Should you get the new Tandem Money credit card – with NO FX fees and 0.5% cashback?

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• Gareth says:

  6 Mar6 March 06:00

  So if I withdraw cash overseas then immediately pay that amount off the card will this avoid any interest?

  • Delbert says:

    6 Mar6 March 06:14

    I’d wait until you can see the debit on the internet banking app or you may be seen as loading the card.

    • Gareth says:

      6 Mar6 March 06:17

      Ok thanks

    • KBuffett says:

      6 Mar6 March 08:00

      Do cards not honour rewards/points if a card is loaded?

      • Rob says:

        6 Mar6 March 08:36

        You get points, you do not get S75 protection.

  • Guesswho2000 says:

    6 Mar6 March 06:38

    Yep, same as Halifax Clarity or Creation Everyday

  • Rob says:

    6 Mar6 March 08:44

    If by immediately you mean ‘credits same day’ then yes – but you won’t know the exact £ amount needed.

    • mark2 says:

      6 Mar6 March 09:27

      Barclays Platinum Travel does not charge FX or interest on cash withdrawals if you pay on the normal date.

  • Lumma says:

    6 Mar6 March 10:25

    Open a starling current account, accept the “pre approved overdraft” they’ll offer. Use that for overseas cash withdrawals, you get a phone notification as soon you make the withdrawal for the exact amount it’s taken, so you can transfer across from your normal current account immediately.

    You obviously need free roaming or WiFi but then you do for crediting a credit card too, but this is far simpler and you’re not risking credit card ATM withdrawals harming your credit rating.

• Tom C says:

  6 Mar6 March 06:04

  Thanks to your wonderful comments section, I took this out on the day that will go down in history: Lloyds cancelling their Avios Rewards card. However, they only gave me a £4k spending limit, which means I’ll need to pay it off once a week, if not more, during some foreign trips. Hopefully it’s not another Curve with such harsh limits in place.

  • Chris says:

    6 Mar6 March 06:47

    What’s the highest daily spending limit on the Curve? They’ve given me £3750 and told me that’s the max they give – anyone out there got more?

    • Genghis says:

      6 Mar6 March 06:54

      £5k

      • Chris says:

        6 Mar6 March 07:12

        Have you used it much, or is it just based on your credit score?
        I’d really like a 5 figure daily limit for paying HMRC – in the past they’ve capped me to 3 card payments for VAT, and £11k doesn’t cover half the bill!

      • Genghis says:

        6 Mar6 March 07:44

        I’ve used it a lot since launch. As Curve isn’t a credit product, no credit scoring.

      • Jonathan says:

        6 Mar6 March 08:17

        @Genghis Is that on the new debit card or original pre paid credit card?

      • Genghis says:

        6 Mar6 March 09:23

        @Jonathan Now on the new debit card

    • Tony says:

      6 Mar6 March 07:38

      I recall when I got my card the limit was absurdly low and they were reluctant to increase it at my request, but over the years it’s been ratcheted higher. I think this is a consequence of Lloyds having had to take a more risk averse view over consumer debt.

      Still nowhere near what I have in terms of limits on my MBNA or AMEX cards, mind…

      • Julian says:

        6 Mar6 March 11:38

        Odd though that nothing has so far changed with MBNA’s very aggressive enthusiasm for offering large credit limits and low interest rate cash advances to your bank account for 4 ot 5 years (with no initial cash advance fee) despite it now being wholly owned by Lloyds.

        Even the seriously geeky guys adverts continued to run on tv for a long period after Lloyds took over (not seen any since the New Year), although of course they may have been prepaid for say a year in advance…….

        But may be the point of the acquisition of MBNA though is so that Lloyds can slowly increase the risk profile of its credit card business having overdone the cautious lending thing after the big financial crunch in 2008?

  • Anna says:

    6 Mar6 March 07:04

    I’ve also got the £4k limit but only use the card to hit the £7k for the upgrade voucher, however I’ve known many other credit cards to increase the limit once you’ve built up a bit of history with it. Our BAPP limit is ridiculously high!

  • Wally1976 says:

    6 Mar6 March 07:21

    Not sure if you’re referring to the Tandem or Lloyds card here. If it’s the latter, I got a very small credit limit initially (think it was £1900) but requested an increase via the online form a couple of times and soon got it up to £8k. Didn’t try for any more than that though.

  • Tom C says:

    6 Mar6 March 08:07

    Thanks everyone for the feedback; I was referring to the Tandem card. I have ~£100k/m of credit between HSBC Premier and AMEX Starwood (former all for business expenses, latter for personal – both paid off in full each month), so getting a measly £4k was a bit of an insult. Hopefully they let me increase it over the next few months, otherwise it is mostly useless.

    • Scott says:

      6 Mar6 March 09:22

      I can appreciate that a low credit limit could be inconvenient, even virtually useless to very high spenders, but “a bit of an insult”? Is that how you view credit limits; as some sort of appraisal of your status?

      • Cate ⛱️ says:

        6 Mar6 March 13:27

        To be fair to Tom C credit limits are an appraisal of your financial status.

      • Genghis says:

        6 Mar6 March 14:50

        @Cate. In sum, arguably yes but not a limit from one credit institution.

      • Michael Jennings says:

        6 Mar6 March 17:25

        In most cases in recent times when I have been given a card with a low credit limit, I have already had another card with a large limit from the same institution. I have had this happen with Amex, Barclays, and Halifax. I don’t see this as any comment on me at all, as the institution has already given me a large limit. In cases where I applied for the new card mainly for a signup bonus, this was not a problem. In cases where I wanted to use the card for ongoing spend, this was more of a nuisance. That said, in all three cases there was no trouble getting the credit limit increased six months or so down the line, even though I still had the other card.

  • Mr Dee says:

    6 Mar6 March 08:37

    @Chris

    HMRC don’t cap at 3 card payments only within a set period of time, try a week later.

• Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

  6 Mar6 March 07:14

  Halifax and Tandem both start charging interest from the day of a cash withdrawal.

  • Scott says:

    6 Mar6 March 09:24

    Correct. And for complete clarity, neither charge fees over and above the interest.

• John O’Sullivan says:

  6 Mar6 March 07:19

  They charge interest for fx cash withdrawals from the time the cash is taken out. If you pay by direct debit and clear the balance when due, doesn’t that mean you don’t actually have to pay anything in charges?

  • TGLoyalty says:

    6 Mar6 March 07:31

    The only way to avoid interest in cash withdrawals is to pay off the withdrawals straight away otherwise you will pay fees even if you clear your balance at the end of the month

    • Cheshire Pete says:

      6 Mar6 March 08:16

      Nationwide Debit card has no foreign withdrawal fees. Hence no interest as it comes from you current account balance. This is obviously splitting hairs as using my Halifax Clarity I usually get away with a days interest per £100 so costing about 5p really!

      • Alan says:

        6 Mar6 March 09:58

        Is this for the Premier Account? It used to be on all Flex accounts but I thought they stopped it on the standard Flex one (the one I actually have).

        Also is that on all currencies or just Euros?

        I have the old Natoionwide Gold credit card that is no longer available. That is free for transactions but only for GBP and Euro.

        The Tandem card could prove to be a very useful back up to my Clarity card

      • Alan says:

        6 Mar6 March 10:27

        According to Nationwide’s own website when you withdraw cash abroad there is a £1.75 “Non-sterling transaction” fee and a £1 “Non Sterling cash fee” that are both payable for Debit card withdrawals (both Flexaccount and Flexdirect debit cards are subject to these fees.)

        They are no longer fee free for cash withdrawals. Ended a few years ago.

      • Lumma says:

        6 Mar6 March 10:30

        Yeah, nationwide is just fee free withdrawals on the £13 a month packaged account. Their standard accounts are 2% plus £1 per withdrawal

    • bumpmad says:

      6 Mar6 March 08:21

      Or run the credit card in positive balance – although I am lead to believe that is sometimes frowned upon…

      • Cheshire Pete says:

        6 Mar6 March 12:15

        Yes sorry I have Flex plus account £13. No fees. The £13 gets you travel & mobile insurance and breakdown cover. Interest on balances up to £2,500 more or less reduces the fee. I usually pay about about £5 a month net. Cash withdrawals abroad free everywhere not just Euro zone.

