fairweather camper Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 Hi All, Hope someone can give me some advice on who does credit/debit cards that dont charge to use them abroad, im thinking of going to spain for about 3 months in January, and my debit card with HSBC is charged when i use it abroad. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonsea Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 Hi we use Nationwide credit card and it is paid of every month no charge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fairweather camper Posted July 13, 2012 Author Share Posted July 13, 2012 Thanks jonsea, any info on Debit Cards ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vindiboy Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 We got a PO credit card [ free abroad ] because Nationwide started charging for our Debit Card, and their Credit card had charges at the time, they dropped the charges later but I think you had to obtain points for using it in the UK to use it free Abroad . I can't be bothered with all that nonsense so that is why I have the PO card Mastercard which I rarely use anyway as I prefer to use the Debit Card at home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hallii Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 Caxton pre loaded debit card is my suggestion. They do a good rate of exchange and you pre load it with Euros, then you can top up at any time by phone,text or email. I found a it doesn't work at "pre pay" fuel pumps and a couple of other places but in general it is fine. You can use it to get cash, of course, and there is no charge for that. http://www.caxtonfx.com/currency-cards/ H Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PJay Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 jonsea - 2012-07-13 12:53 PM Hi we use Nationwide credit card and it is paid of every month no charge. I used Nationwide credit card and was not charged for transactions, but they do charge for getting money on a Debit card. Tesco Travel do a card that you can pre-load with Euros, saves having too much cash in your pocket, you just go to an ATM , like you would with a debit card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 I also use Nationwide..BUT! Halifax Clarity credit card seems to be the one to go for. My son just signed up for it and it takes a few weeks for card to come through.. http://www.halifax.co.uk/creditcards/low-rate-no-fee/clarity-card/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spospe Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 Santander 'Zero' credit card does not charge for overseas purchaces. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeithR Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 i use norwich and peterborough b.s. who have 2 accounts that dont charge. one needs £500 a month to be credited, im sure there are no restriction on withdrawal, transfer out or balance. cant remember the conditions of the other one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike 202 Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 Hi, I use Nationwide credit card, a good commercial rate of exchange, above high street rate and no charges. Just pay it off by D/D using other Nationwide account. Works for me. Friends do however use, and are happy with Caxton. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebishbus Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 Hi. We use. ;- My Travel Cash Euro card, issued by the Newcastle Building Society . No charge on ATM withdraws , no commission on purchases ,and 1% cash back on purchases. Brian B. ps plus good exchange rate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 But do remember that with debit cards you have little to no protection against fraudulent use, and that the whole balance on your account is up for grabs if someone gets in. At least with a credit card your liabilities are restricted. Also check what rate is being offered. Some cards do not charge for foreign transactions, but then give a lower than commercial exchange rate, some charge for transactions but give the commercial rate, some charge for transactions and give lower than commercial rates, and some don't charge for transactions and give the commercial rate. They don't always make it easy to work out which is which, either, though I really can't understand why that should be the case! :-) Also, if you have a card each, check whether cancelling one has the effect of cancelling both. If you are abroad and relying on your cards, and one card gets nicked, if both cards are on the same account, especially credit card accounts, both cards will be cancelled and you will be left cardless! Better to have two entirely separate accounts, so that cancelling one card leaves the other extant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave225 Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 You could also consider opening a Euro account with a EU bank, and no, I do not suggest a Greek one. However, most EU banks will allow you to open an account as a non national and then you pay nothing to withdraw your money. You obviously have to buy the euros to fill it but that is only once per time period. If you plan on visitng EU countries a good number of times it may be an answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 Credit card: We have a Nationwide credit card for purchases as they don't charge a transaction fee and give a very good rate of exchange, no charges for this so long as you pay off your balance in full when its due. We do NOT use it for cash withdrawals as you get charged interest from the day you withdraw it and possibly an admin fee (I'm not sure about the admin fee as we don't do it anyway!). Cash card: We have the Caxton card, we load some Euros before we travel then just use the card at ATMs to get cash out - no interest, no withdrawal fee, all you are doing is accessing your own money which Caxton 'stores' for you until you need it. The exchange rate can vary from day to day, so it is best to keep an eye on the Caxton website for their rate and from that, and the anticipated movement of the euro (ie going up/down) decide when to load it to maximise it. If we want more 'cash' on it when we haven't got access to a computer (eg abroad), we can just send a text to Caxton and the amount we request will be transferred to the card from your nominated bank account. We know how many Euros we have loaded so just keep a record of what we've spent. It can also be used for purchases but we don't bother with that as the Nationwide credit card is more convenient. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianBW Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 We have the 'Tesco' credit card, mainly because of the vouchers, which give us free crossings on the Euro Tunnel. I have never been charged and use it all the time in France for shopping and diesel fill ups. But, as Brian says, I might get a poor rate of exchange. