway.

eskbanker

ColdIron said:

alm721 said:

Hi, I appreciate this is an old thread now, but wondered if anyone could confirm whether you should pay in Stirling or the foreign currency when using this card (if given the option) or does it not matter? Many thanks 

Going all the way to Scotland to use your card seems very inconvenient 

Perhaps they live here, a mere 12 miles away?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar,_Clackmannanshire

CliveOfIndia

eskbanker said:

ColdIron said:

Perhaps they live here, a mere 12 miles away?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar,_Clackmannanshire

I used to live very close to Dollar.  It's a beautiful place, but you do need lots of Dollars or "Stirlings" to be able to afford a house there :-)

sausage_time

thewagster said:

This is what I see when I log in to my account, go to "Help" and "Going Abroad"

I suspect this is general boiler-plate text to cover all cards - hence "up to".  As others have noted it really is zero if you clear the statement balance each month.

I win "up to" £1,000,000 on my Premium Bonds most months.