Chase vs Nationwide CC for foreign spending.

Marchitiello

MX5huggy said:

The nationwide car is pre 2011, so not listed on MSE, looking at it NW seem to have improved their offer. An old card used to be better than a new one. 

I have both NW and Chase card with me plus about 6 others that will be generally terrible. 

Looks like the VISA (NW) exchange rate is marginally better than Mastercard (Chase). But the cash back on C puts that back in the lead. And C for cash machine as it has no fee. 

This is not my experience at all, in many currencies. I do a test every so often as I travel abroad  at least once a month, across 3/4 continents.. MasterCard rates have always been better than VISA (I have several zero forex fee cards on both networks) 

as others have pointed out:

Chase is ATM fee free and would not incur in fees as a CC would, not would suffer of the CC being reported to credit agency for cash withdrawal.

Chase UK DC is virtually unique if travelling to the USA as you can use Chase US  extensive network for free (all USA ATM charges non customer a usage fee, that could be up to $5 per transaction). 

Chase will give you 1% cashback for most spend.

whilst it is true that most hotels and car rental companies will require a CC so to put a an hold at Check in / car collection, you can ask to swap card at check out / car return and use your Chase card and get a nice 1% cashback on what is often an hefty bill. 

jbrassy

I personally avoid using credit cards to withdraw cash due to the impact it has on credit history / score. Therefore, I would recommend using Chase for ATM withdrawals. Where you can pay for stuff with card, it's a matter of preference. With Chase the money comes out of your account straight away, but you get 1% cashback. With the Nationwide credit card, you get no cashback, but you don't have to pay the balance off for a few weeks until the direct debit is taken.  

lon_don

I'm travelling to Singapore and HK. What's best to use for normal daily spending (not cash withdrawal)

Chase UK DC (I guess the 1% cashback will make this card better than most)
HSBC Global Money DC
Nationwide FlexPlus DC
Halifax Clarity CC
Revolut (within the fee-free exchange limit)

?

Marchitiello

Chase UK for the 1% and slightly better MasterCard rates.

If there is anything you want to delay pay or help with more interest in the bank whilst the money sit there before you pay your statement, I would guess Halifax Clarity. 

If you do need to withdraw cash for any reason, I think ATM in Singapore do charge a fee and thus I would look for HSBC ATMs and use the HSBC Global Money DC, which shouldn’t incur the usual usage fee by the Singapore operator 

trient

Data point, visited recently a non-EUR EU country and tried Revolut, Chase, and Curve (metal with underlying points earning CC). Weekday transactions only.

The exchange rate was best with Revolut (Visa), with Chase about 2% worse (so still about 1% worse after cashback) and Curve about 1.5% behind Revolut. Chase and Curve are Mastercards so it does look like Visa have the best rates.

Thinking to also try Clarity, Wise, Monese, and HSBC Global Money, next time.

Marchitiello

trient said:

Data point, visited recently a non-EUR EU country and tried Revolut, Chase, and Curve (metal with underlying points earning CC). Weekday transactions only.

The exchange rate was best with Revolut (Visa), with Chase about 2% worse (so still about 1% worse after cashback) and Curve about 1.5% behind Revolut. Chase and Curve are Mastercards so it does look like Visa have the best rates.

Thinking to also try Clarity, Wise, Monese, and HSBC Global Money, next time.

Apologies, but your conclusion (VISA best rates) is to be narrowed down to exactly the currency you were exchanging to. There will be specific currency exceptions. For example, Amex is often best for USD exchange rates but it applies a 2.99 forex fee so it becomes useless.. My experience on Major currencies (USD and EUR) and some odd one (e.g QAR, AED, ISK on recent experiences) have shown for MasterCard to be better (normally verify rates across Chase DC MC, Santander Zero CC MC, and MBNA Horizon CC VS, Barclaycard Rewards CC VS, 7 days ago also tested HSBC Global Money DC VS)

eg: if you check what would have cost you yesterday (Friday 03/03) to pay something €100 (using 0 forex cards) it would have been £88.92 using a Visa card and “only”  £88.79 using a MasterCard. MasterCard does look to apply more safety margin at week ends by the way, so it is worst today (but to the tune of 0.1-0.2% so the cashback on Chase would have still made it better) .
source (need to ensure 0% bank fee are selected as well as the exact date you would have transacted in):

https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/personal/get-support/convert-currency.html

https://www.visa.co.uk/support/consumer/travel-support/exchange-rate-calculator.html

trient

Marchitiello said:

trient said:

Data point, visited recently a non-EUR EU country and tried Revolut, Chase, and Curve (metal with underlying points earning CC). Weekday transactions only.

The exchange rate was best with Revolut (Visa), with Chase about 2% worse (so still about 1% worse after cashback) and Curve about 1.5% behind Revolut. Chase and Curve are Mastercards so it does look like Visa have the best rates.

Thinking to also try Clarity, Wise, Monese, and HSBC Global Money, next time.