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maggyd Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 Mel B - 2012-07-13 8:29 PM Credit card: We have a Nationwide credit card for purchases as they don't charge a transaction fee and give a very good rate of exchange, no charges for this so long as you pay off your balance in full when its due. We do NOT use it for cash withdrawals as you get charged interest from the day you withdraw it and possibly an admin fee (I'm not sure about the admin fee as we don't do it anyway!). Cash card: We have the Caxton card, we load some Euros before we travel then just use the card at ATMs to get cash out - no interest, no withdrawal fee, all you are doing is accessing your own money which Caxton 'stores' for you until you need it. The exchange rate can vary from day to day, so it is best to keep an eye on the Caxton website for their rate and from that, and the anticipated movement of the euro (ie going up/down) decide when to load it to maximise it. If we want more 'cash' on it when we haven't got access to a computer (eg abroad), we can just send a text to Caxton and the amount we request will be transferred to the card from your nominated bank account. We know how many Euros we have loaded so just keep a record of what we've spent. It can also be used for purchases but we don't bother with that as the Nationwide credit card is more convenient. Hi Mel Im going to be very annoyed if what you say is true about the Nationwide credit card :-S as we were told by the staff when I complained about the debit card charges that there was no charge with the credit card as long as it was paid off monthly, I set up a standing order with them to pay ours off as were away for 6 weeks and Ive been withdrawing cash from atms as it has been refused in most shops in Germany, even when buying a new TomT!! ours crashed on Austrian border !! only once did I get a message at an ATM that "they couldn't process my request at this time" so I used my Debit card, no problem with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 Maggy, if you read the conditions that came with your credit card, I think you will find that cash transactions always attract interest from the date of the transaction until the balance is cleared. Purchases of goods are not charged. AFAIK, this is common to all credit cards. If you use a debit card you will not be charged interest for cash withdrawals, because it is your own money you are spending, but you may be subject to a transaction fee. Don't know what the charge is for purchase of goods on NW debit card, but it will be in the debit card conditions. We just take cash where credit cards aren't popular, and regard the debit card as a means to top up if necessary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 Brian the halifax clarity credit card is an exception to the above... I have always understood what Mel has said as correct re Nationwide. debit for cash, credit for purchases we are getting a Halifax clarity for exactly the reason that Brian has just explained, re fraud. the clarity card has no charges as long as you pay it off monthly. My son just got one and it takes weeks to come through Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 JudgeMental - 2012-07-14 4:25 PM Brian the halifax clarity credit card is an exception to the above... I have always understood what Mel has said as correct re Nationwide. debit for cash, credit for purchases we are getting a Halifax clarity for exactly the reason that Brian has just explained, re fraud. the clarity card has no charges as long as you pay it off monthly. My son just got one and it takes weeks to come through Hi Eddie I've had a look at the website for this and on the summary page it says Interest Free Period: The interest free period applies only to purchases if you pay your balance in full and on time each month. See section 3.5 of the terms and conditions for full details. There's no interest free period on cash advances, balance transfers or cheques. So, whilst there isn't a cash withdrawal FEE, they still charge INTEREST on the cash from the day it was withdrawn ... unless I've totally misunderstood! 8-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PJay Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 So, whilst there isn't a cash withdrawal FEE, they still charge INTEREST on the cash from the day it was withdrawn ... unless I've totally misunderstood! 8-) Hi Mel You are correct. That has always been the case, I have banked with Nationwide for over 40 years. l believe all credit cards are the same. Personally I think this is why people get in to debt , "borrowing" from one card to pay off another. PJay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peejay Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 I have the Clarity card and as said interest is charged on cash withdrawals from the day you draw the cash until it is settled. The trick is to time your withdrawal as close to the settlement date if possible, if you draw cash just after that date you will be charged a full months worth of interest. And a big warning to Halifax Clarity card holders who don't use it very often..... Ours was set up to pay the balance off in full each month. What they don't tell you is that if you have a £0 balance and don't use the card for 3 months then the DD is cancelled, you get no notification of this. I didn't use mine for 3 months then took it abroad and used it once to test it, I was charged a £12 late payment fee as I didn't realise it had been cancelled. I complained and had the £12 refunded and a £30 credit for my inconvenience. Having said that its still one of the best ones out there, just be careful with the above. Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 compare them here... http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-travel-money#halifax Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 compare them here... http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-travel-money#halifax Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maggyd Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 Brian Kirby - 2012-07-14 3:21 PM Maggy, if you read the conditions that came with your credit card, I think you will find that cash transactions always attract interest from the date of the transaction until the balance is cleared. Purchases of goods are not charged. AFAIK, this is common to all credit cards. If you use a debit card you will not be charged interest for cash withdrawals, because it is your own money you are spending, but you may be subject to a transaction fee. Don't know what the charge is for purchase of goods on NW debit card, but it will be in the debit card conditions. We just take cash where credit cards aren't popular, and regard the debit card as a means to top up if necessary. Probably right but I think because we are new to credit cards never having used one before, it was explained that it would be 0 % for 8 weeks by which time we would be home 8-) Im afraid I filed the conditions leaflet at home :-D never mind too late now its probably a case of O.H being right (again) not wanting anything to do with credit. 8-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enodreven Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 Hi, You do pay interest from the day you take the money out with a Halifax Clarity Card, there are no transaction charges. And the best bit the interest rate is only just over 12% so if you settle your account fully every month the total charge will only be around 1% of the amount you borrowed, Which when compared with other methods of getting cash abroad it beats all of them in my opinion. I posted this a few weeks ago Just got some of the bills in from our recent trip to Europe in May 2012 Halifax Clarity Credit Card No charge for purchases and all during May we were getting 1.25€ = £1 Cash withdrawal 16 May withdrew €300 exchange rate 1.25€ = £1 no withdrawal fee but interest charged at 0.033% per day (12.92% per annum) = £2.16p cost Nationwide Debit Card Didn't use it to purchase items (Our Nationwide Credit Card doesn't charge for purchases) Cash withdrawal 19 May withdrew €250 exchange rate 1.242€ = £1 commission fee £4.02p withdrawal fee £1 = £5.02p cost. Subject to us being charged another 15 days interest (0.49p) until our payment is made to Halifax its a clear winner, we will only use the Halifax Clarity card in future as that is a great rate with very very low charges. Hope that helps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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