Euros
Trying to decide whether to buy my Euros here before we go to France/Spain late August or to change Sterling in a bank in France. Anyone with experience of buying currency in France? We pay for almost everything with our Halifax clarity card but some currency
is always needed. Thanks
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Trying to decide whether to buy my Euros here before we go to France/Spain late August or to change Sterling in a bank in France. Anyone with experience of buying currency in France? We pay for almost everything with our Halifax clarity card but some currency is always needed. Thanks
if you have a Halifax Clarity card already why not just use it to draw cash from an ATM overseas?The interest for one month is trifling and virtually nil if you go click click by internet or app and pay off the amount withdrawn.
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Trying to decide whether to buy my Euros here before we go to France/Spain late August or to change Sterling in a bank in France. Anyone with experience of buying currency in France? We pay for almost everything with our Halifax clarity card but some currency is always needed. Thanks
if you have a Halifax Clarity card already why not just use it to draw cash from an ATM overseas?The interest for one month is trifling and virtually nil if you go click click by internet or app and pay off the amount withdrawn.
Does it not depend on which country you make the wirhdrawal? e.g. in Germany you can pay as much as 6% of the transaction to the German handling bank.
No - so long as you are careful to charge Euros (local currency) to your card and let Halifax do the conversion to Sterling you will not be charged any fees whatsoever anywhere in the EU that I know of, and we have used our card all over Europe - you will also get the official rate which is generally way better than you will get anywhere else. Can highly recommend this card.
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The rate is the same whether cash or purchase, no charge for withdrawing cash, only an interest charge from day 1.
So, OP, why are you considering an alternative???
Use your Clarity card, you will not get a better rate.
If you want to pay it off, be aware that if you have an unpaid statement, anything you pay will be set against that first.
For this reason, we rarely pay off cash withdrawals, the interest charge is very reasonable. About £1 per £100 withdrawn per month.
We have 2 cards (1 each + a card each on each other's account), so can juggle withdrawals if we wish, but the savings are small in the overall holiday costs.
We have used our cards all over Europe with absoutely no problems or extraneous charges.
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I understand and agree with your post BB but we were not talking about purchases but obtaining a cash advance from the card which is somewhat different.
Sorry should have made it clear I was talking about cash. What we do is pre-transfer our holiday money (Sterling) onto the card before we go (i.e put it into a debit balance) and then we don't have to worry about interest etc we just use it for purchases
and cash as needed - but as others have said the interest if you do draw cash and run up a credit balance is pennies.0 -
I think you mean you put the card into a credit balance?
A credit balance is when they owe you rather than you owing them.
Are you aware that this is actually against the T&Cs of the card and could get your card frozen? Which is bad if it happens when you are abroad.
So not a good idea to suggest others do this.
It is really not a good plan, even if it has worked for you so far. I trust you have a back-up card should the Clarity stop working?
As you say, the interest is minimal, so why take risks?
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An alternative is to get a FairFx. This is a card to can load with currency either before you go, or as you go. The advantage is that you know exactly how many Euros are in your account before you start spending. When you load the card, it converts it
to Euros when you transfer money across.I've got a Halifax Clarity Card, but have only used it once. I prefer the FairFx card although I thing the rate of exchange is just slightly lower - at least you know where you are with it.
Just my twopenceth!
David
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I think you mean you put the card into a credit balance?
A credit balance is when they owe you rather than you owing them.
Are you aware that this is actually against the T&Cs of the card and could get your card frozen? Which is bad if it happens when you are abroad.
So not a good idea to suggest others do this.
It is really not a good plan, even if it has worked for you so far. I trust you have a back-up card should the Clarity stop working?
As you say, the interest is minimal, so why take risks?
You need to read the T&Cs more carefully - this only applies if you do it to increase the credit available (i.e spend more than credit limit) and LEAVE a credit balance - we dont do either of these things.
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Clarity T&Cs:
"16.9 - You must not make payments or transfer funds from another credit or store card to your account that would leave a credit balance on your account. We may return any funds that exceed the balance
owing on your account to the account from which the money has been sent."My emphasis. Seems clear to me.
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Thanks Ian.
OH frequents a site called Money Saving Expert, this is often discussed on there. It has been emphasised on there many times that loading cash onto a CC is against the T&Cs and could lead to the card being stopped/frozen.
A credit balance caused by a refund to the card is of course OK.
If BB finds it works for him, and is happy to take that risk, then fine. But I don't agree with giving others incorrect advice.
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About 10 months ago a senior CC Ltd staff member told me that they had fixed their commercial exchange rate for this year (2016) with their suppliers at €1.4 to the £. Has anyone noticed that bookings through the club are still very good value or not? Sorry,
slightly off track but still very relevant.I did once, some years go, book two sites in Italy where the price of sterling had taken a bad hit and saved myself £50. I think the Club commit to the price in the previous October which is protected for the following season. However it can work both ways!!!
I also remember a year when they had to go back into the market to buy more Camping Cheques but in those circumstances added a surcharge to reflect the extra they had to pay.David
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Clarity T&Cs:
"16.9 - You must not make payments or transfer funds from another credit or store card to your account that would leave a credit balance on your account. We may return any funds
that exceed the balance owing on your account to the account from which the money has been sent."My emphasis. Seems clear to me.
You have misread the term.
No, I'm afraid you have. You've missed the "or" immediately after "payments".
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The Clarity exchange rate on cash and transactions is exceptionally good and I dont see how it could be bettered. FairFx is OK but the exchange rate is not as good and they make a withdrawal charge. The worst has to be exchange bureaux at channel tunnel
etc. Their rates are outrageous.It is not too difficult to go into your bank account when travelling and pay off the Halifax balance as soon as cash is withdrawn. Whether it's worth it for a couple of weeks interest is doubtful but I sometimes do it depending when the next automatic payment
is due.0 -
We have a current account with the Norwich and Peterborough Building Society, and their Gold Card (debit card) offers fee-free and transaction charge withdrawals from ATMs in Europe and many other parts of the world, free of charge. There are terms and
conditions but these are not onerous and if complied with the account is free too.0 -
I have used my Clarity Card in different countries in Europe and never come across additional fees. I have also paid money into my Clarity card a few days after the transaction appears online and never had a problem with it being accepted. However I tend
not to bother now as the amount of interest is very small.David
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I don't bother about what card I use, in the scheme of things any charges by the banks is very small in comparison to all the other costs. e.g. the devaluation of the pound cost me far more than bank charges and even that pales into insignificance compared to the cost of fuel
peedee
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Val was talking about her debit card and I about mine. I think you are talking about a
credit card David.DD I was not referring to Val's post but the multitude of other posts about the Halifax Clarity Card and how the T&C's might affect early payment into the account which I thought I made clear in my post?
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Val was talking about her debit card and I about mine. I think you are talking about a
credit card David.DD I was not referring to Val's post but the multitude of other posts about the Halifax Clarity Card and how the T&C's might affect early payment into the account which I thought I made clear in my post?
What was being suggested further back was to pre-load the Clarity with cash so that no interest would be incurred on cash withdrawals, something which is against the T&Cs.
Making an early repayment to cover a cash withdrawal before a statement is produced is not a problem, as long as you do not have an outstanding statement balance.
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We have 2 cc's with differant banks, OH carries one I have the other, we also each have a Caxton card, seperate accounts, these can be pre loaded before leaving or at anytime while away. We use these to get cash, everything else goes on the cc.
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