Apologies, but your conclusion (VISA best rates) is to be narrowed down to exactly the currency you were exchanging to. There will be specific currency exceptions. For example, Amex is often best for USD exchange rates but it applies a 2.99 forex fee so it becomes useless.. My experience on Major currencies (USD and EUR) and some odd one (e.g QAR, AED, ISK on recent experiences) have shown for MasterCard to be better (normally verify rates across Chase DC MC, Santander Zero CC MC, and MBNA Horizon CC VS, Barclaycard Rewards CC VS, 7 days ago also tested HSBC Global Money DC VS)

eg: if you check what would have cost you yesterday (Friday 03/03) to pay something €100 (using 0 forex cards) it would have been £88.92 using a Visa card and “only”  £88.79 using a MasterCard. MasterCard does look to apply more safety margin at week ends by the way, so it is worst today (but to the tune of 0.1-0.2% so the cashback on Chase would have still made it better) .
source (need to ensure 0% bank fee are selected as well as the exact date you would have transacted in):

https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/personal/get-support/convert-currency.html

https://www.visa.co.uk/support/consumer/travel-support/exchange-rate-calculator.html

That's interesting in theory but have you actually tested all of those combinations in parallel and at the same(ish) time? You mentioned you verify rates across Chase MC DC for example - how do you do that without carrying out an actual transaction?

In my case I'm not looking at published rates, but simply made in-store purchases within minutes. Published standard rates can be misleading- for example Curve is advertised as a 0% fx card (weekdays) however they clearly applied a markup in my case (compared to Chase as also a 0% MC).

Marchitiello

trient said:

Marchitiello said:

trient said:

Data point, visited recently a non-EUR EU country and tried Revolut, Chase, and Curve (metal with underlying points earning CC). Weekday transactions only.

The exchange rate was best with Revolut (Visa), with Chase about 2% worse (so still about 1% worse after cashback) and Curve about 1.5% behind Revolut. Chase and Curve are Mastercards so it does look like Visa have the best rates.

Thinking to also try Clarity, Wise, Monese, and HSBC Global Money, next time.

Apologies, but your conclusion (VISA best rates) is to be narrowed down to exactly the currency you were exchanging to. There will be specific currency exceptions. For example, Amex is often best for USD exchange rates but it applies a 2.99 forex fee so it becomes useless.. My experience on Major currencies (USD and EUR) and some odd one (e.g QAR, AED, ISK on recent experiences) have shown for MasterCard to be better (normally verify rates across Chase DC MC, Santander Zero CC MC, and MBNA Horizon CC VS, Barclaycard Rewards CC VS, 7 days ago also tested HSBC Global Money DC VS)

eg: if you check what would have cost you yesterday (Friday 03/03) to pay something €100 (using 0 forex cards) it would have been £88.92 using a Visa card and “only”  £88.79 using a MasterCard. MasterCard does look to apply more safety margin at week ends by the way, so it is worst today (but to the tune of 0.1-0.2% so the cashback on Chase would have still made it better) .
source (need to ensure 0% bank fee are selected as well as the exact date you would have transacted in):

https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/personal/get-support/convert-currency.html

https://www.visa.co.uk/support/consumer/travel-support/exchange-rate-calculator.html

That's interesting in theory but have you actually tested all of those combinations in parallel and at the same(ish) time? You mentioned you verify rates across Chase MC DC for example - how do you do that without carrying out an actual transaction?

In my case I'm not looking at published rates, but simply made in-store purchases within minutes. Published standard rates can be misleading- for example Curve is advertised as a 0% fx card (weekdays) however they clearly applied a markup in my case (compared to Chase as also a 0% MC).

I have used the cards for small transactions in the locations I am in and check the net exchanged rates in the app and/or notification (example buying a coffee at Starbucks and / or a bottle of water at the store next door).

having said that, the official Visa and MasterCard currency tools I have shared above are not published rates as such, but are an accurate verification tool to check if your bank is charging their rates or also something on Top. If you pick a transaction you have made on your Chase card and select the same date on the tool, you should get exactly the rate /exchanged amount published on your statement (as that is what Chase use, MasterCard Rate).  In my experience, MBNA Visa is also the same (exact rate from the currency tool online), as does HSBC Global Money (when you only hold a balance in GBP).

Curve has published in the past the issue with week end rates, but again never been interested in that card, I am only discussing generally how the real date rates differ, which again, if your card issuer does not add anything on top, means that generally (as demonstrated in my previous post) MasterCard beat Visa on US/EUR and some other currencies, leaving the possibility that some currencies could be indeed in favour of Visa.

would you mind share the date and country/currency of your data point? Unless it is Revolut giving you some extra benefits, the cards I use more often (Santander Zero, Chase DC and MBNA Horizon Visa) apply exactly the respective card network rates ( MC or VS).

lon_don

Marchitiello said:

Chase UK for the 1% and slightly better MasterCard rates.

If there is anything you want to delay pay or help with more interest in the bank whilst the money sit there before you pay your statement, I would guess Halifax Clarity. 

If you do need to withdraw cash for any reason, I think ATM in Singapore do charge a fee and thus I would look for HSBC ATMs and use the HSBC Global Money DC, which shouldn’t incur the usual usage fee by the Singapore operator 

Early last year I indeed noticed that only HSBC atm was fee free in SG, all the others that I tried charged withdrawal fee (using a Revolut card, I didn't have  Chase & HSBC Global M back then).

Last week I booked my SG-HK flight online, the ticket was in HKD and I was using my Chase DC. At the exact time when I made the payment I checked Revolut. The Chase exchange rate was very slightly worse than Revolut's, but the 1% cashback made Chase better. (I also had live fx market in front of me and GBPSGD  barely moved the whole time when I made the payment).