Travel credit card

hugheskevi

peagestress said:

We have used the Clarity card for a few years , however last week whilst driving through France our card was not accepted at the Peage . This was frustrating and stressful as the previous day it had been fine and with a queue of cars behind you trying to get through the booths it was not something we want to repeat. I contacted the Halifax that day ( 10/3) to see why it was not being accepted and to check it wasn’t blocked because of a possible fraud. They told me that it wasn’t them but the motorway company that were not accepting it. Weird but there we are . The motorway until Reims was fine but when paying later near Albertville its not. I think different companies . Our card was fine in all other circumstances, supermarkets, petrol, restaurants etc. On the way home the same happened , not accepted on the southern routes but ok from Troyes onwards. I contacted Halifax again and the same story , its the company not accepting the card

I suggest that although not their fault it is their issue to resolve as the main reason people have the card is to use abroad . I don’t believe that they will resolve it. People need to know that the card wont work on ( at least) the south eastern motorway peage in France. There will undoubtedly be hundreds of people driving down that route in the next few months , ( we will again in July ) but unless its clearly resolved we wont be using the Clarity card again as we don’t want that stress again! Has anyone else had this issue ?

Very common for cards not to work abroad now and again for one reason or another - we even found a few Walmarts in USA in non touristy places where no international cards worked for an unknown reason.

Similarly many cards are problematic in ATMs - central America is renowned for ATMs being difficult to use, and just having to try multiple times with multiple cards until you get cash.

Just have different cards from different providers and a combination of Visa and MasterCard to maximize chances that something works.

etienneg

"I suggest that although not their fault it is their issue to resolve as the main reason people have the card is to use abroad."

Well, I suggest it's clearly not their issue to resolve! Your experiences indicate that it's particular merchants that don't accept the card, whilst most do. It's up to each merchant to decide which cards to accept and which to decline, or which payment system to use (which may be the cause of the issue here). What do you expect Halifax to do? It's like a merchant deciding not to accept £50 notes - would you expect the Bank of England to resolve this issue? The Clarity card (like others) works in most places, but there will always be exceptions.

Be practical and get yourself at least one other credit card with no fees abroad (I have four), and also at least one zero fee debit card. It's not difficult to deal with this yourself.

Marchitiello

peagestress said:

We have used the Clarity card for a few years , however last week whilst driving through France our card was not accepted at the Peage . This was frustrating and stressful as the previous day it had been fine and with a queue of cars behind you trying to get through the booths it was not something we want to repeat. I contacted the Halifax that day ( 10/3) to see why it was not being accepted and to check it wasn’t blocked because of a possible fraud. They told me that it wasn’t them but the motorway company that were not accepting it. Weird but there we are . The motorway until Reims was fine but when paying later near Albertville its not. I think different companies . Our card was fine in all other circumstances, supermarkets, petrol, restaurants etc. On the way home the same happened , not accepted on the southern routes but ok from Troyes onwards. I contacted Halifax again and the same story , its the company not accepting the card

I suggest that although not their fault it is their issue to resolve as the main reason people have the card is to use abroad . I don’t believe that they will resolve it. People need to know that the card wont work on ( at least) the south eastern motorway peage in France. There will undoubtedly be hundreds of people driving down that route in the next few months , ( we will again in July ) but unless its clearly resolved we wont be using the Clarity card again as we don’t want that stress again! Has anyone else had this issue ?

Every merchant has the right to esclude a selection of BIN numbers. To the customer paying it may look like the transaction did not go through but In Reality it was a specific choice by the retailer. Halifax should be able to enquire it via MasterCard (unless MasterCard overall is not accepted by that motorway operator). In any case I probably do above average foreign travel and I have had transaction rejected on a particular card many times (having worked in business taking payments, sometime there may be problem with an issuer, a specific network or a particular card) so I will always have more then one option when travelling (0% Forex fee cards); right now I carry most time Chase DB MCWE, Santander Zero MW, MBNA Horizon V, Barclaycard Reward V, HSBC Global Money V, plus a bunch of EURO bank account cards when travelling in the Eurozone.

