Student credit card: Cash Advance interest free period

galwayjohn89

I have a student MasterCard with Bank of Ireland and will be travelling a lot this summer so I am trying to work out how to minimise fees. From my understand, since it is a student credit card I still have a interest free period on cash advances as long as I pay it off before the due date on the statement? Is this the case? I got a leaflet about it in my statement saying the interest free period no longer applies to cash advances but it seemed to exclude student credit cards. Just want to be sure. 

Bank of Ireland: Elaine

Hi Vuzuggu, 

Thank you for your post. 

Yes, you are correct. Student and Affinity Credit Cards have not been impacted by the recent change to the terms and conditions on how cash interest is applied.

As long as you still clear the balance specified on your most recent statement by the due date, you will not incur interest on purchases or cash advances. 

For further clarification on the terms and conditions and fees and charges for your Student Credit Card please see here.

We hope you have a lovely summer travelling and if we can help you with anything else, please don't hesitate to contact us again. 

Thanks, 
Elaine

galwayjohn89

Thanks for that Elaine.

Am I right in saying that the credit card works out cheaper than visa debit card abroad?

Bank of Ireland: Elaine

Hi Vuzuggu, 

Thanks for coming back to us. 

Regrettably, we would not be able to advise you which option would be cheaper as this will ultimately depend how you plan to use either card. 

However, we have included the links below which will provide you will all the relevant information you will need to make your decision.

Fees and charges using Visa Debit Card abroad v's using your Credit Card abroad. 

We would also suggest contacting Bank of Ireland 365 and Credit Card Services to notify them of your travel plans. If you are registered for 365Online you can send this notification through the Online Service Desk. 

We hope this helps. 

Thanks again, 
Elaine 

Stinicker

Don't bother with Bank of Ireland they will charge you excessively and are increasing their Cross Border Handling fee in July to a whopping 2.25%, then they will limit your account so you can only withdraw like €100 a go and then try to explain that as a security measure. They ripped me off costing me €136 in bank fees for a 4 week holiday last year in Asia. When I returned I closed down all my accounts and moved all my business away from them as it was the 4th time they had left me on a shoestring budget due to being unable to access my money.

My sister and mother are still BOI customers and the exact same thing happened to them 2 weeks ago in New York. Bank of Ireland are not a bank that deserves 1cent worth of business with how they carryon. My suggestion is get a card with a proper bank before you go abroad or else just carry cash.

galwayjohn89

To be honest, I have used my BOI credit card in the UK/America etc and never had any problems at all, if anything it worked out cheaper then I expected. Was limited to circa $100 from non chip and pin ATMs over in America, no issue though, exact same as AIB. I've recently moved from AIB to BOI and found BOI to be much better and I've been with KBC and Ulster Bank as well. 

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