Travel credit cards

I have been reading the MSE pages on this subject, and cannot find the following scenario.

I have an HSBC debit card. There are no fees on spending but charges for ATM withdrawals.
MSE suggests the Halifax card is best, as there are no spending of ATM fees. But it states there is interest on ATM withdrawals. My question is, if I leave a satisfactory amount in a Halifax account, so use my Halifax account as a store of cash, and ATM withdraw from that account, but the account remains in the black, will there be any fees/ interest at all?

Gloomendoom wrote: »

The Halifax Clarity credit is one of the best. As it is a credit card, you cannot use it as a store of cash (it's against the T & Cs).

You will pay interest on any ATM cash withdrawals at a rate of about 1% a month. If you pay off the amount you have withdrawn from the ATMs as soon as you can, the interest is pennies.

To put in perspective, we use Clarities for travel spending/cash. Our last trip to Australia lasted a month and we paid 78p (from memory) in interest on cash withdrawn over that period.

While your overall point remains valid, the lowest APR on offer is now much higher.

I downloaded the Starling app on to my iPhone and registered for a Starling current account a few days ago and received an invitation code a day or two later. Once they text you the code, you can open the account within the app. They just ask you your name, address and then you make a short video of yourself just saying one sentence and then you take a photo of either your passport or driving license and that's basically it. They don't ask any questions about how you will fund your account or where you work - nothing. I was issued with an account number and sort code immediately and a few hours later received a message from them that my details had been verified and my card will be posted on Monday. All very straightforward so far. Looking forward to receiving my card, however, I have been playing with the account and transferred some money in and then out again all with great ease. A massive selling point is that all contactless payments will show up immediately. With my Lloyds account it takes a couple of days for contactless payments to show up but with this account, everything is in real time so as soon as you make the payment using contactless, you get a notification and the balance adjusts straight away. There is also a nice little feature where you can 'freeze' your debit card if you lose it making the card inactive but you can 'defrost' the card if you find it again! So far so good!

I can't answer your question, but I do know that Barclaycard have a particularly good deal on a "travel" credit card at the moment. No fees for overseas spending or cash withdrawals as long as you pay off the balance in full when you get your statement, this is until 31 August 2022. Click here

If you think it looks good for what you need, Click here for an eligibility check that won't affect your credit rating.

I used the MSE code to open a Starling Account. Opened in five minutes, debit card with me two days later. Loaded some cash today by transfer and looking forward to zero cost Euro withdrawals. So far it has been exceptionally easy.