What is the best Visa card?

se999

Hello,

We travel a lot and quite often have to try a few cards before we find one that will be accepted.

We've got Amex Plat with 2% cashback, and a 1% cashback Mastercard, but in some places Visa is still the best bet for being accepted.

We did try at one point for the Citibank 1% cashback, but their website had bugs, and never got replies from their customer support from our queries.

So any ideas as to the best Visa card to apply for in terms of cashback or other perks?

Should we try Citibank again?

Advice appreciated. :A

pin

If you travel alot get the Nationwide credit card, without a doubt the best one for travel. Also check out this article:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1106765397,71685,

se999

Thanks for the quick reply Pin.

We never use credit cards to take cash out overseas, which evens things up a lot, especially as most travel is within Europe.

Also the actual cost exchange rates we're getting on current cards are quite good (we do monitor it), and when we net off the 1 & 2% cashbacks it's not too bad, i.e. not worth running extra cards for.

We do want to possibly use this in the UK if it can beat the 1% cashback on mastercard in terms of perks/cashbacks.

Followed the link to Nationwide Rewards, but it's only 0.5% cashback for the first 6 months, and then goes down to 0.25%. The purchase cover and extended warranty makes it a potential replacement for our old Barclaycard Visa (which lost these bits in Jan I think), we used to use it infrequently as an emergency card for overseas, but did use it in the UK for free extended warranties on white goods.

Sorry, should probably have posted a bit more information at the start.

pin

Hi there

The exchange rate you get with Amex is the Amex wholesale rate plus 2.73%. Amex will convert the foreign transaction into US$ and then into UK£, therefore they do a double currency conversion.

For most credit cards in the UK they normally charge the Visa rate plus 2.75%.

Nationwide don't charge ANYTHING for purchases with the credit card, therefore you get the full Visa rate.

Now if you have a 1% cashback card, you will only recover 1.75% (2.75 - 1), with Nationwide you get everything back.

What I do is have two cards. I have the Conran card which gives me 1% cashback. I also keep Nationwide soley for when I go away (which I do fairly often).

What is the issue of running two cards, it costs you nothing (as long as you pay the money back at the end of the month!!)

Remember the Nationwide extended warranty only applies to goods bought in the UK.

I used to run three main cards: Amex, Conran and Nationwide. However I ditched the Amex, because i has having troubles hitting the £7.5K to get the 2% cashback (mainly because of acceptance issues). The Nationwide would stay with my passport and when I go abroad it goes in my wallet.

For cash withdrawals abroad I use the Nationwide debit card, as there are no charges taking cash out from an ATM to use it, so once again you get the full Visa rate, rather than the tourist rate.

se999

Hi,

Yes there are problems with using Amex, it's getting better in the UK, in France we've only found 1 in 6 major retail chains that accept it this trip. In Finland they love it!! You can use it in taxis & corner shops!!!

I thought the Amex double exchange was only outside Europe, i.e. we knew that Canadian dollars would be exchanged via US dollars, but for one trip not worth it!! But might be mistaken. Western Canada was about 50/50 on accepting Amex.


Was interested in the Conran, just looked up the link, but either my system or theirs wasn't in a good mood, so will chase it again later.

Will also double check the Nationwide credit card & Amex.

Thanks again

By the way, spotted you were on the BA loyalty scheme thread too!

mark_jones13

The post about Amex foreign exchange charges was a little misleading. Amex do convert from any currency to US$ and then to £ but you only get charged 2.73% once. Their exchange rates are outstanding so that outweighs the charge in my opinion and I've never had a problem with stores accepting Amex. Maybe its just the places I shop at. The Nationwide card does not charge exchange fees but their rates are awful in the first place. A lot of people think they're getting a good deal because they're not being charged fees but they just get less $,€ etc to the pound.

pin

mark_jones13 wrote:

The post about Amex foreign exchange charges was a little misleading. Amex do convert from any currency to US$ and then to £ but you only get charged 2.73% once. Their exchange rates are outstanding so that outweighs the charge in my opinion and I've never had a problem with stores accepting Amex. Maybe its just the places I shop at. The Nationwide card does not charge exchange fees but their rates are awful in the first place. A lot of people think they're getting a good deal because they're not being charged fees but they just get less $,€ etc to the pound.

