Beware of contactless pay in France

[GrannyJen]

I use a pre-paid card, we swap or revolut.

Current rates are 1.25 on the euro, but as I had some spare cash hanging around a few months ago I bought at 1.41 and that's what I am still using.

However I had brain fade last week in France and used my regular credit card once.

Exchange rate 1.22 and a 1.5% transaction fee.

 

[mccp]

Disagree, when i draw money out on a weekly basis to top up my french credit agricole account i get charged a transaction fee, same for buying goods with debit card.

John

I agree - I haven't found a debit card that allows free withdrawals from French ATMs. Probably the best card for no fees is the Halifax Clarity, but that's a Mastercard credit card so you pay interest from the day of withdrawal. However, as it's an online account, I guess you can make a withdrawal and then transfer cash to the Halifax card online to pay it off straight away. The exchange rate on the Halifax Clarity is the Mastercard Global rate which today is 1.256428 Euros to the £. For comparison the Post Office today is 1.2240 if you spend over £500 - you would get 612 euros from the PO for £500, but 612 euros only costs £487 on the Halifax card.

 

[Angus Morgan]

I agree - I haven't found a debit card that allows free withdrawals from French ATMs. Probably the best card for no fees is the Halifax Clarity, but that's a Mastercard credit card so you pay interest from the day of withdrawal. However, as it's an online account, I guess you can make a withdrawal and then transfer cash to the Halifax card online to pay it off straight away. The exchange rate on the Halifax Clarity is the Mastercard Global rate which today is 1.256428 Euros to the £. For comparison the Post Office today is 1.2240 if you spend over £500 - you would get 612 euros from the PO for £500, but 612 euros only costs £487 on the Halifax card.

Yep, that's how I do it. I pay it off immediately with Internet banking, so only pay a tiny bit of interest.

 

[calimera]

We keep Halifax clarity credit card to use exclusively abroad ,gives one of the best exchange rate available & no fee .Also use it to purchase items online from Europe. Never withdrawn cash with it. Also like credit card protection for purchases.

15 cheapest ways to get travel money :
www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-travel-money

Also when using PayPal use the linked Halifax clarity card ,better exchange rate than paypal.

 

[CYCLOPATH]

Reviewing this today, in preparation for summer hols, it looks like the new Creation card is the best.
Free euro transactions if payed off in full at MasterCard base rate( which is usually slightly better than the visa rate
And free Atm withdrawal ....which you must pay off immediately as you do pay interest from the moment you take cash.
But cheapest of all is using a free credit card like Halifax clarity, saga or creation, and paying off in full
Then getting euros in cash in uk from cheapest online retailer , but using the credit card as much as possible

 

[mccp]

If you get a card that doesn't charge a fee, then make sure that you always pay in the local currency when buying something in a store.

Quite often, especially in tourist areas, the card machine will offer you the option to pay in Sterling. This is always a really bad idea unless your card makes you pay an extortionate fee for foreign currency transactions. If you can't select the foreign currency option on the card machine, just tell the retailer you want to pay in Euros (or whatever) or no sale.

The reason it's a bad idea to pay in Sterling, is that the exchange rate on offer will be rubbish compare to teh Visa or Mastercard rate. The retailer gets a kickback, so it's in their interest to get you to pay in Sterling but I doubt that they would prefer to lose a sale over it.

This has happened to me, buying sunglasses in a seaside town in Spain - I didn't check what was going on and ended up paying nearly £60 for something that should have been more like £50. Since then I've been wary and select Euros as the payment currency. Once I've had to tell the retailer to return the amount to Euros, which was done with a guilty smile.

I've noticed that Amazon have started to do a similar thing when you buy stuff that isn't priced in your local currency, but Amazon's exchange rate isn't bad at all.

 

[CYCLOPATH]

That's a really good point MCCP.
I always insist ( well, ask nicely) on paying in euros, even if not offered, and have never been refused .

 

[calimera]

Always inform Halifax clarity card when we are going abroad. To avoid card being refused.
Use for nearly all purchases. Hardly use cash. Definitely pay in euros.
Use to pay for ski pass,mountain restaurants, ski hire etc.

 

[Skylark2.0]

Some great tips in here thx

 

[CYCLOPATH]

Just to update on the subject,
I can now get cash out of a Santander cash machine in Europe, totally free, and the visa exchange rate
By using a Santander gold debit card , linked to a select 321 account
WARNINGis that there is a fee if you use it as a debit card, so I need my saga credit card for free card purchases

 

[soulstyledevon]

Just to update on the subject,
I can now get cash out of a Santander cash machine in Europe, totally free, and the visa exchange rate
By using a Santander gold debit card , linked to a select 321 account
WARNINGis that there is a fee if you use it as a debit card, so I need my saga credit card for free card purchases

Do you have to pay for the bank account...???

 

[CYCLOPATH]

Good point, I forgot that,
For me, I also use it as my savings account, and it pays 3 % and instant acess of course
So I pay £5 a month, but get £50 back, which nocks it down in effect to free and a 2.25% interest rate, which is still competitive.....you do need to have the savings.....and 2 direct debits,,,and money going in each month
They do give cash back on bills aswell
Yeah,
Won't suit everyone, sounds complicated now....but works for me.
I just was pleased at last to find true free cash withdrawal, and wanted to share the idea, as you guys have helped me a lot with my van

 

[Amarillo]

You pay interest from the moment you take cash out, until it is payed off, which could be up to a month
At up to 25.95 %

You can put your credit card account into credit, and avoid a "cash advance" fee at ATMs as there has been no cash advanced. Unfortunately, if the fee is classed as a "transaction fee", you cannot avoid it as there has been a transaction.

