Re-launched this week, the Abbey Zero credit card is one of just two credit cards that now offer fee free foreign transactions wherever you are in the world.
Product Details
Abbey - Santander Credit Card
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What's the deal?
The Abbey Zero credit card offers 0% for 3 months on purchases, 0% for 12 months on balance transfers (subject to a 3% handling fee) and fee free foreign transactions when you spend abroad.
What makes it great?
The vast majority of credit cards apply a fee when you use them to spend overseas and this can add to the cost of your purchases considerably. However, the Abbey Zero credit card offers fee free foreign transactions whether you make a non-sterling purchase online or use it to spend abroad, eliminating this extra cost completely.
What's more, the 3 month interest free introductory offer on purchases means that you are able to spread the cost of bigger purchases over a number of months.
Who would it suit?
The Abbey Zero card is primarily suited to those who plan to travel abroad, or make online purchases overseas as the fee free foreign transactions feature is definitely what makes it stand out from the crowd.
What's the catch?
After the 3 month introductory period on purchases comes to an end the standard APR charged on existing balances jumps to 18.9% so it's a good idea to clear anything you have outstanding before this deal comes to an end.
Additionally, while the card does offer interest free balance transfers for 12 months too, it's not generally a good idea to mix new purchases and balance transfers on the same card. This is because of something called negative repayment hierarchy that most lenders (including Abbey) use to allocate your repayments.
Finally, it's also important to bear in mind that while withdrawing cash overseas is technically fee free, Abbey do apply an elevated interest rate of 27.5% APR to all cash advances upping the cost considerably and making it an option to avoid if at all possible.
What's the alternative?
The Post Office credit card is the only other card to offer completely fee free foreign transactions so this is an alternative worth considering. Like the Abbey card it comes with a 3 month interest free introductory offer on new purchases and an equivalent 0% for 12 months on balance transfers. It does however, come with a slightly lower standard APR (16.9%) and is available in either Visa or Mastercard.
The Saga Platinum card (available to applicants over 50 years of age) offers fee free transactions within Europe but applies a (still-competitive) 1% commission on all non-EU purchases. It does, however, offer interest free purchases for 9 months, an equivalent deal on balance transfers (helping you to avoid the negative payment hierarchy trap) and a comparatively low standard APR of 11.9%.
Alternatively, Nationwide - once famed for providing fee-free foreign transactions - now pass on the 0.84% Visa charge to non-EU purchases (an amount which is rising to 1% from 1st July, 2009), although purchases made within Europe are still commission free.
We have done our very best to make sure that the information included in this Deal is accurate. However, sometimes offers can be withdrawn or changed at the last minute so please do check that you're able to redeem this Deal before parting with any money, or going out of your way to take advantage of the offer.
