Cheap Travel Money Discussion Area

tonyrodwell · 24 July 2018 at 12:25PM

Premier:travel seem to have found a way to get themselves at the top of the exchange rate list even though once you click through to their site the actual rate offered is much lower.
They appear to be linked to ICE currency exchange. I phoned ICE and asked them to match the best rate shown on MSE ( ignoring the premier one) and they did. You do have to click through to the actual site to find the true live rate and you have to take into account any delivery charges. Having said that I always manage to get the best rate going without having to chop and change companies.Just a shame they can't offer the best rate in the first place.

Andy_Rew · 29 July 2018 at 1:20PM

I used my Clarity card in the USA for two weeks of purchases. I had run up a total of £2900. I used it for restaurants,Theme park tickets etc. I have been charged £1200 by Halifax in interest because "they were all retail purchases" and I had been charged 17.9% on every transaction, how can anybody make these ridiculous charges?. I thought Clarity was the card to have when travelling abroad. 1 month earlier my balance was £53. Can anybody offer any advice please?

eDicky · 29 July 2018 at 4:21PM

You're not making sense Andy, try again, what happened..?

dj1471 · 29 July 2018 at 4:27PM

Andy_Rew wrote: »

I used my Clarity card in the USA for two weeks of purchases. I had run up a total of £2900. I used it for restaurants,Theme park tickets etc. I have been charged £1200 by Halifax in interest because "they were all retail purchases" and I had been charged 17.9% on every transaction, how can anybody make these ridiculous charges?. I thought Clarity was the card to have when travelling abroad. 1 month earlier my balance was £53. Can anybody offer any advice please?

So you didn't pay the statement balance in full and were charged interest? That's how credit cards work.

murphydavid · 30 July 2018 at 1:54PM

Andy_Rew wrote: »

I used my Clarity card in the USA for two weeks of purchases. I had run up a total of £2900. I used it for restaurants,Theme park tickets etc. I have been charged £1200 by Halifax in interest because "they were all retail purchases" and I had been charged 17.9% on every transaction, how can anybody make these ridiculous charges?. I thought Clarity was the card to have when travelling abroad. 1 month earlier my balance was £53. Can anybody offer any advice please?

17.9% of £2900 = £519 a year not £1200 for a lesser time.
Clarity interest rate is 18.9% pa and if a retail purchase the interest is free till you get your bill if cash withdraw starts straight away. So if you withdrew the whole £2900 from an ATM and did not pay it off for a month the interest would be about £46. So if you were charged £1200 by the Halifax then you need to ask what the h is going on.

Mark_Nield · 2 August 2018 at 10:19AM

Hi, JUST WONDERING IF ANYONE HAS EXPERIENCED THIS PROBLEM.
Ive recently had a few issues whilst visiting Croatia, I tried withdrawing Croatian Kuna using my MONZO & STARLING cards at the cash machine in POREC, and the cash machine asked me if I wanted to accept its own exchange rate rather than giving me the Mastercard exchange rate that my card providers give me, I selected the no option, and was then presented with two more options.
Do I wish to accept the exchange rate offered, and do I accept that I may get a refund of the difference at a later date, however this cannot be guaranteed -
1. Yes
2. No
I selected option 2. No, and my card was returned.
I tried a different cash point the next day but this time was given only the first two options to exept the exchange rate offered or no, and this time when I again selected no, I was given the cash, and when I checked on my Starling App, I found I had been charged at the proper Mastercard rate.
Now I asked both Starling & Monzo about this problem, but they just said they had never heard of this, and Starling also sugested that I it was my fault as I needed to withdraw in local currency, ( Hmm - what else did they expect me to be withdrawing in Croatia).

richardw · 2 August 2018 at 10:32AM

Try a different ATM is the answer, you did, and got the correct rate. Some banks just do things differently, sometimes I think it may be the translation to English. MasterCard may have no control over these oddities.

montyb41 · 6 August 2018 at 1:50PM

Hi,
I am looking to get some euros for hols next week, I've checked the travel money comparison tool & found Debenhams are a pretty good rate at the moment, so I clicked on the link to take me to their site.
When I got to the site it has a banner that says "MoneySavingExpert.com
FREE £5 voucher* and special exchange rate for MoneySavingExpert.com customers."

There is an explanation for the £5 voucher, but nothing about the "special rate". I checked the rate on the page in their own currency converter & then went to their site direct on another browser (no MSE banner), ran the converter & the rates were the same!
It would seem there isn't a "special rate for MSE customers"

I called their customer services & the operator (from the money dept) said they do not have a special offer on with MSE at the moment, only the £5 voucher, the only special rate is if you are a Dedenhams Card Holders.

Has anyone else had this experience or can someone at MSE look into it please?

Regards

eDicky · 6 August 2018 at 2:14PM

montyb41 wrote: »

Has anyone else had this experience or can someone at MSE look into it please?

These days we mostly just take cash euros from an ATM, or spend directly, at the ideal MasterCard or interbank rates with no fees using cards such as Starling Bank, Metro Bank, Revolut, Loot.io instead of the hassle and expense of buying cash, even with such 'special' offers - see the MSE articles for info.

montyb41 · 6 August 2018 at 2:41PM

eDicky,
Yep, I know all thaty & have set up a Starling Account & have a Prepaid card, but the missus always likes us to take cash.
We've had problems in previous years with cards - UK debit card not accepted at Pay at Pump station (very, very low on petrol at the time) & another time with the Prepaid card where it seemed to start a transaction for fuel but wouldn't allow us to fill up & complete the transaction, we then kept finding the card wouldn't work - turned out ALL the funds on the card had been 'reserved' for the transaction & it took a week to be unreserved!

I think the article says take several options with you & I've read on the forums people always saying wise to have backup.
So cash is what the Missus wants, cash is what she'll get :-).

So really I'm after a response from someone from MSE, why they have a banner on Debenhams money site offering a special rate, but Debenhams don't seem to know about it.
cheers

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