Random question about buying money exchange

Efour

Efour

Efour

Caporegime
Joined
8 Sep 2005
Posts
30,857
Location
Norrbotten, Sweden.
Heres a random question that could much easily be asnwered if i lifted up and phoned my card provider... BUT.....

If i buy some Money from say Forex with a credit card, will it be counted as a forign Money transaction like a cash withdrawl, or, A purchase in my home country for whatever it cost to buy XXX Dollars, yen, Pounds, whatever....

I mean to me it sounds ridiculous but a few people said to me thats how it works now. I dont belive them tbh and im sure somepeople know

Im personaly happy using the plastic abroad but the GF is small minded and wants some looooooose cash.... Stone age bint...
 
IIRC it counts as withdrawing cash in your home currency. So instant interest and cash withdrawal fees.
 
Oh dear so I was utterly wrong... Not worth it at all then a double whammy of fees
 
Ok not utterly wrong but wrong enough, o didn't think it would be charged as cash, as silly as that is obvious.
 
I'm a bit confused by these answers. The interest and fees depends on the card. Are you talking about ATMs or using the credit card at a bureaux de change?

Say you have a good forex card like Halifax clarity, in £ obviously. If you withdraw £ from a UK ATM you get interest added (daily until paid off) but no fees, and it appears on the statement in £.

If you withdraw say $ from an ATM in the USA, it will be converted at the mastercard rate (no extra fees) to £, go on the statement in £, and be charged interest (daily etc.).

If you withdraw in another country but ask the ATM to do the conversion it will go on as £ like a UK withdrawal but you'll get a worse rate according to the ATM operator. (I assume it still gets interest like a cash withdrawal.)

Other cards charge a fixed cash withdrawal fee on top.

If you're talking about using the card at a bureaux de change then I would guess it depends on what currency they charge you in. You could probably pay for foreign cash in the UK and get them to charge you in £, so it would go on as a purchase, not a cash withdrawal. Edit: apparently not, see replies below. You'll get their exchange rate, however, which is usually worse than the Mastercard/Visa rate.

I've no idea what it would go on as in a foreign bureaux :confused: but again would depend what currency they charge you in.
 
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If you go to a currency exchange place in the UK you are charged in £ nevermind what currency you buy.

To avoid people being able to pull all the money off their CC and skirt the cash withdrawal fee and the accrual of interest from the moment it's used transactions of that type are treated the same as if you put your CC into an ATM in the UK and pulled money out rather than being treated as a "purchase".

At least that is my understanding from digging into a deep dark corner of my memory.

Also I know Efour isn't in the UK but I can't see it being treated any differently.
 
I used to work at a bureaux de change a long while back. Credit card transactions would be charged as a cash advance (i.e. the same as if you took money out of an atm).
 
Yeah not sure if it was clear.
A Swedish credit card on a Swedish hightstreet forex, buying euros and sterling.

So same as me pulling the equivalent money in krona out of an ATM as a cash advance with all the associated charges 35kr and 4% or the transaction whatever god awful rate it is.

I'll just use my debitcard and skip the bonus points on the cc account.
 
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