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Q&A » Credit cards
I am living broad in a non-European country where currency is dollar-related. In additiojn to a savings account, I keep a small balance in my London bank for paying off my Visa card - issued by the Bank.
However, sometimes it works, other times it doesn't! I pay online from the bank account every month.
Is there a better way to mange my occasional use of a credit card?
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881Andika
You can set up a Direct Debit to pay the full amount each month. There is plenty of time between the issue of the CC statement and the date of payment to shift money, if needed.
Ask the Credit Card people for it. The normal DD is for the minimum payment, so you need to stress that it is for the full balance. They may be able to do it over the phone or they may have to send you a form to complete and return.
Beware that you will still have to settle the next account as it takes a little while to get set up. They have to get it back from you and then send it to your bankers and then they receive it back again and every stage has a bit of a queue. It has to be in place and up and running before the issue of the statement for it to work, hence the need to settle the next statement issued manually.
After that it will be settled automatically.
Please note that if your bank account and credit card are both with the same bank, they operate at arms length from each other, so don't expect the process to complete any faster.
Mike
Posted on 06 September 2009 |
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83Also be careful if you ever if you want to make any additional payments to your card it might stop your DD for that month. You need to check with your cardholder and I suggest make sure you get an answer from them in writing.
I set up a minimum montly DD with my Barclaycard to ensure I never got caught with a late payment fee. I normally pay off the entire bill but occasionally I will pay less depending what else is happening in my financial life. I gave it 2 months to ensure the DD was set up, got a statement saying "on 5 May we will collect your minimum payment of £xx" so I thought fine - I want to pay the whole balance so I need to pay an extre £XXX. But because my payment was received before the DD date they didn't take the DD and I was charged interest as the whole balance hadn't been cleared.
Needless to say I complained and while the interest has been refunded no one has ever responded to my comments about how their DDs operate....
Posted on 07 September 2009 | Love 0 loves
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1Thank you for the information. Very useful. One of the main points I was making - obviously not too clearly - was that the acceeptance of the credit card varies,. Remember I am living abroad in a dollar-related country. At the local Wal-Mart I have no problem; I recently booked an air fare with Expedia, no problem. Last year I booked an hotel in Houston - no problem. But at another big mall here the card will not go through, nor did it with Cheap Tickets.
I can't understand why it varies - and it causes embarrassment.
At the end of the month I am going to Los Angeles where I want to but h to buy some curtains at IKEA. My worry is - will the card worrk or not? The uncertainty means I shall have to convert some money to dollars and carry it round just in case - which I wanted to avoid.
Why should there be a hit-and-miss approach like this? Should I call RBS Visa about it? Would that remedy the situation?
Posted on 07 September 2009 | Love 0 loves
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83My worry would be that with an RBS Visa card you are paying a fee for every transaction. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Is this a temporary thing for you or will you be there long term? If you're there for several months/couple of years I would suggest you apply for something local so you don't have the currency issues. It may also depend on what currency you are being paid in - if you're paid in GBP then you're having to exchange to USD and then your credit card is exchanging the other way (plus fees) which must be costing you a lot.
Otherwise I've had no problems on a recent trip to the US - didn't matter if it was WalMart, Holiday Inn or a local gas station - everyone was happy to take my Abbey Zero card. I did notice that a lot of shops were having problems with their card swipe machines and very few had the facility to use a PIN. If your card was demanding you input your PIN but their machine can't accept that it may be the source of the problem. Their alternative may be to ring your bank - which they may be reluctant to do if it's overseas.
Visa has always been the standard in the USA as far as I remember - it was only Mastercard that was an issue for a while. Diner's Club and Amex have always had a mixed reception even when from a relatively local bank.
Posted on 07 September 2009 | Love 0 loves
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