If you're an existing Abbey credit card customer you could enjoy fee free spending overseas for the next month.
Product Details
Abbey - Santander Zero Credit Card
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What's the deal?
This July Abbey are waiving the international charges usually applied to overseas credit card transactions for the vast majority of their credit card customers.
This 'special promotion' is largely designed to act as a sweetener to ease their transformation into the Santander credit card branding. However, if you plan to travel abroad at some point over the next month it could mean that you save a significant amount on foreign transaction fees.
What makes it great?
When you use your credit card overseas most providers will apply an 'international transaction charge' to the cost of your purchase. This tends to be in the region of 2% - 3% of your total spend and is applied to each transaction you make. Consequently, you could end up paying significantly more for your purchase than you intended to.
This cost is frequently applied to non-sterling purchases made online too as these are often classed as foreign transactions. However, if you're an existing Abbey credit card customer all of your overseas spending will be exempt from this additional charge throughout July.
What's the catch?
While this offer means that most Abbey credit card customers can enjoy fee free foreign spending throughout July there are a couple of catches that you need to be aware of.
Firstly, it's important to bear in mind that any cash withdrawals you make overseas may be subject to an additional fee (depending on your card's terms and conditions) and are likely to attract interest at an elevated rate from the moment the transaction is carried out. For this reason it's rarely a good idea to withdraw cash on your credit card at home or abroad.
Secondly, if you're using your Abbey credit card to clear a balance transfer as part of an interest-free or reduced-interest deal then making any new purchases on the card - again, whether in the UK or overseas - is unlikely to be an economical option. This is because of something called negative order of payment that influences the way that lenders allocate any repayments you make towards your outstanding balance.
Finally, if you've been with Abbey for a while it's likely that any introductory offers will have expired and that any purchases you make on the card will attract interest at the standard rate. For this reason only spending what you can afford to pay off when you get your next statement through is likely to be a good idea as this way you won't rack up expensive interest on your card.
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.
