Pre-paid or credit cards

[Simon_m]

Hi there, I guess a lot of you travel abroad for your tours, and what with summer coming, more will be doing so. Some spending a lot on food, hotels and the like, while others spend very little on wild camping. Unless you carry lots of cash with you, the problem with spending abroad is that each time you use a card, you get charged a conversion rate.

I've had a quick look on line, moneysupermarket etc and seen there are pre-paid cards and credit cards from Halifax which don't charge. (of course, with a CC if you don't pay it off in time, then you are hit hard with interest.)

Anyone got recent good experience on what they did? I did use a halifax CC in the U.S. with zero commission rate and it seemed fine, that was 4years ago though

 

[mjr]

Halifax Clarity CC is still among the best AFAIK - although I used a prepaid card for the US because they had basically no card security, not even checking signatures, let alone chip PINs. What you lose on the CC conversion rate and ATM fees and interest is often less than what you'd lose to rubbish cash conversion rates.

 

[DWiggy]

I used https://www.caxtonfx.com/ worked really well topped it up from the mobile app as I needed to.

 

[Milkfloat]

Halifax Clarity for me - I use it for cash withdrawals too. It is by far the cheapest way to work and very convenient. If I use it for cash withdrawals I pay it off immediately as teh clock starts ticking from the cash withdrawal rather than the end of the month.

In the US, chip and pin is fairly prevalent now, partly because the banks shifted fraud responsibility onto the retailer if they did not support chip and pin.

 

[Simon_m]

Halifax Clarity for me - I use it for cash withdrawals too. It is by far the cheapest way to work and very convenient. If I use it for cash withdrawals I pay it off immediately as teh clock starts ticking from the cash withdrawal rather than the end of the month.

In the US, chip and pin is fairly prevalent now, partly because the banks shifted fraud responsibility onto the retailer if they did not support chip and pin.

I tried reading the gumph on the website, but as at work, it was hard for me to sit and take it in properly. So if you use this card for buying food, restaurant bills, trains etc, then there is no conversion rate, but if you withdraw cash, they charge you a conversion rate in a number of days, unless you transfer money in to the account? Thanks

 

[Milkfloat]

I tried reading the gumph on the website, but as at work, it was hard for me to sit and take it in properly. So if you use this card for buying food, restaurant bills, trains etc, then there is no conversion rate, but if you withdraw cash, they charge you a conversion rate in a number of days, unless you transfer money in to the account? Thanks

There is always no bad conversion rate. The difference between buying goods and service and withdrawing cold hard cash, is that with cash you start paying interest immediately rather than at the end of the month. To be honest a couple of hundred quid not paid off for a few weeks will be in the pence range, not tens of pounds.

I am a wanna be Yorkshire man, so I usually pay it off with internet banking when I can get online.

 

[Simon_m]

ok good to know. at the moment if we pop abroad, i just use my normal debit card but notice there is the .24p added on here and there for not a lot of spendature. As on the next trip we will be buying a lot of things, it will grate me to find we have spent another lets say £50 on exchange rate, hence why I am looking for a card which wont do that. I was thinking about taking teh cash over, but it would be a lot, and don't want to loose / get it stolen.

so if I took out 100euro from the bank, I had better transfer some cash back in to stop the interest. Could I just load up the card with all the cash so that this doesn't happen? thanks

 

[MarkF]

I use my normal debit card for convenience and couldn't care less about the charges over a 2 or 3 week tour, they are insignificant. I think the Barclays charge is about 3% + a small transaction fee but I am not sure and don't care.

 

[shouldbeinbed]

Hi there, I guess a lot of you travel abroad for your tours, and what with summer coming, more will be doing so. Some spending a lot on food, hotels and the like, while others spend very little on wild camping. Unless you carry lots of cash with you, the problem with spending abroad is that each time you use a card, you get charged a conversion rate.

I've had a quick look on line, moneysupermarket etc and seen there are pre-paid cards and credit cards from Halifax which don't charge. (of course, with a CC if you don't pay it off in time, then you are hit hard with interest.)