The other benefit of putting a credit card account into credit is that they cannot charge interest on a withdrawal.

Before I go away for a year, I am looking into opening a Euro account with Lloyds Bank. The £7.50 monthly fee is quite hefty, but apart from that it looks quite good.

 

[briwy]

Disagree, when i draw money out on a weekly basis to top up my french credit agricole account i get charged a transaction fee, same for buying goods with debit card.

John

John.
have you looked at TransferWise? We now use them to send money to CA rather than direct from our UK current accounts. Also used them to send money to my daughter in Barcelona and got a very good rate.

 

[AlanC]

I picked up on Jen's recent comment about WeSwap.

It is a credit card you charge up with a sterling transfer and then swap into the local currency as and when you need it. Use the credit card as normal in the local currency.

There is a charge of course, 1% for charging the card is done 7 days or more before you travel. Closer to the use date in more expensive, but joining up and getting the card is free. There is also an App fro your phone to make it all easy while away.

Will let you know how it goes once we have been to Spain.

Alan

 

[Teejay]

You could use something like this:

http://www.postoffice.co.uk/travel-money/card

Card is free to get but you need to top it up £50 to activate. ATMs charge but read the T&Cs.

 

[Velma's Dad]

I looked at prepaid cards a while back and although I didn't go for it at the time, the Post Office Travel Money card @Teejay1 refers to did look the best of the bunch at that point, quite possibly still is.

However, if looking at other prepaid cards beware of 'inactivity' charges, ie the b*%$*s start knocking money off the card if you haven't used it for a few months...

I'm just relying on a secret stash of Euros stuffed down the sides of the Camping Gaz bottle... Damn.

 

[Loz]

we take cash divided up into the amount of days we are going for (eg €100/day) and dig one out each day, this helps to budget the spend and you don't have to hide it all in the same place... Any left over is kept for the next trip...

 

[CYCLOPATH]

I looked at prepaid cards a while back and although I didn't go for it at the time, the Post Office Travel Money card @Teejay1 refers to did look the best of the bunch at that point, quite possibly still is.

However, if looking at other prepaid cards beware of 'inactivity' charges, ie the b*%$*s start knocking money off the card if you haven't used it for a few months...

I'm just relying on a secret stash of Euros stuffed down the sides of the Camping Gaz bottle... Damn.

They get your money by the exchange rate they use, and there is an ATM fee when you take cash out

 

[CYCLOPATH]

we take cash divided up into the amount of days we are going for (eg €100/day) and dig one out each day, this helps to budget the spend and you don't have to hide it all in the same place... Any left over is kept for the next trip...

Blimey, so for a 30 day trip that is €3000 stashed. I would keep quiet about that.

 

[Loz]

Blimey, so for a 30 day trip that is €3000 stashed. I would keep quiet about that.

no greater risk then leaving your van keys lying around in the house

 

[Velma's Dad]

no greater risk then leaving your van keys lying around in the house

Yep and what about the expensive cameras and other gear we tend to cart about?

I share your philosophy Loz and when travelling in many parts of the world beyond Europe then carrying cash can be a safer option generally (eg taking money out of ATMs can be a bit risky in a lot of places).

Just to acknowledge also though - our Calis are (presumably) insured against theft, whereas I've always assumed it would be tricky claiming for a big loss of cash if the insurer argued that carting around large wodges of notes didn't constitute 'reasonable care' (which in my experience with insurers they assuredly would).

 

[briwy]

Just seen this. Not tried it yet but could be helpful.
http://travelmoney.moneysavingexper...Jun-16-v1t&utm_campaign=nt-hiya&utm_content=4

Edit.
Just tried for Norwegian Kroner and the difference between best and worst for £1000 value is £80 so well worth trying it.

 

[CYCLOPATH]

Well so much for my smarty pants Santander gold card for free ATM withdraws.
I was trying to find their machines in France....there aren't any
O well
Back to the drawing board

 

[mccp]

I have used a Halifax Clarity card for the last two or three years, which has worked very well for payments and for withdrawals from ATMs. It doesn't charge any transaction fees whatsoever, but you pay interest on cash withdrawals from the day of withdrawal. Foreign currency rates are set at the Mastercard global rate, which is always a very good rate.

If I make a cash withdrawal, I pay the balance off immediately using online banking on my iPhone. Once you've made a payment by phone once, the details are stored, so subsequent payments are trivial - it probably takes me less than a minute as long as I have a 3G connection. In all the time I've had the card, I've only paid a few pence in interest on cash withdrawals.

Apart from being effectively free to use and a very good exchange rate, I think that the best thing is that it's a credit card - if any fraudster steals money from it, they are stealing from Mastercard, not my personal bank account via a debit card.

If I'm transferring cash to my French bank account, I tend to use UKForex who are very efficient and usually have very competitive rates. Unfortunately, my French account is with Credit Agricole who are pretty much in the dark ages as far as online banking goes. I think the UK banks generally do a far better job.