Credit Card Advice (Travel)

PinkPig said:
Nope, sorry, you don't. Not compared with the top couple of credit cards. You get a worse exchange rate.
Click to expand...

Indeed... learn something new every day. You do get a good rate on them vs currency shops/counter service at banks and post office though. I must admit I assumed the bank rates to be the same as the CC rates. :)
 
One thing to note about the FairFX card is that you aren't restricted to the exchange rate at the time you are on holiday. You can take advantage of good exchange rates months before you go.
 
How quickly would a credit card be replaced if lost or stolen though? TC can normally be replaced <24hrs
 
markk said:
How quickly would a credit card be replaced if lost or stolen though? TC can normally be replaced <24hrs
Click to expand...

If you wish to build in protection for your own carelessness then obviously you'll pay extra for that privilage.

It's cheaper to just not lose your credit card. You probably don't lose your card on a regular basis at home so I'm not sure why you'd expect to do the same thing abroad.

I am making certain assumptions here with my advice - namely that the person receiving the advice isn't so dim that they don't realise they have to pay the bill they could run up on a credit card or so careless they end up spreading personal posessions around the world :p
 
Post office credit card. They give you a great exchange rate and no fees. I travel frequently and always use that one when going away.
 
Remember - You cannot hire a car/motorbike etc with a pre-paid card. Something to consider if you plan on doing so.

I lived in Thailand on a Visa Debit for minimal costs over the period of 6 months. Just need to be smart about it.
 
Thanks for all of the replies. Today I went into a bank and got one of the suggested cards. I didn't have previous banking services with them and I didn't even have to open a current account.... went straight through the credit check and it was fine. I was under the impression that these things were difficult to get?!

Oh well, everything went better than expected :D
 
They are difficult to get if you are a numpty and have a shocking credit rating, or you've already got 1000 cards and a load of debt, or you've never had any sort of credit before. For most normal people its trivially easy to get one which is why I get a tiny bit frustrated when, in these threads, people throw all sorts of silly excuses as to why to faff around with silly travel agents and prepaid cards when travelling instead of just...

...getting the right card.

Which one did you get? The Clarity is better than the Santander but only in one way - the interest rate is lower therefore if you make a cash withdrawl it costs you slightly less.
 
I got the Santander... although in hindsight, I'm really not sure why, should have probably for Halifax for the reason you mentioned. A friend got a card last week and I was speaking to him about it one on the phone as I approached the high street and he implied the rates were a negligible difference. That'll teach me for not checking things myself! :o

Do you think it's worth going back and applying for a clarity?
 
No, I don't.

Clarity is 12.9% Representative APR (What did you get?)
Zero is 18.9% Represenative APR

This means that if took out £1000 in cash and didn't pay it back for a whole year, you'd be charged approx:

Clarity: £129 (35p a day or so)
Zero: £190 (50p a day or so)

Now of course the fact you've got one of these cards means you are being smart, and given you are being smart you wouldn't leave a balance on it for a year anyway.

If you left it about a month - ie, you just left it to get paid off by a direct debit, in full:

Clarity: £10.50 interest (Remember, this is on a £1000 withdrawl, so its basically 1%!)
Zero: £15 interest (So basically 1.5%)

The sooner you pay it off the less interest you pay. If you've got online banking its pretty easy to transfer money over to the card after you've made a cash withdrawl.

But then its unlikely you'd withdraw a grand in cash anyway, so in reality the cost difference between them is even smaller.
 
It's not even that good I'm afraid :/

The standard rate is 19.9% p.a. but this doesn't apply to cash transactions which have a standard rate of 27.9%. So using your example I'd actually be paying £270 in interest, or 76p a day...!

Obviously I'd be looking to pay this off the next day or within several days and the cash withdrawn wouldn't be anywhere near £1000. Still, it's not ideal.

Still don't think I should apply? Thanks for your advice :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom