Bits: why Mastercard FX rates are better than Visa, Air India returns to London-New York route

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• Callum says:

  21 May21 May 04:55

  They seem to have made a rather shoddy analysis though – checking 4 currencies on a single day doesn’t draw any meaningful conclusions other than Mastercard was better on the 13th May!

  That being said, when I looked at variations across a couple of weeks before Mastercard was consistently better (I think I had something like 60 comparisons, Mastercard was better in about 57 of those).

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

    21 May21 May 07:25

    Seconded. The data presented doesn’t come close to justifying the conclusion in the headline (and the hypothesis is a screenshot!). The MSE analysis linked below is much better.

  • Rob says:

    21 May21 May 10:54

    One Mile At A Time did a deeper dive with similar results.

  • Callum says:

    21 May21 May 14:28

    Sorry I can’t find it, but it was very similar to the MSE analysis you quoted (minus the fancy graphs!). I also got almost exactly the same results – Mastercard was better in virtually all cases.

    • Worzel says:

      21 May21 May 14:59

      Callum, I’m sure your results further evidenced the fact that MasterCard rates are(in most cases) better than Visa, Worz.

• Sam wardill says:

  21 May21 May 05:46

  So what is the best card for overseas spend then?

  • Genghis says:

    21 May21 May 05:57

    There are many factors at play – how much you spend abroad, points earning strategy etc. Here are some of my thoughts:

    Perhaps for low spenders, Halifax Clarity (free MC).

    Higher spenders Lloyds £24 card (Amex and MC).

    If churning CCs, Curve as the 1% loading generally ‘buys’ the points and spend counts towards spend targets.

• Dave says:

  21 May21 May 08:03

  Certainly makes it helps mitigate the Curve premium over Supercard

• Lambs says:

  21 May21 May 09:10

  Sorry to go off topic. On the virgin white card what is the spending requirement to get a companion seat?

  • Ian C says:

    21 May21 May 11:12

    £15k spend on the Amex card within a year. Spend on the Visa card does not count towards the companion voucher or the upgrade vouchers.

• Boi says:

  21 May21 May 09:18

  I still think visa/super card excellent for overseas spend…..
  I am currently in Amsterdam. Took out €250 from ATM, it’s currently charged as £193.82. XE is saying £193.32. I think that is very close and I am happy with that.

  Ps this is spent as super card linked to curve linked to virgin black Amex.

  • Boi says:

    21 May21 May 09:21

    Typo, XE is £193.36…..small margin.
    I still think that would beat direct spending on curve with their 1% and ATM fee.

    • Genghis says:

      21 May21 May 09:31

      Certainly

    • John says:

      21 May21 May 20:23

      Yes, the Visa rate is good today. It isn’t so good on some other days.

      I used to monitor this closely and only withdrew when the rate beat the XE.com rate, and then traded it back using my Hong Kong bank accounts or Interactive Brokers. I maxed out my own Supercard £20000 a while back.

      Actually, checking the numbers, you must have made your withdrawal on Friday. The rate for Saturday (which will be the rate for Monday) is currently better than XE.com.

  • Douglas says:

    21 May21 May 12:01

    Interesting. Have you managed to do a cash wtihdraw in the UK with your supercard linked to curve?
    The beta will be over soon, so I could try to get £1000 or so.
    I’m just a bit nervous with what HMRC may think about all those cash deposits.

    • Boi says:

      21 May21 May 15:25

      I did… Multiple times without issues. But I am not doing it excessively.I will be sad to see the pilot go as they might tighten the rules m.

  • Oliver says:

    21 May21 May 13:51

    oh nice, i didn’t think you could connect the supercard to the curve

    • Mr Dee says:

      21 May21 May 15:45

      Yes it can be done but Curve seem to charge pre authorisations to the amex which posts to the account and then about 5 days later you will get a refund, this is very annoying and should be pre authorised on the amex and not actually charged.

      So using supercard I get transactions charged twice on some occassions and then 1 refunded days later.

• Lee-Anne says:

  21 May21 May 09:55

  I am really pleased we got the Halifax Clarity three years ago. We keep it purely for foreign (holiday) spending. We have saved quite a few hundred pounds since typically we tend to book direct and pay in local currency. Although we collect avios by using TSB Avios cards for everyday spending ultimately I would prefer to save money than accumulate more avios since TSB fx fees are so high I feel like I would simply be buying avios (and not cheaply).

  An example of how Mastercard rates fluctuate though is that on Thursday I paid for accommodation in South Africa using our Halifax Clarity card. Immediately my account showed a pending amount of £1322 which seemed broadly in line with the published MC rates. Today the transaction hasprocessed and showing as £1289. A difference of around 2.5% and enough to pay for an hours massage in the spa when we .