Anyone got recent good experience on what they did? I did use a halifax CC in the U.S. with zero commission rate and it seemed fine, that was 4years ago though

I've just got the Halifax card through this morning ahead of my trip to Italy in a few weeks time, it seems very good deal anf comparitively, a decent enough interest rate too. Apart from couple of hundred euros for incidentals, I intend to use the card for all the spending, I've stashed away a few quid to pay it off as soon as we get back.

 

[Simon_m]

I use my normal debit card for convenience and couldn't care less about the charges over a 2 or 3 week tour, they are insignificant. I think the Barclays charge is about 3% + a small transaction fee but I am not sure and don't care.

i guess it depends on how much you are spending, i am taking care of a tour for 7 people mainly staying in hotels which will all add up, what with the fuel & tolls for the van, and evening meals, for me, saving a couple of hundred pounds means a lot. Maybe if you have so much cash, you can pay for our charge? I guess a lot of people on here worry about the pennies too.

 

[andym]

It does depend a lot on how you use your card. A credit card is fine (or at least, if it's one of the better ones like the Halifax Clarity) if you are staying in hotels and places where you can pay with a card, but while you can pay for a lot of things with a card you still need cash.

For cash I think one of the pre-paid cards is best. If you use a credit card to withdraw cash, even if there isn't a cash advance fee, you are paying interest from day 1.

The last time I looked Halifax offered a range of interest rates. If you are lucky enough to be on one of their better rates that may not matter too much, but if you aren't then your cash advance could well cost more than you realise.

I use both Caxton FX and FairFX - although mainly Caxton. FairFX offer better rates but they charge for a cash advance (last time I looked it was a flat 1.5€. 1.5€ is fine you're drawing out say 500€ but many cash machines, at least in Italy, restrict withdrawals to 200€ —so the CaxtonFX card has the edge.

The last time I looked the pre-paid companies were offering a couple of percent below the headline money-market exchange rate. I don't know how that compares with Halifax Clarity. The ideal is probably to carry both.

I also prefer the general transparency of the prepaid cards - and of course no horrible bills arriving when you get home.

I use my normal debit card for convenience and couldn't care less about the charges over a 2 or 3 week tour, they are insignificant. I think the Barclays charge is about 3% + a small transaction fee but I am not sure and don't care.

Three-week tour at say £50 a day comes to a £1000. So there's a nice little earner for Barclays there: they probably don't give you a good exchange rate either, so maybe you're paying them 6% of that £1000. No doubt they appreciate your generosity.

 

[Simon_m]

yes i was just thinking teh same thing as i was reading your reply, might as well have a "cash card" and a "credit card" which is paid off as soon as i get home or once a week even. cheers.

 

[MarkF]

i guess it depends on how much you are spending, i am taking care of a tour for 7 people mainly staying in hotels which will all add up, what with the fuel & tolls for the van, and evening meals, for me, saving a couple of hundred pounds means a lot. Maybe if you have so much cash, you can pay for our charge? I guess a lot of people on here worry about the pennies too.

Your opening post didn't mention that you were running the show for 7 people. I don't have much cash but you have to pay for a service one way or another, I am happy to pay the small charge to be able to get money wherever I want and not have to carry large sums around with me. A 3 week tour this June will cost me about £20 in charges, less than I spend on beer most days on tour.

 

[mjr]

Could I just load up the card with all the cash so that this doesn't happen? thanks

It's against the terms and conditions to do that. Sometimes it works, but they would be within their rights to return the payment and charge you interest, so it's probably safer to transfer after the charge appears online.

 

[fatblokish]

Fairfx for me. Good or possibly the best exchange rates, free and easy to top up from a wifi hotspot and I've lent it on occasion to the kids when they go off wandering. Last year my son went off inter-railing and by checking his purchases I was able to find out which country he was in. I'd never have known otherwise. Kids eh?