Switching to a different Mastercard credit card - which one and how?

born_again

CC are not live systems.
So the only way you tend to know a payment you have made has gone through is that your available balance has increased.
Then the actual credit can take a couple of days to show on your statement depending on what day it is. Weekends are the worst, as statements do not update for credits.

mta999

Except Santander CC (and Lloyds) show transactions and payments immediately

NoodleDoodleMan

We have two Santander credit cards - the Edge and the Zero, transactions are always very quick to show.

The app is easy to use, so is the version for home office laptop/PC.

The latter card is no longer available to new customers though.

The cashback on the former will cover the £3 fee if you are using it for daily/weekly spending like petrol and supermarket shopping etc.

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

Santander are also one of the few banks that has an online menu option to advise them of travel dates outside the UK.... for which the Edge is an excellent choice due to no fees on purchases abroad.

samal

I thought all cc showed transactions straight away, have or have used Amex, Barclaycard, NatWest Travel, Nationwide & Chase

Olenna

samal said:

I thought all cc showed transactions straight away, have or have used Amex, Barclaycard, NatWest Travel, Nationwide & Chase

That's not possible as the transactions aren't processed straight away; they can show pending transactions which have be authorised but some of these will never actually debit the card and become actual transactions. 

NoodleDoodleMan

Olenna said:

samal said:

I thought all cc showed transactions straight away, have or have used Amex, Barclaycard, NatWest Travel, Nationwide & Chase

That's not possible as the transactions aren't processed straight away; they can show pending transactions which have be authorised but some of these will never actually debit the card and become actual transactions. 

If they've been authorised why wouldn't the "some" not appear as debited transactions ?

born_again

NoodleDoodleMan said:

Olenna said:

samal said:

I thought all cc showed transactions straight away, have or have used Amex, Barclaycard, NatWest Travel, Nationwide & Chase

That's not possible as the transactions aren't processed straight away; they can show pending transactions which have be authorised but some of these will never actually debit the card and become actual transactions. 

If they've been authorised why wouldn't the "some" not appear as debited transactions ?

Some retailers do not take the actual amount spent.

Best known one is if you use Pay @ pump. The authorisation is for £100 & then it debits for the amount of fuel used.
You also have zero amount card checks.

NoodleDoodleMan

They are few and far between, the vast majority, by far, are transactions authorised by the cardholder.

DullGreyGuy

NoodleDoodleMan said:

Olenna said:

samal said:

I thought all cc showed transactions straight away, have or have used Amex, Barclaycard, NatWest Travel, Nationwide & Chase

That's not possible as the transactions aren't processed straight away; they can show pending transactions which have be authorised but some of these will never actually debit the card and become actual transactions. 

If they've been authorised why wouldn't the "some" not appear as debited transactions ?

Because the UK, and most the world's credit cards, have a two step process... 

1. Authorisation
2. Collection

Once authorisation has happened it will show as a pending transaction, once collection has occurred it will show as a debited transaction. 

In some cases the two will happen back to back and in others it will intentionally be a gap. Some online merchants authorise immediately but only collect when the goods are ready to dispatch. Car hire, Pay at Pump, Hotel Check Ins are all cases where there are intentional gaps and sums charged may not match the authorisation.

There are plenty of reasons why there may be a less obvious reasons for a gap too... looking at my AmEx app I can see 8 transactions were made yesterday, 4 have collected and 4 are still at pending. Of then pending 2 are online purchases and 2 are the local corner shop. 

Nasqueron

NoodleDoodleMan said:

We have two Santander credit cards - the Edge and the Zero, transactions are always very quick to show.

The app is easy to use, so is the version for home office laptop/PC.

The latter card is no longer available to new customers though.

The cashback on the former will cover the £3 fee if you are using it for daily/weekly spending like petrol and supermarket shopping etc.

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

Santander are also one of the few banks that has an online menu option to advise them of travel dates outside the UK.... for which the Edge is an excellent choice due to no fees on purchases abroad.

Thought the latter point is barely an issue any more as the transactions are rarely if ever stopped in my experience. I've spent on Lloyds, Halifax (CC) and Starling (debit) cards in various countries without issue

I'd add for the OP - have a look at TopCashBack and QuidCo before applying, can often get free money for a successful application, Santander often pay £17 for example