Holiday Finances (Credit Cards)

usher1890

Hi Guys

I phoned the bank today to order US Dollars for my holidays in the States. I tried to order a sum of money in cash and the rest in travellers cheques but I was told you cannot get travellers cheques in BOI any more. As I have a credit card, I was told to put my money into that, and thus, have more money on my credit card than my limit (i.e. having 5,000 Euro on my credit card when I have a limit of 2,000 Euro).
I have never heard of this before, and apparently as its my money (i.e. the extra 3,00 Euro) I wont be charged anything for taking the cash out over there.
Has anyone heard of this or experienced. Any advice would be very helpful.

dobsdave

usher1890 wrote: »

Hi Guys

I phoned the bank today to order US Dollars for my holidays in the States. I tried to order a sum of money in cash and the rest in travellers cheques but I was told you cannot get travellers cheques in BOI any more. As I have a credit card, I was told to put my money into that, and thus, have more money on my credit card than my limit (i.e. having 5,000 Euro on my credit card when I have a limit of 2,000 Euro).
I have never heard of this before, and apparently as its my money (i.e. the extra 3,00 Euro) I wont be charged anything for taking the cash out over there.
Has anyone heard of this or experienced. Any advice would be very helpful.

Yes, you can do this, but in the event of fraud only your credit limit is covered.
Some credit cards will charge you for taking cash out no matter if you are in credit or not.
Best to ask first.
Apparently, ( i started a thread on this a weeek or so ago), some credit cards will refuse to take any payment that puts you in credit.
BOI UK being one of them :mad:
Again, best to confirm first.

eagle_i

Why not use your bank card, if your card has the Maestro and/or Link symbol on it, you can use that at any ATM that displays those symbols. I know this is true with AIB cards, I assume BOI has a similar system.

usher1890

Hi guys, thanks for the information.

I was informed by BOI to do this, and as its essentially my money I wont be charged, but as I never heard about it, I would like to know more before I go ahead with it.

And in regard to my normal bank card, the charges are too much, its something like 3.5% (min 4 Euro - max 11 Euro approx.)

chris85

i do this all the time when going abroad. I find it easiest to be honest. I hate having to use ATM card due to the charges involved if outside eurozone.

usher1890

chris85 wrote: »

i do this all the time when going abroad. I find it easiest to be honest. I hate having to use ATM card due to the charges involved if outside eurozone.

Thanks for the reply, just confirming that there are no charges

Atlantic Dawn

Yes done this myself plenty of times and no fees besides the $3 fee you get on some ATM machines in the US which on those is unavoidable no matter what card you have. Try to get an ATM belonging to a bank branch as a lot of these have no fee.

One thing to remember is if you say have a €2000 credit limit and you put €3000 on to the card you then can spend up to €5000 on it, however if your card is stolen the credit card company will only cover their €2000 in the case of fraud, your money will not be covered. In the States no pin number is required for purchases in shops so it is risky should you lose the card and someone find it only a signature is required for purchases, most shops insist on ID for large purchases but some don't.

usher1890

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Yes done this myself plenty of times and no fees besides the $3 fee you get on some ATM machines in the US which on those is unavoidable no matter what card you have. Try to get an ATM belonging to a bank branch as a lot of these have no fee.

One thing to remember is if you say have a €2000 credit limit and you put €3000 on to the card you then can spend up to €5000 on it, however if your card is stolen the credit card company will only cover their €2000 in the case of fraud, your money will not be covered. In the States no pin number is required for purchases in shops so it is risky should you lose the card and someone find it only a signature is required for purchases, most shops insist on ID for large purchases but some don't.

Thanks, I will keep that in mind, I suppose I will have to take the risk, its better than going over with a couple thousand in the back pocket!

lotsofthegreen

usher1890 wrote: »

Thanks, I will keep that in mind, I suppose I will have to take the risk, its better than going over with a couple thousand in the back pocket!

usher1890, to lessen the risk can you not just have your credit card balance clear at 0 and preset a number of payments to come off from your current account maybe 300 a day depending on how you anticipate your spending, while allowing time for this to become availible on your card

This is what i do but I'm not with BOI and my cards with Tesco