Holiday Tips 2 – earning Avios or other miles when ordering foreign currency

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• NigelthePensioner says:

  9 Jul9 July 06:04

  If you simply want US$ then you will get “spot” rate at many of the little bureaux de change along Queensway at the back of the tourist “gift” shops. Clearly no Avios or anything, but simply the best rate and no commission. Otherwise use http://www.compareholidaymoney.com for the best worldwide currency exchange rates from different suppliers – Ive never had any issues with any that I have used from this website. Other than my Euros BoI A/C ATM card I have never used a foreign ATM and don’t intend to anytime soon, but my Tandem card has nearly persuaded me!

  • John says:

    9 Jul9 July 06:59

    I once sold some euros to a Queensway shop at 1.17, when the spot rate was 1.19! (And I had bought the euros on ebay at 1.205 too, inclusive of delivery to my address in Bayswater…)

    • Brighton Belle says:

      9 Jul9 July 07:07

      Was the ink dry?

      • John says:

        9 Jul9 July 07:41

        No, as I used Amex (insert witty Romance language pun here)

• Shoestring says:

  9 Jul9 July 07:34

  Worldremit giving £55 discount to new customers when you send £100+ to your foreign bank a/c.

  Has anybody tried to set up a Monese bank a/c in another country where you have a friend’s address handy?

  • Sandgrounder says:

    9 Jul9 July 07:52

    I thought you had an overseas address Shoestring?

    Thanks for the heads-up on the £55, will be sending a ton to the OH’s N26 tonight I think….

    • Shoestring says:

      9 Jul9 July 08:00

      sure, we got it 4x already (self, wife, son), obvs use genuine different personal details

      we tend to send chunks of money to our foreign bank a/c at what it is hoped are decent FX rates – ATM withdrawals on the local card – which is partly why I only take a passing interest in the ‘best’ cards for FX articles

      Clarity + Amex Gold do me fine for back up cards, Clarity for no-fee usage, Amex Gold for 2.67 MR points per £1 (and effectively buying Avios @1.1p/ point) – on my relatively small usage of these 2 cards abroad, it’s chickenfeed in fees compared to the hassle of alternatives

      • Nick M says:

        9 Jul9 July 09:32

        I’d definitely look at using Revolut in your situation… you can transfer to/from UK account and Place in the Sun account, switch between currencies very easily and of course use the actual card for spending if you wanted.

        • Shoestring says:

          9 Jul9 July 09:45

          it would come down to Revolut’s exchange rate if that were to be useful – and I can’t see them matching Worldremit – who are easily beating the likes of HIFX (now XE), Moneycorp etc – who in turn VERY easily beat all the High St banks, travel exchange bureaux etc. I think it’s part of Worldremit’s strategy – offer not only a cheap, seamless service – they *are* extremely quick & cheap, only £1 fee which you can avoid with a code – but also offer the *best in market* exchange rate on our currency pair.

          You can do a dummy Worldremit transaction online in about 20 seconds if you want to compare rates for yourself.

        • Nick M says:

          9 Jul9 July 13:28

          Sending £100 via World Remit = 109.92 Euro (assuming there is a code to waive the £2.99 fee)

          Sending £100 via Revolut = 111.11 Euro (or £102.99 = 114.44 Euro)

        • John says:

          9 Jul9 July 14:50

          Revolut (actually Currencycloud) has a spread of about 2 basis points for EUR/GBP. As long as you trust them not to arbitrarily freeze your account and won’t go over their limits, they will beat anything else that doesn’t use the same provider. Without special offers Worldremit seems to have a £3 fee and a 2% (200 basis point) spread.

        • Shoestring says:

          9 Jul9 July 16:35

          @Nick M – OK cheers

    • Chas says:

      9 Jul9 July 12:35

      Any experience as to whether you can get the money into World Remit in the first place either from Revolut or Curve (backed with Virgin+) with it being treated as a purchase?

      • Louise says:

        9 Jul9 July 22:50

        Just tried curve for world remit payment and it declined

  • Louise says:

    9 Jul9 July 08:48

    Should work for sending to a revolut EU account?

  • Alex M says:

    9 Jul9 July 10:13

    Does it have to be my oversees account or somebody else’s is fine?

    • Shoestring says:

      9 Jul9 July 10:35

      Somebody else’s is fine. Plus multiple people can send to the same bank a/c abroad, as long as the sending party is a genuine new user, they don’t care about the same receiving a/c being used more than once. Sender must be 18+.

  • Louise says:

    9 Jul9 July 22:55

    Thanks Harry, have sent to my aunt in Ireland, will get the husband to sign up and do the same from his account, easy £110 to be made!

• Mikeact says:

  9 Jul9 July 07:42

  If you load up your Halifax card with, say, £500, is an ATM withdrawal still regarded as a cash withdrawal, even though your card is in credit ?

  • Shoestring says:

    9 Jul9 July 09:34

    you wouldn’t pay interest but sure, it would probably figure on your credit report as cash withdrawal thru credit card @ATM

    not that £500 would have any significant impact on your score anyway

  • John says:

    9 Jul9 July 19:41

    Yes, but you are not allowed to preload Halifax credit cards, and I only see the number of cash withdrawals but not the amounts on my Experian report.

