No, unfortunately you haven't won $16 trillion on the Nigerian lottery and nor have I found a new Fasttech discount code
However, for those of you that don't know already, there is a way to save money on any purchases you make that aren't in GBP.
At the moment I have my Barclaycard (Visa credit card) linked to my paypal account and I was looking at my statement which is often full of paypal payments or other subscriptions in USD. I noticed 2 things.
1) I was being charged a transaction fee for any purchases not in GBP.
2) The exchange rate used was pretty poor.
It turns out that nearly every bank or credit card will load the exchange rate 2.99% in their favour and will also charge you a transaction fee, proportionate to how much you spend. This includes cards such as American Express.
Here's a small screenshot of part of my Barclaycard statement when Visa's exchange rate was $1.56 to the £:
As you can see, the exchange rate used by Barclays was 1.52 when the Visa rate was 1.56 and I was also charged the transaction fee of £2.79. Pants eh?
So I was wondering whether there was a way of saving money, not only the transaction fee but also of getting a better exchange rate and it turns out that there is!
The answer? Halifax Clarity Mastercard. So I went ahead, applied for one and it popped through the door a few days later.
Here's a screenshot from my first purchase using the Halifax card:
Now you'll have to take my word on it the £3.43 listed was for $5.36. So the exchange rate used by mastercard was $1.563. No exchange rate loading by Halifax and no transaction fee either.
Looking back at Mastercard's exchange rate when I made the first purchase of $146.07, had I used the Halifax card, I would have paid a total of £93.45 instead of £96.17, saving me £2.72. Not much? No, not a great deal but when I total up all my transactions not in GBP it will make a big difference.
With the Mastercard, the currency exchange rate is Mastercard's rate, not Halifax, not anyone else:
www.mastercard.com/global/currencyconversion/Just to add, when you link your credit card to your paypal account, at the payment stage you will see a screen which allows you to select between paypal's exchange rate and your card issuer's exchange rate. Your card will more often than not have a better rate than paypal's. Here's a picture uploaded to a site which shows you where this conversion option is. I will link to this site in a moment:
You want to check the Mastercard exchange rate and also Paypal's and compare them. Choose whichever is in your favour. This site from where the above picture was nabbed explains it better and gives an example:
www.thebackpackr.com/paypal-currency-conversion-which-should-i-choose/tl;dr? The simple version: Check if you're getting ripped off by your bank/card issuer when you make purchases in a foreign currency and fix it, if you are in a position to, by using a different credit card.
I have been told that the Post Office Mastercard works in a similar way to Halifax' Clarity but I cannot confirm this.
You all may already know about this and I may be preaching to the choir but I hope this has been helpful for someone!
However, for those of you that don't know already, there is a way to save money on any purchases you make that aren't in GBP.
