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Thread: money in which form!!

  1. #11
    Gold 5 Star Member Lyn's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Robert5988 View Post
    How do you determine what is 'favourable'?(as opposed to acceptable to yourself) The best brains in the City, with access to every scrap of financial information, simply do not know which way the rate will move. They gamble and so do we!

    Most of us use 'plastic'(debit and credit cards) in High Street UK - so why not in High Street USA? Far better exchange rate than cash or TC's.
    I agree if we could all know which way the rate would go we could all be very rich. What I meant was a rate acceptable to me.
    I have a US bank account so transfer money over when I think the rate is OK. for instance the last money I transfered I got $1.60. I am in Florida at the moment and spending this money, if I was using my credit card I would not be getting $1.60. I realise this could have gone the other way but so far it has worked for me.
    Lyn


  2. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Robert5988 View Post
    Most of us use 'plastic'(debit and credit cards) in High Street UK - so why not in High Street USA? Far better exchange rate than cash or TC's.
    I know that there are several credit cards which give you a good exchange rate in the US, but are there any debit cards that do?


  3. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by shockey View Post
    I know that there are several credit cards which give you a good exchange rate in the US, but are there any debit cards that do?
    I have a Santander Zero current account and there are no charges at all for use of a Debit Card to get cash from an ATM or any other transaction i.e. you get the exact Visa rate. However I believe this current account is not offered to new customers.

    MoneySavingExpert(we can't give links) lists all Debit Card charges for major banks.


  4. #14
    wrpac00
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    As far as a credit card is concerened it may depend on any 'perks' your card gives you and how you use them.

    I have a Virgin Amex & Visa card and a Halifax Clarifty card. The Virgin cards give me 2.75% less than my Halifax clarity card, that means I could save £27-50 for every £1000 spent however £1000 spent on my Virgin Amex card gives me 2000 miles. 2000 miles used for an M&M flight will save me a minimum of £60 so for me its worth using my Virgin cards as in the long run I save more, these comparison site do not take these things into account.


  5. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by wrpac00 View Post
    As far as a credit card is concerened it may depend on any 'perks' your card gives you and how you use them.

    I have a Virgin Amex & Visa card and a Halifax Clarifty card. The Virgin cards give me 2.75% less than my Halifax clarity card, that means I could save £27-50 for every £1000 spent however £1000 spent on my Virgin Amex card gives me 2000 miles. 2000 miles used for an M&M flight will save me a minimum of £60 so for me its worth using my Virgin cards as in the long run I save more, these comparison site do not take these things into account.
    I'm also a fan of the so-called 'reward' cards but am I right in thinking that it's only the Virgin Amex that gives 2 miles per Pound spent while the Visa gives just 1? The other thing that you need to factor in is the pretty steep £140 annual fee for the card.

    The BMI Amex/Visa has a useful 20k miles bonus on offer at the moment and you can use those on Virgin (although following BMI's demise, it's not clear for how much longer). I recently purchased 48k BMI miles for just over £500 and, while it's quite a high initial outlay, I figure they're worth a lot more than that come redemption time.
    Last edited by Katys Grandad; 15-06-2012 at 04:22.


  6. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by Robert5988 View Post
    MoneySavingExpert(we can't give links) lists all Debit Card charges for major banks.
    MSE's list of fee-free debit cards is pretty short! At present the only ones on offer seem to be the Norwich and Peterborough Gold Classic account (if you pay in £500 a month), and Metro Bank (if you are near a Metro Bank branch).

    We use the Halifax Clarity credit card for getting cash abroad - fee free, and minimal interest if you pay it off a few days after you've withdrawn the cash.


  7. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by shockey View Post

    We use the Halifax Clarity credit card for getting cash abroad - fee free, and minimal interest if you pay it off a few days after you've withdrawn the cash.
    Agreed the Clarity card is the best bet for new applicants; the problem is that the position changes every so often. For a while Nationwide were the best for both credit and debit cards.

    I read somewhere that you could pay in extra on the Clarity card and have a credit balance(e.g. have a statement with, say, a £1,000 balance but pay £2,000) and escape any interest charges - does that still work?


  8. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by Robert5988 View Post
    I read somewhere that you could pay in extra on the Clarity card and have a credit balance(e.g. have a statement with, say, a £1,000 balance but pay £2,000) and escape any interest charges - does that still work?
    You're not supposed to do that, according to para 11.7 of the Clarity T&Cs: http://www.halifax.co.uk/creditcards...ty-card/terms/


  9. #19
    wrpac00
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    Quote Originally Posted by Katys Grandad View Post
    I'm also a fan of the so-called 'reward' cards but am I right in thinking that it's only the Virgin Amex that gives 2 miles per Pound spent while the Visa gives just 1? The other thing that you need to factor in is the pretty steep £140 annual fee for the card.

    The BMI Amex/Visa has a useful 20k miles bonus on offer at the moment and you can use those on Virgin (although following BMI's demise, it's not clear for how much longer). I recently purchased 48k BMI miles for just over £500 and, while it's quite a high initial outlay, I figure they're worth a lot more than that come redemption time.
    For us the £140 a year is well worth it because of the rewards we get, for example this year it cost us about £660 for 2 seats in PE using miles and an upgrade. Over the last 6 years we have saved well over £6000 on flights compared with an outlay of about £800.


  10. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by wrpac00 View Post
    For us the £140 a year is well worth it because of the rewards we get, for example this year it cost us about £660 for 2 seats in PE using miles and an upgrade. Over the last 6 years we have saved well over £6000 on flights compared with an outlay of about £800.
    Too few people really take advantage of these cards and, as you say, the rewards are well worth having if you work them right.

    Have you seen the Amex Preferred Gold card benefits? For an annual fee of £125 you get a 20,000 bonus points when you spend £1,000 in the first 3 months and, in the first year, 2 points on all travel, fuel and supermarket shopping. If you like that sort of thing, they also give you a couple of free airline lounge passes.

    You can transfer the points 1 for 1 to almost all the Frequent Flyer schemes along with all the major hotel reward schemes. In 12 months you could comfortably earn around 40,000 Virgin miles (or more or less any other airline you choose) and, of course, the card is accepted everywhere your Virgin Amex is but this lets you choose which airline you want to use. With a combination of the Tesco Clubcard and the Amex Gold, I can collect almost 500 miles every time I fill my car with petrol at Tesco for no additional cost. After the first year, I simply cancelled and my wife took out a card for the 20k bonus. To my surprise, in year 3 when she cancelled I applied again and, hey presto, another 20,000 bonus for me.

    We're off to Rome on BA for the weekend next week (in Club of course!) for a fraction of the cost of a cheapo EasyJet ticket all down to Amex. This year alone, we'll 'save' £10 to £15k on travel with a combination of Hotel, Frequent Flyer and credit card programmes. You have to work at it and get to know all the ins and outs of the various schemes but why so few people exploit these things always amazes me.
    Last edited by Katys Grandad; 16-06-2012 at 02:54.


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