Credit Card for use in the USA

Nick_C · 17 January 2019 at 1:25AM

I think the best credit card for use abroad is the Tandem Mastercard.

No Forex fees, and 0.5% cashback on all spending, including non sterling transactions.

https://tandem.co.uk/credit-card

Monzo for withdrawing cash abroad.

American Express is excellent for earning air miles, but has a 2.95% for non sterling transactions (although this can be worth paying if you are trying to achieve a sign up bonus).

The Amex Gold Credit Card for example gives you 24000 air miles if you are referred by an existing card holder, and spend £2k in the first three months. That's enough for three or four short haul reward flights, and you get a couple of free lounge entries worth about £40

fiestaman87 · 17 January 2019 at 8:53AM

I have a Starling account. It's a current account which currently doesn't charge any fees whatsoever for use overseas. It also has a very good exchange rate.

Even though it's a current account there is no requirement to pay a regular amount into it and it does pay interest (albeit not as much as some accounts) on a credit balance.

It is an app based account so no good if you haven't got a smartphone (who hasn't these days - apart from my dad?!!).

It shows your spending instantly on the app and you can transfer money into it simply by using your phone and a debit card from another account.

I certainly don't use it as a main account but simply transfer money into it when I'm due to go abroad. It is also useful if buying from overseas sellers or indeed if booking a one way flight back to Blighty as fares in this direction are in the local currency on the airlines' websites.

I hope this helps.

Anthorn · 17 January 2019 at 8:59AM

mcarthyryan wrote: »

Any advantage of American Express? I've never really understood the need of Amex?

Depending on your overall spend, rewards with Amex are good and depending on the card, air miles, points, etc. But free or low cost offers from other cards could be more valuable. Also good for travel but probably more expensive than you will pay elsewhere. Customer service, insurance on purchases, travel insurance, etc.

If you are considering Amex to improve status, Amex credit card no, Amex charge card yes. But check on Spending Power before you go.

guesswho2000 · 17 January 2019 at 9:54AM

mcarthyryan wrote: »

I can't see many positives of Amex to be honest? Gold and Platinum have fee's, and the rewards require a lot of spending on the cards to get anything half decent?

Negatives - not as widely accepted.

Gold is free for the first year, and their rewards programme, and signup bonuses, are excellent. They're the best available by far in terms of rewards for everyday spending.

fewcloudy · 17 January 2019 at 10:42AM

I have a Halifax Clarity card, a Santander Zero card, and a Barclaycard Platinum Cashback Plus card (only have 3 for back-up in case of card failure/blocks).

I think I am correct in saying that out of the 3 of them, the Barclaycard is the best to use as it is the only one that does not charge interest from the moment I take out cash from a machine. Although TBH, the other 2 are almost as good as all I need to do is transfer money using online banking from my bank account to the credit card asap to avoid interest charges. The last holiday i had (Asia) I used the first 2 frequently, and incurred no charges for purchases/bills, and pennies of interest for withdrawals.

You can read about them all here in the travel money section, as well as info on the the newer cards and app based cards that people have already mentioned.

System · 17 January 2019 at 2:07PM

worried_jim wrote: »

They all offer purchases/withdrawals at the (unbeatable) MasterCard interbank rate with no fees. You'd be a mug to go to any country without. All are free, all can be set up in a few mins. Monzo and Revolut have £200pm foreign ATM fee free withdrawals, Starling currently has no limit. I use all three. It's the future of banking.

I doubt unlimited free foreign ATM withdrawals are the future of banking.
They are a loss leader on a free account.

Starling will either introduce a charge or limit for ATM withdrawals as they are fairly expensive for the card issuer - otherwise Nationwide, Monzo and Revolut would have left them likewise.

fewcloudy · 17 January 2019 at 2:08PM

fiestaman87 wrote: »

I have a Starling account. It's a current account which currently doesn't charge any fees whatsoever for use overseas. It also has a very good exchange rate.

Even though it's a current account there is no requirement to pay a regular amount into it and it does pay interest (albeit not as much as some accounts) on a credit balance.

It is an app based account so no good if you haven't got a smartphone (who hasn't these days - apart from my dad?!!).

It shows your spending instantly on the app and you can transfer money into it simply by using your phone and a debit card from another account.

I certainly don't use it as a main account but simply transfer money into it when I'm due to go abroad. It is also useful if buying from overseas sellers or indeed if booking a one way flight back to Blighty as fares in this direction are in the local currency on the airlines' websites.

I hope this helps.

Ahem, yeah, well, there's quite a lot of us dads out there you know! I daresay I will get one someday but only when i have to cos there's no alternative or it would improve my life a lot. But TBH, given that the first thing it would do would be to make me at least 30 quid poorer each month, it'd have to be a pretty important app or whatever to make me do it. I'm not on snapchat or facebook etc etc and that seems to be a big part of it from what i can see on the train and bus (and my own kid's phones), but I'd get one in a flash if it started to make financial sense because of app based accounts etc. Not there yet though...

Nick_C · 17 January 2019 at 2:30PM

You can get a decent smart phone for £120. So budget £10 a month. Moto E5 for example.

worried_jim · 18 January 2019 at 8:14AM

Heng_Leng wrote: »

I doubt unlimited free foreign ATM withdrawals are the future of banking.
They are a loss leader on a free account.

Starling will either introduce a charge or limit for ATM withdrawals as they are fairly expensive for the card issuer - otherwise Nationwide, Monzo and Revolut would have left them likewise.

I was implying that they are app based with user controls and don't require a branch network.

Alisdisgrace · 15 March 2019 at 3:29PM

Reported my card lost on 4th Feb. Was assured card would be cancelled and a new one sent to me. Received a letter dated 6th Feb confirming this and saying card would be sent under separate cover. It didn’t arrived. When I called to find out why, I was told that, contrary to the contents of their letter, the card had been cancelled because I hadn’t used the account in a while. They left me with no card a few days before my holiday with no time to make alternative arrangements and hadn’t had the courtesy to let me know.

They assured me a new card would be sent urgently so I would have it for my holiday. Not only did it not arrive in time, but still hadn’t arrived when I returned from my holiday. I called today to query this. The first advisor put the phone down on me when it was clear I was an unhappy customer. The next advisor told me that, despite being told on 20th Feb that a card would be expedited to me, my account had in fact been cancelled on 19th Feb. Even though my credit limit was increased on 21st Feb. I continue to receive weekly email updates on my apparently cancelled account. Seriously appalling service.

Credit Card for use in the USA

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