Oh dear....HUKD seeks to confuse yet again!

Slowly does it......

The post says it's about a CREDIT CARD but the get deal link goes to the current account cheque account which issues a DEBIT card.

The DEBIT card charges fees, but (you're right) no interest.

The CREDIT card does NOT charge fees, but does charge interest.

All clear now?

This that you refer to is not a credit card, but a debit card associated with a basic current account.

This one is better, or the Halifax clarity card?

I can't see what exchange rate they will give you on foreign transactions. Presumably that is where they make their money because the no foreign transaction fee only apply if you use the local currency.

I still think the Revolut card is better. It's a debit card not a credit card but there are no fees involved (if you stick to their fair use policy) and you get the live inter bank exchange rate on transactions.

If it's a debit card then it can't charge interest unless you are overdrawn can it?

Payment scheme exchange rate applies
Rates can be found at mastercard.com or visaeurope.com

The Post Office credit card allows you to buy things abroad with no exchange fees

Oh dear....HUKD seeks to confuse yet again!

Slowly does it......

The post says it's about a CREDIT CARD but the get deal link goes to the current account cheque account which issues a DEBIT card.

The DEBIT card charges fees, but (you're right) no interest.

The CREDIT card does NOT charge fees, but does charge interest.

All clear now?

I just tried signing up with revolut, they not taking any new users on at the moment.

Thanks OP for the heads up on the zero credit card, I phoned and got accepted for one.

Santander 123 & Halifax Clarity cards are at the top of their game.

Good Credit Card for foreign purchases. I already use a Nationwide Select Credit Card abroad but will get my girlfriend (she banks with Santander)to apply to this before our next foreign holiday. The exchange rate will be better as this is a MasterCard rather than Nationwide which is Visa. Might get one myself. HOT.

It doesn't charge interest on local currency purchases if statement balance paid in full.

How does this stack up against the Halifax clarity card (which is also a Mastercard with "No foreign transaction fees on purchases and cash withdrawals abroad when made in the local currency" and "No cash withdrawal fees at home and abroad")?

Also I'm wondering whether Santander will be up for swapping an Everyday Credit Card (which I already have), for a Zero card. Will update if I get around to ringing and asking.

I'm cooling rapidly on Santander 123. My current account is about to halve in monthly interest, looking to switch.

Had one of these for yonks - great for overseas.
Only point to note (& I've looked in the current T&C's and cant see it) I was told in branch and on the telephone that there was a charge for cash withdrawals in the UK as the card was meant to be used overseas.
(I had a credit balance from a refund and they just transfered the money to my account instead).

The problem is if you had this account back when the fee was lower and interest was higher it was a no brainer. Those with say over £10k in it are still finding with the changes it is the best of a bad bunch. All of the banks have used the small drop in interest rates to make a huge difference in their rates. I'm sure if and when interest rates increase they won't be changing the accounts and rates

Thanks OP, I just applied online.

the links above all directed to the wrong page.

People need to google and find Santander Zero credit card.

all banks do this, they either give you "free" fees and a shody exchange rate (and the bigger the buy the more you lose out) or the charge you a small fee, usually capped but give you pretty much the chrrent exchange rate. then you get the greedy ones that do both. its not a deal worth getting excoted about - usually a pre-paid holiday card can give you better short term savings.

if you take money out of the ATM in thailand, you will get charged about £7 for each transaction - all the banks do it here, they have stated charging me £14 to bring money into my thai account as well from a bank transfer from UK account, this is a new thing though.

Nothing to do with this card, its a Thai ATM fee.

for Halifax clarity card, ​someone on this forum mentioned there wouldn't be interest occur even if you withdraw cash as long as you pay full for your balance every month.

Anyone could confirm this or otherwise?

No, you pay interest from the day you take cash out. But go online and pay in amount straight away and cost is minimal. Use my Halifax Clarity card for long-haul backpacking - a Godsend from the days of rip-off credit/debit card charges and travellers cheques.

As above, but bear in mind that the interest charge, even if you settle on the due date, is insignificant compared with the usual withdrawal fees and/or interest rate loading of many other cards.

Thanks, applied & accepted

Is the statement from your previous experience? You have been charged because you didn't pay the cash out back into the credit card straight away? If you are getting the information from T&S, then it might be different from their actual practice.

My experience is that there were a few times I paid about 1 - 2 days after my cash withdrawn overseas, and NO interest occurred AT ALL.

How do you do this?