  • Frenske says:

    6 Mar6 March 08:32

    How can you pay for foreign cash withdrawals without needing to pay the whole balance?

    • Scott says:

      6 Mar6 March 09:29

      It depends if any payments go toward the oldest transactions first, or go toward the highest interest attracting transactions, which would usually be cash withdrawals (not sure if this varies by card provider, or if they all take the same approach).
      I use the Halifax Clarity for all foreign transactions, and just make sure I settle the whole balance when I’m clearing down any cash withdrawals.

      • Michael Jennings says:

        6 Mar6 March 17:28

        I use my Halifax Clarity for foreign ATM withdrawals (and I pay them off immediately) and I use my Post Office card for foreign spend, which I pay at the end of the month. It’s just easier (for me) to keep them separate.

  • Rob says:

    6 Mar6 March 08:42

    No – interest is added to your statement based on what would run up between the withdrawal date and the DD date.

• Wally1976 says:

  6 Mar6 March 07:24

  OT but related – someone mentioned the other day about paying off the Lloyds credit cards using Tesco debit card. Can anyone explain how you do this as it only seems possible to pay it via back transfer or cash/cheque? Thanks

  • Thomas Howard says:

    6 Mar6 March 09:17

    You call the number on the back of the card and it gives you an option to make a debit card payment, you can also do it on MBNA cards via the website. I’ve also put £20k in my ISA (worth about £25 in clubcard vouchers), and will be paying my tax bill when the time comes.

    In a world where card transaction fees are capped I think moving to the Tesco system might be best for me. The alternative is Amex now push for the same level of acceptance as Visa/Mastercard and make up their loss of margin in volume, either way its going to get harder to earn points.

    • wally1976 says:

      6 Mar6 March 09:19

      That’s great, thanks Thomas. What company was the ISA that you paid the £20k into with Tesco Debit?

      • Thomas Howard says:

        6 Mar6 March 09:40

        Interactive Investors.

    • New Card says:

      6 Mar6 March 10:19

      Did you earn points on the payments to MBNA? I had thought nil-earning on financial transactions…

      • Thomas Howard says:

        6 Mar6 March 10:41

        Bugger I didn’t read the fine print, I think you’re right, lots of these transactions are probably going to be excluded.

  • Alan says:

    6 Mar6 March 10:00

    Sorry for the dumb question but why would you want to pay off your credit cards with a Tesco Debit card.

    I feel I’ve been missing a trick here.

    • Rob says:

      6 Mar6 March 10:10

      The Tesco debit card gives 1 Clubcard point per £8 spent on it.

      ‘Financial transactions’ are in theory blocked from earning points but the odd one seems to slip through. HMRC is also allowed.

      • Alan says:

        6 Mar6 March 10:13

        OK thanks Rob. It was the block on financial transactions that was fooling me. Is it justteh Lloyds and MBNA cards that this will work for?

        I predominantly use my AMEX for UK spend these days.

    • WillPS says:

      6 Mar6 March 10:12

      I’m not sure. I paid off my Amex using my Tesco Bank debit card this month, no points as expected.

      Are some card issuers not reporting it as a ‘financial services’ transaction?

      • Thomas Howard says:

        6 Mar6 March 12:57

        No, I’m a fool that misread the website and got myself excited. There probably is no loophole, I’ll let you know for certain in a few weeks though 🙂

• Philip Bramley says:

  6 Mar6 March 07:49

  Thought I would sign up via link to give HFP some commision if applicable , however can not get past first page because it assumes I have a mobile , I dont need a mobile so dont have one , end of application unless they change it so you can input landline , I know most people do have mobiles but why they should assume , discrimination against un connected I suppose -:)

  • Rob says:

    6 Mar6 March 08:40

    We don’t get any commission, sorry!

• Kevin says:

  6 Mar6 March 07:56

  Small typo spotted. You refer to them as ‘Tandem Monday’ on one occasion.

  • Rob says:

    6 Mar6 March 08:39

    Thanks! Auto correct I guess on a misspell.

• Gareth Morgan says:

  6 Mar6 March 07:56

  Big question. Do they load the exchange rate?

  • Rob says:

    6 Mar6 March 08:39

    No, they can’t as MC does the conversion.

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