PaulaKB

I had similar problems in the US - Clarity worked at various retailers during the day, but then Halifax refused the transaction when trying to pay the bill for the evening meal at the hotel. Luckily I had withdrawn enough dollars to cover the bill. 10 minutes later after each blocked transaction I'd get a text from Halifax stating they'd blocked it and to reply if it was me overseas and they'd allow future transactions. But then after two or three successful transactions they'd randomly block another - at the same establishment! The site says you don't have to tell them you're going abroad. It's marketed as a travel card and yet it just isn't fit for purpose and cannot be relied upon. I won't trust it again. I got the Clarity card this year specifically to avoid such situations based on the travel card advice on MSE, so I thought I'd be safe. Very disappointing.

sausage_time

hugheskevi said:

I'm currently traveling through the Americas, and have most of the UK travel credit/debit cards with me. To date, my observations are:

• Chase was great for the USA - always Chase ATMs around in towns and cities (often drive-throughs), although I mostly used the Chase card for payments (1% cashback, and just easier than cash) so didn't need much cash at all. The ATMs are most often connected to branches, which will exchange note denominations for free should you wish as you are a Chase customer (after a lot of confusion about why their system can't access the Chase account and bemusement about why there are so few details on the card!).
• South of the USA, Chase (in common with all my Mastercards) became a bit unreliable in ATMs - central American ATMs are renowned for being unpredictable, and just sometimes giving out cash and sometimes not.
• Barclaycard (Visa) has been by far the most reliable card for ATMs in central America, but their app is far behind all the other providers, it is the only account I've found easier to use online than by app. I prefer to use Chase if possible, but carry Barclaycard in my wallet as my second choice card and use it regularly.
• I've found very little use for Halifax card, as it is annoying to have to pay it off immediately else incur interest. It is just along as a reserve card and barely used.
• I don't use Virgin debit card very much either, I find their app rather clunky compared to Starling and Chase. I've only used it when having to make multiple withdrawals across my cards due to low cash machine withdrawal limits.
• Starling is a good solid choice, but with no particular advantages over Chase or Barclaycard. 
• I use Starling as my main bank account due to limitations of the Chase account when I opened it (eg no joint accounts or direct debits at that time) and use Chase as my main expenditure card - this is good as I can keep a fairly low balance in my Chase account, and just feed it from my Starling account (or from Chase savings account when the rate is competitive). This means I could easily close the account if necessary (eg fraud, etc). This arrangement worked out extremely well when the car hire company Turo made multiple mistakes on a car hire when the host amended the booking, resulting in them erroneously attempting to take $1,500 from the account on 3 occasions - Chase declined it due to insufficient funds, which was far preferable to having to get Turo to return the money.

Another thing worth considering for USA (and most of the rest of Americas) is getting a 3 PAYG SIM card - for £10 you can purchase a data pack with 10 Gig of data and use it as part of their Go Roam arrangement. Local SIMs and eSims in USA cost a ridiculous amount, so having 3 PAYG SIM saved me a lot.

A great summary post, thanks @hugheskevi!

jbrassy

hugheskevi said:

Another thing worth considering for USA (and most of the rest of Americas) is getting a 3 PAYG SIM card - for £10 you can purchase a data pack with 10 Gig of data and use it as part of their Go Roam arrangement. Local SIMs and eSims in USA cost a ridiculous amount, so having 3 PAYG SIM saved me a lot.

I have a good money saving tip in this area (which I admit is unrelated to credit cards). You are right that SIM cards in the US (and Canada) are very expensive compared to the UK. However, if you buy a SIM card in the US, Canada, or Mexico, you can use it in all three countries. Given you were travelling around North America, if you happened to travel to Mexico before travelling to the US or Canada, it's well worth buying a decent SIM card in Mexico and using it in the US and Canada. Prices in Mexico are much lower (similar to UK prices).