Either via the app or online banking

If you try editing their deal, it's the link they used but for some reason, clicking Santander links appears to automatically forward you to current accounts page. I tried with http://www.santander.co.uk/uk/insurance and clicking it still forwards you to Current accounts page. Copy and pasting the link text: [ santander.co.uk/uk/credit-cards/zero-credit-card ] into address bar will work though

That would be about right as it will take at least one day for the amount to hit your card account and they tend to ignore interest sup 1p.

Thanks but only the op can change the deal url

You misinterpreted my point. I wasn't suggesting for you to change it for them. I said that if you go into edit, you can see what is the address link they used in the deal. It is the exact same as the "proper link". My point was that whether you click 'Get Deal' or the hyperlink for the "proper link" in your comment, it'll still forward you to the wrong page.

Ah.....the mysteries of the HUKD software coding!

The tag line says 'Copyright © 2016' but I bet the software hasn't seen much change since the site was opened.

These bugs have been around for years.

Is this the Santander app and online banking?

Which credit card is this?

It's this one, the Santander Zero. I too have had mine for years and front load it before heading overseas and you simply withdraw what you need when you need, taking care to choose the local currency (say EUR) and not selecting to have the ATM/Bank charge in GBP. You can also use it to make online purchases in any currency with no fees. Exchange rate is always better than what you can get on high st (not by much, but it's better).

How do you front load it?

Exchange rate is normally substantially better than the high street. If we take today as an indication for 100 Euro then
Halifax £86.46
Best central London 87.50 - pre booked
Thomas cook 88.20
Post office 88.40
Barclays 91.10
Other credit cards min 89.10
Other credit cards from atm 91.03
Changing currency abroad especially out of hours in fx bureaus will be even more expensive.

Other very important point
NEVER EVER let a card machine abroad bill you in GBP

Preloading is paying in money to the credit card before you spend anything.
Preloading only works if you don't use the card for other things as the money will be used to pay off the last statement balance of not already paid off followed by any charges since the last statement (cash withdrawals first).
This is why I run both a zero and a clarity card. I use the zero for day to day expenditure abroad and the clarity for foreign atm cash withdrawals.
I don't normally preload as Halifax don't allow credit balances, instead I work out what I think the amount is add 5% and pay it the following day. I then check the following day on the web what the actual was and pay any remainder if required. A bit painful but as I can spend extended time abroad it saves me a fortune.

(a) Minor infringements of preloading have attracted no sanction for me at least, and others have said they do it routinely before travel
(b) No need to worry about the foreign currency aspect. Just transfer in sterling and because they offer the fairest of exchange rates then you can rely on that to keep you sweet
Steve makes a good point, and if you can organise your affairs to use two fee-free cards then it's an ideal solution

Thanks!

What is the exact advantage of preloading?

dtorbelt, thanks for that.

I thought preloading still incurred an interest charge for atm withdrawels.

This has got me looking at the options again and especially prepaid cards.
The Halifax card is definately King among the credit cards simply because the Apr is so low (12.5%) so if you don't immediately pay off cash withdrawals you won't get penalised too badly.
Prepay cards have the attraction that you are shielded from currency movements but generally load the initial exchange rate by 0.5-3.0 % (see https://www.moneysupermarket.com/prepaid-cards/euros/). However there appears to be a newcomer called revolut that stands out as the loading for used or euro appears to me to be at 0% up to £5000 per month and 0.5% there after. Cash withdrawals are free up to £500 per month which is a bit low but probably ok for 1 or 2 week holidays.
Revolut is a smartphone/iPad app that can be used as a bank account in use/eur and gbp. In addition you can make bank payments in most liquid currencies. Add to that you can get a revolut (debit?) card linked off the account.
This actually appears to be a full fx platform in addition to being able to run a card off it. IE you can pay euros to a foreign bank account for no charges up to £5k per month. This is very attractive especially as small payments are normally the most expensive. It doesn't allow for receiving bank charges though. Would love to hear from anyone who has investigated this..
Charge details here. https://revolut.com/faq/gettingstarted.php?cat_id=10&faq_id_according=52&cat_name=Common%20Faqs#parentVerticalTab10
Note this is just what I have garnered so far from the website.

I installed revolut after someone mentioned it in this thread, but it's not allowing new accounts for now.

All credit cards only charge interest if not paid off in full every month from what I understand.

Interest is charged for cash withdrawals from the day it is taken out unlike spending on them.

Technically you are correct but in practice cash withdrawals don't appear on your account until following day.

The Santander zero

​question about the cash withdrawals. MSE seems to make it sound like you need to get on online banking immediately! and pay it off. surely it's just the same as with an ordinary purchase and as long as you pay off when statement comes you don't get charged interest?