No wonder the UK has such debt........

SFAIAA, there has never been interest free cash withdrawals on credit cards.

I wish I still had statements or T&Cs from 10 or 20 years ago.

Technically, there is no reason why cash advances could not be interest-free until the statement-due date.

Although the credit card companies do not get the same 1-4% kickback as they do from purchases, they can charge a hefty withdrawal fee. At least, they do this abroad; I've never used a credit card in the UK for a cash advance, except by mistake.

(It just happened that at the time, my bank's Maestro card, and Mastercard looked very similar: the same bank logo along the top strip, virtually the same six letters of the name: maestr and master), and the same card logo of two intersecting circles. When I complained to the bank, they said the circles were different colours. But when I asked them to tell me the colours without looking, they couldn't!

So presumably there was a withdrawal free involved, otherwise I wouldn't have been angry enough to complain...)

Learned that lesson - lent a grand to a friend for his wedding a good while ago and ended up having to be excessively persuasive for it back - suffice to say I got the money and parted company. Lesson well and truly learned the hard way.

It's not a surcharge. Saying it's "effectively" a surcharge is like calling a parking ticket a surcharge on the spending you were doing whilst the meter ticked.

There's your mistake. It's never a good idea to withdraw cash on a credit card account; it's something only for fairly extreme circumstances.

That it isn't a good idea (because you start to incure interest charges immediately) is nothing to do with the method chosen for paying off the balance. That's a separate problem.

This stems from withdrawing cash on a credit card (which, as a feature, was never part of the design). The bank can't get a discount on supplies of cash, and the retailer's discount (they call it "charges") is part of the business model. If they can't get money from the retailer for the credit they are advancing you, they have to charge you instead.

If you have a debit card (which can be used to withdraw cash at ATMs), it's probably a Cirrus card anyway. Or Switch (if that's still going).

Credit card cash withdrawals have *never* been interest-free. They have always incurred interest from the moment the cash is withdrawn. When the Access card was introduced, of course, there were no cash-machines as we now know them; the withdrawal took place across a bank counter.

Yes, there is.

The bank has advanced you the money, in cash. They've paid it to you, loaned it to you. You've got it and they haven't. Not charging interest on a cash loan would be a foolish business model.

With goods and services, it's quite different. The bank pays a monthly invoice to the retailer in arrears, less the bank's retailer charge (the retailer pays a charge to the bank in order to be able to offer credit card facilities. So it costs the bank nothing (other than the costs of the system) to pay for your goods and services. They get their money off you at about th same time as they have to pay the retailer, and the retailer pays the costs of operating the system.

Not in the UK.

...because they have to pay the actual physical cash issuer for the service they provide to you, and for the cash, and for the interest on the cash.

Don't think so. Not in the UK.

I bet your debit card would have worked abroad (assuming you have one).

Just checked my bank (Natwest). Cash withdrawal on a credit card attracts a

3% fee, minimum of £3. (Plus 2.75% abroad). ATM charges are usually less than that.

If we say up to six weeks until a statement-due date, and a £100 withdrawal, that £3 charge is equivalent to 26% annual interest. (And for £50, for only

3 weeks, it's 104%; both assuming non-compounded interest). There's plenty of scope to provide the cash interest-free, and make a profit. *Or* allow cash advances to be paid off before purchases, which would cost them nothing, other than an opportunity to make more money.

Of course at the minute, they get the 3% or £3, *plus* accruing interest because the advance cannot be always be paid off early.

(I don't know what it would have been 10 years ago, but I would justifiably have been annoyed to have incurred an unnecessary £3 charge by using Mastercard instead of Maestro (*plus* interest plus opportunities to get to forget to pay it on time and incur further charges).)

Balance = 887.21 (yeah, yeah, Christmas expenditure)

Min payment = 23

If I make the minimum payment by the due date, estimated interest is.........wait for it, drum roll......22.94!!!

So I reduce my wife's debt by a whopping 0.06!!!!

God bless UK banks :-)

Why anyone has a credit card defies belief in me, never had one, never will, to pay interest to scum that couldn't give a monkeys whether you can pay on time or not is unbelieveable, people in my opinion that have CC's are living beyond their means, if you cannot afford to buy something then do as I do, save up the cash then go get it, oh and you can haggle to try and get a discount or walk and go elsewhere that's what I do, stop paying parasites to bleed you dry, simple

Redman

If you accept the 'live now pay later' values that have been recommended by successive governments who do the same and have to resort to unprincipled moneylenders you must therefore expect the worst.

Doug.

Instead of just looking at the cards you are using - you should be researching the market and looking at the deals offered by other providers. You are under no obligation to use your bank's cards you know!

Why use a credit card that gives nothing back - when there are numerous credit cards out there that *do* give you something back?

There are also cards out there that are far far better for using abroad than your everyday banks cards.

Just do a bit of research!

Have you actually read any of the responses on this thread?

I use a credit card for almost every purchase I make - and not only do I not pay interest to anyone - my card provider pays a bonus to *me*. So I actually *benefit* from using a credit card - as you could do if you actually did some reseach and learned how to use one to your advantage...

I use Santander (spit) bank account, the really good thing is that they charge very little for an overdraft facility: I have a 2,500 OD which costs a maximum of 5 pounds per month any of it is in use (or 50p per day) This is far better than any credit card interest rate afaik.

Yes, it's much better to resort to unprincipled moneygivers like the government, isn't it, Doug?

Never borrow if you can be given.

There you go - the new minimum payments requirements in action. Who dreamed up these new rules?

that is like when some of them decided to start charging a yearly fee, I closed several cards, and I expect many others did too, they soon dropped the idea.

"Max Demian" wrote

Absolutely, just clear mine at the end of every month. The banks must hate me.

John.

Up until around seven years ago Nationwide didn't charge interest on credit card cash withdrawals as long as you repaid in full by the due date. Their only charge was a 0.5% handling fee, so it used to be a very good way of obtaining cash while traveling overseas.

Unfortunately they gradually got more and more greedy and are now not that much better than the rest of the banks.

Chris

Good lord, you do talk some tosh.

Correct. Debit is very useful indeed.

McK.

Not everyone can do that now though. I'm broke and I need a new computer

- Amazon kindly offered me a credit card with 0% on purchases for 9 months. Laptop on way. Thanks Amazon!