Halifax Clarity Card

Nebulous2

Victors_Bruvver said:

I am being a bit dim regarding cash withdrawals from say, an ATM at bank in Europe and I withdraw, for instance, a hundred euros when does Halifax start charging interest. From that point on or statement date?   

There is another thread running about Clarity at the moment. I was in Spain recently, had nothing on my card, took out 100 euros from an atm, which cost me £88. I paid it off after it appeared in my account. I've just had my statement - 100 euros for 5 days cost me 16p in interest. 

maxximus75

Halifax tends not to do a hard search for additional accounts (current accounts / credit cards) if you already hold a current account.

NoodleDoodleMan

maxximus75 said:

Halifax tends not to do a hard search for additional accounts (current accounts / credit cards) if you already hold a current account.

I got a Halifax Clarity card easily - probably because we were relatively long time Bank of Scotland account holders - assume it'll be similar for other customers in the Lloyds group ?

Milarky

Went for this card for the 20 quid. I changed all my recurring donations for converted-to-sterling amounts which ought to (fingers crossed) count as a 'foreign purchase' and now be free of the 3% interbank visa change (or whatever) that my bank card presently collects from me. That will make a bit of a dent too, hopefully. 

alwatson

Just a word of warning re cash withdrawals abroad using Clarity. It affects your credit score badly.
I went to Morocco in March. I have revolut but only the mastercard not visa and the MC converts to USD before MAD... anyway it seemed confusing so just decided to use Clarity "in country" especially as you can only get take c£150 worth of MAD in from abroad and it's a very cash based place. 
2 months later my credit score is down 100 points on credit score due to cash advance because it shows a "lack of financial planing" or desperation. 
I've been round the house with both Halifax AND Equifax and they're sort of passing the buck. Halifax is saying it's up to Equifax how they interpret the info... I'm telling Equifax they're interpreting it wrong... blah blah blah.

I've tried telling Halifax... "hey they're undermining a selling point of your card"
and I've told Equifax "hey you know that ONE job you've got, well you're doing it wrong".

I get that normally taking out cash with a CC of any kind is a no no but this was on purpose with a product marketed as being for that purpose. I have plenty of money in my regular accounts and chose to use Clarity to save money and it's crazy that they can't have a chat with each other and be less robotic about the whole thing.
Anyway....

CliveOfIndia

That's further proof that the score dished out by the CRAs is utter codswallop.  Yes, in the normal course of things, cash withdrawals on a credit card are a no-no.  But using something like Clarity to withdraw cash whilst abroad actually shows good financial planning, as it's cheaper than most debit cards which charge a fee ( I know not all of them do these days).

The CRAs algorithm just says "Cash withdrawal.  Bad.  Very Bad".  A lender's own algorithm is far more sophisticated and will take account of the fact that it was a travel card that was used abroad.

Equifax can interpret the data however they want.  But since they're not the ones lending you money, it matters not one jot what they think.

cymruchris

alwatson said:

Just a word of warning re cash withdrawals abroad using Clarity. It affects your credit score badly.
I went to Morocco in March. I have revolut but only the mastercard not visa and the MC converts to USD before MAD... anyway it seemed confusing so just decided to use Clarity "in country" especially as you can only get take c£150 worth of MAD in from abroad and it's a very cash based place. 
2 months later my credit score is down 100 points on credit score due to cash advance because it shows a "lack of financial planing" or desperation. 
I've been round the house with both Halifax AND Equifax and they're sort of passing the buck. Halifax is saying it's up to Equifax how they interpret the info... I'm telling Equifax they're interpreting it wrong... blah blah blah.

I've tried telling Halifax... "hey they're undermining a selling point of your card"
and I've told Equifax "hey you know that ONE job you've got, well you're doing it wrong".

I get that normally taking out cash with a CC of any kind is a no no but this was on purpose with a product marketed as being for that purpose. I have plenty of money in my regular accounts and chose to use Clarity to save money and it's crazy that they can't have a chat with each other and be less robotic about the whole thing.
Anyway....

I agree with you - the data that gets sent over to the CRA's should differentiate between £50 taken out in Birmingham or Cardiff and 50 euros taken out in the middle of Paris or Berlin. They need to improve the link so that there's 'travelling withdrawals' and 'UK withdrawals' - I'm sure that given time, it wouldn't be that difficult to implement, although one side or the other might say 'sorry the systems can't support that and we won't be spending money to upgrade and improve them' (which usually seems to be the case.)

zagfles

I've been using my Barclaycard Rewards to withdraw small amounts of cash in the UK as it's treated like a purchase (no fee and unlike the Clarity no immediate interest), doesn't seem to have had an effect on my credit score (yet!). But I'll keep an eye on it...

CliveOfIndia

zagfles said:

I've been using my Barclaycard Rewards to withdraw small amounts of cash in the UK as it's treated like a purchase (no fee and unlike the Clarity no immediate interest), doesn't seem to have had an effect on my credit score (yet!). But I'll keep an eye on it...

Your score is irrelevant as it is not used, nor even seen, by any lender.  Each lender will of course make their own judgement about you, based on your credit history.  I don't know for certain, but it would be logical to assume that a lender will not be too concerned by occasional small cash withdrawals.  It's regular large cash withdrawals that would start to raise concerns.  The rationale is fairly obvious - why would you need to withdraw cash on a credit card, why not use your debit card?  Is it because you don't have enough money in your current account?

This is not me being nasty towards you, by the way!  Just trying to put into words how a lender's algorithm would view it.

The Barclaycard Rewards card is somewhat unusual in not charging interest as long as you repay in full every month, so from your point of view I guess it's no different to using a debit card.  But most cards would charge interest, so you'd only really take cash out (in the UK) in an emergency.

[Deleted User]

CliveOfIndia said:

That's further proof that the score dished out by the CRAs is utter codswallop.  Yes, in the normal course of things, cash withdrawals on a credit card are a no-no.  But using something like Clarity to withdraw cash whilst abroad actually shows good financial planning, as it's cheaper than most debit cards which charge a fee ( I know not all of them do these days).

The CRAs algorithm just says "Cash withdrawal.  Bad.  Very Bad".  A lender's own algorithm is far more sophisticated and will take account of the fact that it was a travel card that was used abroad.

Equifax can interpret the data however they want.  But since they're not the ones lending you money, it matters not one jot what they think.

They are indicative not utter codswallop.

Only Halifax (& it's Lloyds siblings) will know you've used a Clarity/travel card but will likely not treat it differently than other in-house cards. All other lenders will see a Halifax credit card with a credit limit of X has taken a cash advance of Y amount on Z date and credit score accordingly.