Halifax clarity credit card

[vickk]

Hi, does anyone else use this card. I got one last year for our trip and was pleased with the rates I got and no charges.

However I have used it this month in spain to pay for car hire and my statement has just come through. The only info the statement shows is the uk charge in pounds, it does not show the charge in euro or the rate of exchange. They say they have been doing it like this for a couple of months now.

The bill was 460 euro and I have been charged 405 pounds which I work out at a rate around 1.13 which is nowhere near the rate during May. To my mind this means I have been charged the wrong rate or that the car hire company applied a charge higher than the bill. Either way despite phoning Halifax they can not tell me the rate used or the euro charge applied by the car hire company

Anyone else had this problem recently? I don't understand why they have stopped showing the details on the statement and have put in a written complaint. Even the customer service guy didnt know they had stopped it

[ujpest doza]

That sounds like they have used the option to pay in GBP rather than EUROs at the point of sale which usually results in a poor exchange rate.

Quite often you are asked by the retailer whether you wish to pay in your own currency or the local currency when paying by card and it's better to pay in the local currency, more often now they don't ask.

[vickk]

I had thought of that but the bill I signed for was in euro and at no point did they ask if I wanted to pay in sterling so if they did they did it without permission. Also my other point is that the halifax bill gives no information and even calling them they cant explain what I have been charged for. If they could confirm what had happened I could then complain to the hire company.

I have a 3 week trip to Florida soon and it will be difficult to track all my transactions. For example if I use the card for all resteraunt bills and as usual the tip is written in after the card has been swiped it will be much harder to keep track if the restaurant has added the correct tip

[Tony G]

I noticed that last time I went to Florida. I hate it when you can't see the full amount in dollars as well as pounds. My John Lewis credit card shows both and the exchange rate they gave you.

I still use my Halifax Clarity card for all purchases in the US, it's nice not to have to worry about charges but I do wish they were a little more transparent. I wouldn't mid even if they only made it visible if you downloaded your statement in CSV format, but even that is the same basic information (date/ref/place/amount).

[Gerry Reed]

I use my VA amex. They show the $ amount, exchange rate and £ amount. They also show the 2.5% currency charge but as their exchange rate is usually better than we would get else where, it works out about the same as most methods of payment. For us it is also very convenient and I also get lots of VA miles.

Sue

[Jill]

Hi, does anyone else use this card. I got one last year for our trip and was pleased with the rates I got and no charges.

However I have used it this month in spain to pay for car hire and my statement has just come through. The only info the statement shows is the uk charge in pounds, it does not show the charge in euro or the rate of exchange. They say they have been doing it like this for a couple of months now.

The bill was 460 euro and I have been charged 405 pounds which I work out at a rate around 1.13 which is nowhere near the rate during May. To my mind this means I have been charged the wrong rate or that the car hire company applied a charge higher than the bill. Either way despite phoning Halifax they can not tell me the rate used or the euro charge applied by the car hire company

Anyone else had this problem recently? I don't understand why they have stopped showing the details on the statement and have put in a written complaint. Even the customer service guy didnt know they had stopped it

It could be that although you said you wanted to pay in Euros you were ignored and the supplier used their own exchange rate. We had this happen to us once with Nationwide where we had clearly told the supplier we were paying in Euros but when we got the bill realised the exchange rate was 'off' spoke to Nationwide who confirmed our instructions had not been carried out and were very good and charged the difference back to the company. We also had National car hire try and do the same to us in North Carolina but I was suspicious having been caught out before and refused to sign the transaction slip until they put it through in dollars.

[vickk]

Its looking more likely that I have been ripped off by the hire company. I have emailed them asking for confirmation that they used their own conversion rates. However if they did they did not ask permission. Frustrating that 30 mins on the phone to halifax did not offer this solution. All I kept getting from them is that they use the rate when the transaction goes through not the day I used the card and they only use the rate set by mastercard and had no control over the rate. Stock answers and a fob off

[steph_goodrum]

Hardly "clarity" is it? I thought they were obliged to tell youu what rate had been used and any charges applied? I prefer Fairfx as I load it up with DOllars (their rate is pretty good usually) and then carry out the transactions in Dollars. They do a Euro card as well so if I were going to Europe for a holiday then would get one of those. I don't like surprises when I get back from my hols so everything is paid for in cash or with the card so I know exactly what that "bargain" is costing me and it's paid for already rather than out of next months paycheck etc.

[Jill]

Its looking more likely that I have been ripped off by the hire company. I have emailed them asking for confirmation that they used their own conversion rates. However if they did they did not ask permission. Frustrating that 30 mins on the phone to halifax did not offer this solution. All I kept getting from them is that they use the rate when the transaction goes through not the day I used the card and they only use the rate set by mastercard and had no control over the rate. Stock answers and a fob off

If the hire company confirm they have done this then if they will not sort out the refund over the difference then I would go back to Halifax and ask them to charge the difference back on the grounds that the company have deliberately overcharged you which is effectively what Nationwide did as it is easy for the card company to work out what the rate was on the day of transaction.

[SDJ]

Hardly "clarity" is it? I thought they were obliged to tell youu what rate had been used and any charges applied? I prefer Fairfx as I load it up with DOllars (their rate is pretty good usually) and then carry out the transactions in Dollars. They do a Euro card as well so if I were going to Europe for a holiday then would get one of those. I don't like surprises when I get back from my hols so everything is paid for in cash or with the card so I know exactly what that "bargain" is costing me and it's paid for already rather than out of next months paycheck etc.

We also loaded a Fairfx Card with $$ before our last visit. This was the first time we have done this so did not put too much on it in case of problems. However, it was perfect and I could look on my phone at the APP and see exactly what I had used and the amount left. I could have topped it up on line with no problem but didn't need to. Very pleased.