You are right about the the double 2.73% thing. The relevant bit in Amex's T&C's is in clause 12:

[font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif][size=-1]12.1 If you make a Charge in a currency other than in Pound Sterling, that Charge will be converted into Pound Sterling. The conversion will take place on the date the Charge is processed by American Express, which may not be the same date on which you made your Charge as it depends on when the Charge was submitted to American Express. If the Charge is not in U.S. dollars, the conversion will be made through U.S. dollars, by converting the Charge amount into U.S. dollars and then by converting the U.S. dollar amount into Pound Sterling. If the Charge is in U.S. dollars, it will be converted directly into Pound Sterling. [/size][/font]

[font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif][size=-1] [/size][/font] [font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif][size=-1]12.2 Unless a specific rate is required by applicable law, you understand and agree that the American Express treasury system will use conversion rates based on interbank rates that it selects from customary industry sources on the business day prior to the processing date, increased by a single conversion commission of 2.73%. If Charges are converted by third parties prior to being submitted to us, any conversions made by those third parties will be at rates selected by them.
[/size][/font]

[font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif][size=-1]http://www10.americanexpress.com/sif/cda/page/0,1641,22742,00.asp
[/size][/font]

[font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif][size=-1]
However you are wrong about your last comment. The Nationwide rate for PURCHASES ON THE CREDIT CARD IS THE VISA WHOLESALE RATE. If you have proof otherwise, please would you share with us.
[/size][/font]

se999

OH uses an accounting package to enter each transaction as it is made using an estimated exchange rate, and modifies to the actual transaction cost when it comes through on the statement, so we do have transaction level monitoring of exchange rates. As previously stated we have found AMEX to be good, as has mark_jones13. Once you add the effect of the 2% cashback on all uk & overseas transactions it's been brilliant for us.

Pin - according to your last post, Visa uses 'the Visa wholesale rate' and amex uses 'American Express treasury system will use conversion rates based on interbank rates that it selects from customary industry sources on the business day prior to the processing date, increased by a single conversion commission of 2.73%'. So we have 2 different methods of calculation, either of which could theoretically be the lowest. It probably needs someone with tons of time monitoring daily actual transaction rates to work out which is actually the best, and it could even vary from country to country and day to day as to which is the best. Thanks for the information.

Anyway, original question was "what is the best visa card" for cashback & perks, the international bit only came in because we wanted visa due to some areas in countries still prefering Visa.

At the moment Conran/Citibank appear to have the best cashback, Citibank seems to have been a bit problematic for people to get hold of the cashback cards.

Are there any visa cards with good perks, loyalty scheme or cashbacks out there, that people have found good?

grumbler

mark_jones13 wrote:

The Nationwide card does not charge exchange fees but their rates are awful in the first place. A lot of people think they're getting a good deal because they're not being charged fees but they just get less $,€ etc to the pound.

Aslo other post:

mark_jones13 wrote:

Yes but the exchange rate you get from Nationwide is crap.

It is the second time you make unsubstantiated allegations regarding Nationwide exchange rate.
Could you, please, stop doing this or give some actual figures proving your point!
As Pin already told above and I checked myself many times, Nationwide exchange rate is very close to interbank (this rate varies within a day) without any spread applied. It cannot be worse than 'outstanding' Amex rate especialy after 2.73% comission is applied to the latter one.

€
Interbank rate: (source: http://www.oanda.com/ )
Daily averages:
13.07.2005 1.45290000
14.07.2005 1.45920000
15.07.2005 1.45360000
16.07.2005 1.45540000
17.07.2005 1.45520000
18.07.2005 1.45550000
19.07.2005 1.45030000
20.07.2005 1.44610000
21.07.2005 1.43340000
22.07.2005 1.44050000
23.07.2005 1.44140000
24.07.2005 1.44150000
25.07.2005 1.44160000
26.07.2005 1.44160000

Nationwide: (source: my statements)
Debit card:
Used 14/07 (morning) Transactions 16/07 Rate 1.451; 1.452
Credit card:
Used 14/07 (morning) Transaction 14/07 Rate 1.453
_____22/07 (morning) Transaction 22/07 Rate 1.437

$:
Daily averages:
21.07.2005 1.74110000
22.07.2005 1.75400000
23.07.2005 1.73800000
NW credit card used 22/07 (late night) 1.7374

I am waiting for your examples. Otherwise, stop this jabber.