• MD says:

  9 Jul9 July 07:44

  Nothing about Revolut, Rob?

  (I had written a longer version of this explaining why it is at least as good as any of these, if not better, but the website has eaten it. Meh.)

  • Rob says:

    9 Jul9 July 08:19

    We are thinking of rerunning that series of articles next week. Anika was down at Revolut yesterday as it happens.

• reddot says:

  9 Jul9 July 07:46

  IHG Creation charged me a cash advance / withdrawal fee last year for a Curve ATM withdrawal. Having been stung, I didn’t try again. It is not in Rob’s list above. Has that been rectified now?

  • Grant says:

    9 Jul9 July 07:48

    I’ve not experienced this recently

    • NFH says:

      9 Jul9 July 07:56

      I use my IHG Creation cards frequently for non-cash money purchase transactions, including topping up Revolut and paying off other credit cards via Curve, and I am never charged a fee. However, I am limited to £300 per day, £500 per week and 20% of my credit limit.

      • Rui N. says:

        9 Jul9 July 09:16

        How do you know these limits, did Creation tell you or it was by trial and error by you?
        Just got an IHG card yesterday, after many months of not passing the dreaded “check your eligibility” page!

        • guesswho2000 says:

          9 Jul9 July 10:29

          The limit is £300 per day £700 per week, as discovered through trial and error. The £300 daily limit is advertised on their website or statements or something, somewhere, but the £700 I discovered.

          Seems you can’t (in my experience) make more than 1x £300 daily transaction in a week, even if below the £700 – 300x200x200 works, 300x300x100 doesn’t, if that makes sense.

        • NFH says:

          9 Jul9 July 11:38

          Creation told me these limits when a large Revolut top-up was declined. I think that guesswho2000’s explanation is very plausible, as I did once manage to do more than £500 in a week. Now I understand why.

    • Mike Bickle says:

      9 Jul9 July 08:19

      Can’t find anything on worldremit re £55

      • Jovanna says:

        9 Jul9 July 20:11

        It’s via a cashbacκ website

• Joe says:

  9 Jul9 July 08:18

  Does anyone have any experience of how good the Tandem cards are at not declining legitimate transactions as fraud? I have a Santander card which is essentially the same as the Tandem one but with a £3/month fee – I got it before the Tandem cards came out and couldn’t be bothered to switch, but nearly every time I pre-pay a hotel abroad Santander block the transaction, which is extremely irritating.

  • SimonW says:

    9 Jul9 July 11:32

    Tandem excellent for me so far. Used it in Florence twice, notifications appeared on my phone as the payment happened. FX rate was spot on spot. If I ever use it at an ATM I will pay it off on the same day to avoid any interest charges.

  • NFH says:

    9 Jul9 July 11:34

    I’ve had no issues with Tandem declining any transactions, except Revolut top-ups, which it doesn’t allow. But I haven’t used it for anything above £118. My first transaction was a cash withdrawal in Georgia, which worked perfectly.

    • Lady London says:

      11 Jul11 July 00:10

      Was that Georgia, as in US State, or in Georgia the country-

• AJA says:

  9 Jul9 July 09:14

  If you have an M&S credit card you can use that to order FX online for collection at any M&S bureau de change. Or you can simply buy on spec at the bureau. It is commission free and it is charged as a purchase not a cash withdrawal so you don’t get charged interest and you earn M&S reward points. They allow you to buy any amount too. I usually buy no more than £250 of other currency. Just keep it as a float for the next trip rather than trying to resell.

  • NFH says:

    9 Jul9 July 13:13

    M&S’s rates are around 1.5% worse than Revolut’s interbank rate. So why not instead top up Revolut with a points-earning credit card, convert to EUR at Revolut’s interbank rate, and then withdraw from a EUR cash machine, including many in the UK, for example at Tube stations?

• Flatwell says:

  9 Jul9 July 09:47

  I have a Halifax card and I like that I make payments ahead of my travel, so foreign ATM cash withdraws are fee free AND incur no interest.

  Does the Tandem credit card also allow this? Can I make payments in advance, so that I have a positive balance on it, to avoid interest on cash withdraws?

  • TedL says:

    9 Jul9 July 15:06

    In the past I have transferred money to the Halifax card as soon as I make an ATM withdrawal but I have found that it pays off normal spend on the card. The ATM transaction doesnt seem to hit the account for one to two days so I have to wait until I know it is there before paying it off. It then takes a day or two to reach the account so get hit with interest for 3 to 4 days, not a lot usually but annoying. Am I doing something wrong?

    • John says:

      9 Jul9 July 19:35

      Yes – don’t carry a balance on a card that you also use for cash withdrawals

  • John says:

    9 Jul9 July 19:39

    Both Halifax and Tandem do not allow this, but based on other reports, Halifax seems not to be enforcing it if amounts are small and the positive balance does not last for too long. Tandem sent me new T&Cs to take effect in September which expressly forbid this (note that Halifax uses the same wording in its T&Cs that also expressly forbid this).

    I have never been charged interest by paying cash withdrawals off with 95% of the expected amount the same day, then waiting for the GBP amount to be finalised and paying off the remaining few pounds.

    • Lady Londona says:

      11 Jul11 July 00:16

      Wondering is there any good reason for cards objecting to being pre loaded like this

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