News

Credit cards: not a great way of getting cash overseas

It turns out that mobile phone users aren't the only ones to get ripped off when roaming: Barclaycard has issued a warning to its customers to use debit cards to get cash out of ATMs.

According to Reuters even if you have a card with a zero percent interest charge, you'll still get pillaged to the tune of 21% APR if you use your credit card to withdraw foreign cash.

"It's definitely cheaper to hand your card over at the till than to use a cashpoint," Barclaycard spokesman Andrew Bond told Reuters.

Customers also lose the standard 56-day "interest free" holiday normally applicable to purchases, says the story.

The news won't discourage the many mobile networks who are seeing their mobile payments systems as a rival to credit card use for small amounts. And experiments with RFID validation for phones will also get a boost...

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