US Travel Money

Mucky_Pup

Mucky_Pup

Mucky_Pup

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What are my options? Going to New York in August, was planning on getting a Halifax clarity card, but have been knocked back due to it being too early since I've had significant credit changes on my account (Car finance, and readjusted a loan I have), so my credit rating is down at the minute.

Bank with Barclays and have a Barclaycard Platinum card.

I imagine I'm going to have to use my regular credit card for things like hotel check in (major hotels paid for already, may need to check in to other hotels on the fly while traveling) and for the hire cars I need, so can't avoid using that.

But for the rest, am I just best with cash given my situation, or can you get a suitable pre-paid debit card type of thing, or does that give you poor rates than the cash alternative? I know the downside of carrying cash obviously, especially nearly £2k in cash.

I'll be looking at having about £1.9-2k as a maximum of money free for the trip. Probably won't spend all that, but that's my top limit of what I'm working with.

Cheers
 
If you've been knocked back for the Clarity try the Post Office card as the next best thing. You won't be able to use it for cash but you will get the same perfect deal on purchases as you'd have got with the Clarity. Then just take a few hundred dollars max for the minutely tiny amount of things you cannot buy on the card.

If it's just a short citybreak and your accommodation is paid for I cannot imagine why you'd need £2000 in cash?! Use it to pay off your car finance or your loan instead and take less :p
 
[TW]Fox;27997128 said:
If it's just a short citybreak and your accommodation is paid for I cannot imagine why you'd need £2000 in cash?! Use it to pay off your car finance or your loan instead and take less :p
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I'm away for 16 days, of which about 10 are in NYC itself, the rest are traveling around Massachusetts and Connecticut, of which I'll need to pay for hotels and fuel associated with that.
 
Mucky_Pup said:
I'm away for 16 days, of which about 10 are in NYC itself, the rest are traveling around Massachusetts and Connecticut, of which I'll need to pay for hotels and fuel associated with that.
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With a trip like this I think you'd probably end up better off paying even on a credit card which doesn't offer a good deal for foreign use. You'll probably find the Mastercard/Visa rate plus your card issuers loading is *still* cheaper than the crap rates you get buying physical cash. It's also safer, more secure and more convenient.

Aqua do a card aimed at people with poor credit which bizarrely has NO fees for foreign purchases. You should definitely be able to get one of these - you can then use it for all fuel, hotels, 99% of your food, etc etc, and you'll only need a couple of hundred dollars max in cash. Don't use it for cash withdrawals though.

I have never needed to withdraw more than about 60 USD in cash on trips and I'm never there less than 16 days. 10 days in NYC though and only 6 in Mass, what a shame, loads to see out that way, think I'd have done it the other way round, 6 in NYC and 10 up state, save a FORTUNE on hotels that way too :p
 
Caxton FX were the best pre-paid I found, they don't charge for ATM withdrawals (Note - Quite a lot of US ATMs will charge a fee anyway) and the load is fairly small (3p below current exchange rate at this moment according to their website).
 
[TW]Fox;27997191 said:
With a trip like this I think you'd probably end up better off paying even on a credit card which doesn't offer a good deal for foreign use. You'll probably find the Mastercard/Visa rate plus your card issuers loading is *still* cheaper than the crap rates you get buying physical cash. It's also safer, more secure and more convenient.

Aqua do a card aimed at people with poor credit which bizarrely has NO fees for foreign purchases. You should definitely be able to get one of these - you can then use it for all fuel, hotels, 99% of your food, etc etc, and you'll only need a couple of hundred dollars max in cash. Don't use it for cash withdrawals though.

I have never needed to withdraw more than about 60 USD in cash on trips and I'm never there less than 16 days. 10 days in NYC though and only 6 in Mass, what a shame, loads to see out that way, think I'd have done it the other way round, 6 in NYC and 10 up state, save a FORTUNE on hotels that way too :p
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Cheers, will have a look, I don't have particularly bad credit, it's never dropped out of fair rating, but used to be good, but with getting new car and adjusting my loan has knocked it down a bit, and because they're new debts it doesn't help, would likely have got the clarity card if I'd applied later on.

Looks to be on both my credit and debit card the fee is 2.99% which I suppose isn't too bad.

Will likely go back to NE US on my own in the future, going with about 19 other people for an event this time round, so kind of tied in to everyone else's plans.
 
The reason I mention the Aqua card is that it's aimed at bad credit which means somebody like yourself who doesn't have bad credit will find it dead easy to get :)
 
I have a Nationwide Select credit card which is also one of the good ones, but I think you have to be a Flex Direct account holder for that.

Whatever happened to that unreleased traveller card thing? There was a thread on it around here two or three months ago...
 
[TW]Fox;27997278 said:
The reason I mention the Aqua card is that it's aimed at bad credit which means somebody like yourself who doesn't have bad credit will find it dead easy to get :)
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Will another search on my credit rating not affect it negatively, is what I'm thinking though? Suppose I could try and apply a few weeks beforehand and see.
 
Finally got Halifax to cancel my old unused CC with them so I can get a clarity :)

Are ther ever any issues with it getting blocked abroad like can happen with some cards?
 
This thread reminded me about the advice on using a Halifax clarity card, just applied and its on its way :)
 
Rotty said:
Finally got Halifax to cancel my old unused CC with them so I can get a clarity :)

Are ther ever any issues with it getting blocked abroad like can happen with some cards?
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I have the Clarity and Halifax say it shouldn't get blocked but suggested that I advise them when I'm going abroad, just to be on the safe side.
 
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