  Even taking out cash abroad on the Clarity card is very low cost. Last year in Thailand we took out a few hundred pounds from local ATM’s and it cost less than £10 in fees.

  • Genghis says:

    21 May21 May 10:01

    By fees do you mean interest? You can pay off Clarity balance as soon as make transaction and you won’t get charged interest.

    • Leo says:

      21 May21 May 10:41

      No the ATMs can charge you for using the machine. At least that’s my experience.

      • Callum says:

        21 May21 May 14:31

        Thailand is one of the only places I’d consider taking cash to convert (the exchange rates you get in Thailand for cash are very close to the interbank rate) given the large ATM fees.

        Though you can withdraw from a handful of Citibank ATMs for free in Bangkok.

        • Londonbus says:

          21 May21 May 16:41

          Take £50 notes. You”ll get a slightly better rate.

          The ATM fee for Thailand is now a cool 200 THB. Per transaction.

        • Callum says:

          21 May21 May 16:44

          Oh yeah, that’s good advice. I used USD (same rules apply – the bigger the note the better the rate) simply because I had a ridiculous amount left over and I had no plans to use it any time soon.

          If I was starting the trip in Bangkok I’d just stick to the Citibank ATM though.

        • john says:

          21 May21 May 18:45

          I have a nationwide card which gives commission free withdrawals, but some banks abroad will charge you for withdrawing whilst others don’t. Anyone know a way to find out which other than trial and error?

        • John says:

          21 May21 May 20:24

          Which countries? I’ve never been charged in all of Europe, Hong Kong, Australia or NZ.

        • Alan says:

          21 May21 May 20:26

          Bank of Melbourne certainly did when using my Number26 card in their ATM – they’re meant to warn as part of the withdrawal process but in my case didn’t (I got the fee back from the branch). Not sure there’s any easy way of knowing in advance which do/don’t charge fees though.

        • James67 says:

          21 May21 May 19:36

          At one time you got the best rates of all for sterling travellers cheques oddly, but I believe that is no longer the case. IME there is also something odd about citibank too, I get so many free withdrawals from their atm using whatever card (including my supercard last year) and then after a while citibank stops acceting the card anymore even though they continue to work at other bank ATMs. Tried to get to the bottom of this with citibank without success. After AEON started charging and atm fee reached 200baht I started carrying £50 notes again.

  • John says:

    21 May21 May 20:30

    This is not really to do with Mastercard. The pound sterling appreciated sharply this week.

    I managed to use this to my advantage with Amex Travel. My ex-Sweden flights previously costing £1320 last week have dropped to £1250 today.

• takke says:

  21 May21 May 10:13

  Another thing to bear in mind that I haven’t seen mentioned on these reviews is that Visa (the US public company operating internationally) and Visa Europe (the European company owned by European banks and operating in Europe, including in the UK) are separate entities and have different foreign exchange rates. So if you’re checking the rate on a British card, don’t use the US website (usa.visa.com) but use the European one (visaeurope.com). The differences are relatively small: today on the GBP/USD rate, Visa USA are at 0.687, Visa Europe at 0.690 and MC at 0.686, but it’s worth bearing in mind. This may of course all change if and when a full merger between the organisations is completed, but using a US assessment to compare the two providers is not going to give you an accurate picture when you’re using a UK card.

  • Mud Island Mlungu says:

    21 May21 May 11:12

    Not for long. The buyout concludes this month.

• Kipto says:

  21 May21 May 10:20

  I have the clarity card and want to clarify something. I read on this site that the Interest on the card starts from day one so eg if I spend £200 abroad on day one if I pay the card off on the day my statement arrives will the bill be £200 still or £200 plus the interest accrued from day one ? Never heard of a card that charges you interest even before you get a statement.in addition is it correct that you can’t load the card before you go on holiday so that if anticipating a £1000 spend you transfer £1000 on to the card. If that is correct,what would happen to the £1000 you transferred ? would they transfer it back to your account ?

  • Genghis says:

    21 May21 May 10:23

    If using ATM overseas, interest is charged from the day of cash withdrawal so I pay the balance off as I go. Not too sure about putting the account into credit prior to trip.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    21 May21 May 11:56

    pretty sure its against the T&C’s to preload the card, but my experience is if you over pay its left on the card for future charges to be put against, never been automatically refunded.

    Thought nearly all credit cards charge interest from day 1 on cash advances (atm withdrawals)?

    I normally just transfer funds to my card soon after my withdrawal and get charged very little if no interest

  • John says:

    21 May21 May 21:02

    Don’t really understand your question.

    If you only spend on your card, and you always pay your bill in full, you won’t get any interest.

    If you use it for cash withdrawals, you should pay off the entire card (including all previous purchases) as soon as the transaction appears on online banking. I’ve never been charged interest.

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