Calis Beach and Fethiye Turkey Discussion Forum
Information and Services in Turkey Section => Banks, Interest, Money Transfers, Insurance => Topic started by: Bluwise on September 29, 2014, 13:06:16 PM
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I did a search but couldn't find the answer but am sure I have seen this asked before.
If paying by debit card, which is the best option to choose please?
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I think it depends on if your bank charge you for foreign currency transactions. I have used both Credit & Debit cards from Nationwide to purchase good here in lira and didn't get any charges. They usually give a decent exchange rate as well. But I can no longer draw lira from an ATM free of charges.
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Thanks LeeGlo. We usually just use cash but if we decide to make a larger purchase, I seem to remember the card machine giving an option of currency and I couldn't figure out which to choose.
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A lot of cards will charge if you draw lira, some do not charge if you draw Sterling our card charges for Lira (I think it is 3 %) but no charge for Sterling.
This is a good website to check your card charges and if you have a card from hell.
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-travel-money
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Thanks Jacqui, I mean using a debit card to make a purchase rather than draw money out. There is an option for which currency to pay in and I never know which to choose. Useful info/link anyway regarding charges - thanks.
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I would always choose to pay in lira as my card does not charge for for foreign transactions and i have found the rate more favorable if done by the U.K. bank rather than the rate offered in the shop or restaurant.
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That sounds like a plan ..thanks bewva
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Bluwise, if you don't mind saying, what bank's debit card do you use?
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Natwest Colwyn . Hardly ever use it abroad so was unsure of best option.
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Bluwise, you have one of the "bad" cards for spending abroad, but not one of the Worst Five. Everyone using cards has to pay VISA/Mastercard/American Express/Whatever service charge for using your card, but this is trivial. On top of this, if, say, you are buying jewelry for 365TL (= £100) then NatWest will hit you with an exchange rate load of 2.75% (= £2.75). The good news is that you won't be hit with a spending penalty (for goods) on top of that - some other banks charge you twice! So your £100 jewelry is going to cost you £102.75+VISA. You might not want to get too worried about this. If you were paying a hotel bill for 4 people at £1000 it would cost you £27.50 more and you might want to think about this. If you used your NatWest card to withdraw TL from ATM and paid cash for the jewelry it would be slightly cheaper £102.00+VISA (or £1020+VISA for the hotel bill). [Note for the very technically minded you could, by drawing out the full amount allowed by ATM/your Bank, you could shave a tiny amount off £1020+since there is a charge cap for Nat West].
I don't know what exchange rates Turkish banks charge because I have never used the "Settle up in Pounds" facility but my guess would be it would be around 3%. So you would be better off with NatWest. Under no circumstances would I accept the retailer making up the exchange rate and then telling me the bill would be "£107 but for you I offer £105, special value".
In short, if it was me, I wouldn't worry for sums at £100 level because it wouldn't be worth my time worrying about. Just pay in Lira on your debit card. If you're doing serious spending, or you enjoy getting the better of banks (that's my reason) then you might want to think of opening a "holiday account" with a different bank. You'll still have to pay a tiny VISA/Mastercard amount (well worth it for using their card service) just like you do now, but you won't pay any "extras". My card changes nothing to use ATM or buy goods and has an exchange loading of 0%.
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Well, thank you so much Colwyn for taking the trouble to provide that info. My purchase will wait until next visit as I have been looking at a rather expensive watch and I do not want to line my bank's pocket at all. I won't worry about the odd restaurant bill now though.
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I used the wrong visa (Barclaycard) to pay for our hotel booking in Belek £3040. I cost me £87 in fees. :(
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I think I've totally missed even knowing about these fees. I pay with my First Direct visa (HSBC) and I never see any fees. The rate seems reasonable. Does the fee you mention (£87) appear on your statement as a fee in it's own right Paul? Or that's how much you worked out you lost within the conversion?
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Also, ask the business do they make a charge to use a credit/debit card. We were making a large purchase and asked a business in Fethiye could we use a card, we were told that the business had to pay a lot for credit cards and so it would charge us an extra 9% to use any card. Needless to say we did not use a card.
Some businesses in the U.K. also make a charge if you use a credit card i.e. T.Cook who charge £16.00.
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I think I've totally missed even knowing about these fees.
Banks do not need to tell you in your monthly statement that they have charged an exchange load. I think they do need to show the usage fee as a separate item. It is fairly easy to check. Over the weekend I had to withdraw 1000TL from ATM with a Visa-serviced debit card (my apart otel doesn't take cards for the reason JH said and I needed a cash top up). My bank paid the Turkish bank on Monday at a rate of £1 = 3.66TL. So I looked to the Visa Europe website and it said on Monday they were exchanging at a rate of 3.66. Perfect. Had I used NatWest it would have been exchanging at £1 = 3.59. If I didn't check this I might have thought "Pretty good rate" and might not realize I had paid a 2% exchange load to NatWest. First Direct is worse: it charges 2.99% load and on top of this it looks like you also pay 2.99% (minimum fee £3) for the pleasure of withdrawing from ATM. Can this be true?
You can check your statement here for Visa: http://www.visaeurope.com/en/cardholders/exchange_rates.aspx
There is also a Mastercard site.
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Sorry Bluwise, I have misinformed you. If you draw from ATMs on NatWest you are charged 2% (minimum £2) for using the machine PLUS a loading of 2.75%. Drawing £100's worth of cash would cost you £104.75. I had forgotten that standard cards hit you with a double whammy.
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Thanks again. :)
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Keith,
Off my statement.....
Sherwood Brezess Res, Antalya
10489.41 TURKISH LIRA TURKEY
Transaction Fee £ 87.89
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The above I got at 3.46tl / £ The rate was about 3.5 on the street.
The booking was made with Booking.com and it said you pay locally in local currency on arrival. They take your card no to confirm the booking.
When we got there the payment had already been sorted but I couldn't remember the card I used. Had I paid with my Nationwide Visa I would have got the bank rate probably around 3.55TL and no fee....
Lesson learnt. :(
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You should always pay in the local currency wherever you are, I always used to have big charges with Barclaycard but have now got a Halifax Clarity card which has no charges for overseas spending
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I have to second littlereddevil in recommending using a Clarity card. With the proviso that you pay it off in full every month it really is the best deal about. We use ours every trip and never had a charge yet, the exchange rate is as close to bank rate as a member of the public can get.
When we were over last month the exchange rate was generally 3.45 -3.55 on the card we got nearly 3.6.
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We always use Halifax Clarity card also and have a dd set up to pay in full, the best card on the market for overseas purchases.
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Thanks for the info, Halifax have kindly accepted my application for a Clarity card :)
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Can people with this card just confirm one thing for me.
I understand there is no fee with this card when paying for goods and services abroad. It also says no fee for withdrawing cash abroad. Does that mean if I needed £200 in Turkish lira I could take it out in Calis in Lira, then when my statement comes through in UK I pay the £200 back? Or is it fee free to draw cash but you pay interest from the time you withdraw, not from your payment date (if missed/not paid in full)?
Thanks.
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3 replies in a row, what will Colwyn make of me.
I think I found my own answer
Interest-free
period
Maximum 56 days for purchases if you pay the full balance shown on your previous and current statement on time.
No interest-free period on balance transfers or cash withdrawals.
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Also Keith with the clarity card if you make a purchase of £300 in one month and pay it off in full when the bill arrives you get £5 off your next bill, every little helps as a well known supermarket says ;)
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Well worth knowing, thanks Karen. I'm loving this card and it hasn't even arrived yet!
I was wondering, can you load money onto it so you can withdraw abroad in local currency? Avoiding charges of course.
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Ha you make me laugh :)I don't know the answer to that as I only use mine for purchases online etc, that would be a good idea so I now would also like to know the answer to that also ;)
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Also Keith with the clarity card if you make a purchase of £300 in one month and pay it off in full when the bill arrives you get £5 off your next bill, every little helps as a well known supermarket says ;)
I've never had a £5 off!
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Well worth knowing, thanks Karen. I'm loving this card and it hasn't even arrived yet!
I was wondering, can you load money onto it so you can withdraw abroad in local currency? Avoiding charges of course.
No they wouldn't allow me to pay more in than what was due on the card
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I was discussing this credit card interest charge on ATM withdrawals with someone on a forum recently (I never do it}. He/she gave an example of how much you would have to pay if you withdrew a big sum at the start of your billing period and had a full month's interest charge. It didn't amount to very much {providing you pay off in full at the end of the billing period}. So you would still be ahead of money exchange in Turkey, further ahead of money exchange in the UK and a very long way ahead of "bad" cards. NOTE: "Bad" here simply refers to overseas spending. It doesn't mean that you have a bad account in the UK. I do my main banking with Santander which pays 3% on large current accounts (up to £20,000) and gives 3 or 2 or 1 percent cashback on utility bills. It is the best UK current account for me. But I wouldn't use their cards abroad. Instead I use Norwich & Peterborough debit card for ATMs (great for £0 + 0% withdrawals abroad but useless as UK main account) and a long-standing Nationwide card credit card (no longer available} for purchases (also £0 + £0%}. If I didn't have the Nationwide card, or their policy changed, I would go to Halifax Clarity instead.
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I was also wondering whether I could get a fee/charge free ATM withdrawal by using my First Direct card at HSBC in Fethiye where you can choose sterling - then changing at a favourable rate locally. The problem there is, I assume, that the fact it is sterling and not lira is not relevant, it happened abroad and therefore the fee applies? 2.99% at First Direct.
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I use my FD card at the HSBC ATM and get charged £5 to withdraw sterling.
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Thanks Linda, that's very useful information.
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Wish it had been better news Keith.
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It's not bad news really, I'll just take it out here for nowt and change it over there :)
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Littlereddevil you should query not getting your fiver off/back, I book my flights etc or anything that will amount to over £300 in one month, I them make sure I can pay it off in full when the bill arrives and then get £5 credit off the next transactions...
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These costs can be ridiculous - £5 for drawing sterling abroad is bad enough but my business account is with Bank of Scotland - I had no idea they made a charge for transactions paid in foreign currencies. Until I noticed the Google Drive I pay $1.99 for every month (£1.40ish?) came with a monthly non-sterling transaction fee of £2.50!