Barclaycard Arrival™ 0% FTF not clear enough

[creditfan]

their T&C states 0% of each transaction in U.S. dollars

in most cases local countries usually charge you their local currency. So do you incur conversion fee because it has to convert to usd first before you can get 0% FTF?

anyway, more details about how I plan to use this card.

I just got approved last week for 4k. Now I am finding the way to spend 1k to get 40k points for a round trip to Singapore (Asia) in a few months from now.

Also, if I get flights at agency do you think I can use my points to pay a part of my purchase? what I meant by that is a onsale international flights on particular months usually cost around $1.2k. So I don't know if possilbe to use 40k points ($400) + pay cc itself ($800) = 1 round trips.

please understand that I never been in this situation ever before, because this is my first travel card and I also never consider a card with AF myself becauseI am unable to adustify the fee for the following reason;

I don't have a high annual income + in area where I live are most asia business where it's more favor cash purchases than cc purchases. That's why I can't afford AF card in my walllet

welcome all comments and suggestions

Thank you

[Anonymous]

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@creditfan wrote:

their T&C states 0% of each transaction in U.S. dollars

in most cases local countries usually charge you their local currency. So do you incur conversion fee because it has to convert to usd first before you can get 0% FTF?

anyway, more details about how I plan to use this card.

I just got approved last week for 4k. Now I am finding the way to spend 1k to get 40k points for a round trip to Singapore (Asia) in a few months from now.

Also, if I get flights at agency do you think I can use my points to pay a part of my purchase? what I meant by that is a onsale international flights on particular months usually cost around $1.2k. So I don't know if possilbe to use 40k points ($400) + pay cc itself ($800) = 1 round trips.

please understand that I never been in this situation ever before, because this is my first travel card and I also never consider a card with AF myself becauseI am unable to adustify the fee for the following reason;

I don't have a high annual income + in area where I live are most asia business where it's more favor cash purchases than cc purchases. That's why I can't afford AF card in my walllet

welcome all comments and suggestions

Thank you

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It's not an issue.  You have to compare it to other cards, which say, for example, 2.7% of each transaction in U.S. dollars

This just means that when a transaction is made, it is converted into $ and a FTF of 2.7% of that dollar amount is accessed.  In the case of Arrival, the factor is 0%

so it really is 0 FTF.

[DaveSignal]

The way that most US banks will charge any fee is that they first convert the currency to US dollars and then make the fee a percentage of the dollar amount after the conversion.

You will not be charged any amount for purchases in any currency.  Barclays may make a small amount of money from the conversion, but the rates are pretty good.... far better than if you let a local business do the conversion for you.

You can make a large travel purchase and then use the points generated from that purchase alone to pay for a portion of the purchase. 

[lg8302ch]

I have no clue why they mention transactions in USD in their terms   There is no FTF in local currency either.

My experience in CHF and EUR show definitely no FTF and I never pay in USD and select local currency in the payment terminals as the exchange rate is better.

[creditfan]

this is why their t&c confused me "0% of each transaction in U.S. dollars" which lead me to understat that you have to get charged from currency to USD first in order to get their "0% of each transaction in U.S. dollars" benefits. So what's the point of getting this card for oversea usage.

no clue.............

edit: typo

[Anonymous]

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@creditfan wrote:

this is why their t&c confused me "0% of each transaction in U.S. dollars" which lead me to understat that you have to get charged from currency to USD first in order to get their "0% of each transaction in U.S. dollars" benefits. So that's the point of getting this card for oversea usage.

no clue.............

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So just parse it as "0% of each transaction, in US dollars".  Again it is using a standard template that doesn't make much sense when the factor is 0%, but that is why

[rlx01]

MasterCard specifically will always convert any transaction worldwide to USD before converting it to the issuer currency (which happens to be USD in this case).

Visa does a direct foreign to local conversion (USD in this case also...

[lg8302ch]

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@rlx01 wrote:

MasterCard specifically will always convert any transaction worldwide to USD before converting it to the issuer currency (which happens to be USD in this case).

Visa does a direct foreign to local conversion (USD in this case also...

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I doubt this because my GE Moneybank Switzerland bills  in CHF and if a charge is in CHF the amount is the same in CHF.  DKB Germany is in EUR and if used for EUR transactions it is the exact same amount in EUR. No FTF or exchange rate differences.   Both of these cards are Mastercards not Visa.

[lhcole77]

I just got back from Costa Rica. I used my card there. Sometimes the transactions were in dollars and other times they were in colónes. I had no FTF.

[Anonymous]

OP,

Sorry if I missed this, but do you have the Platinum version or WMC version of the Arrival card? 

I just called Barclays today to re-con a decision for the Arrival World MC - and got approval (yay!).  Anyway, one of the main reasons I wanted this card (other than the great sign-up bonus) was to (hopefully) attain a higher limit CC with NO FTFs (I was having no luck with CLI requests with Cap1).  Since my family's favorite vacation spots are mostly outside of the US, I believe this CC will be very beneficial for us.

Bottom line - after being approved, the analyst transferred me to a CSR to answer a few of my questions - mainly about the benefits of a WMC (I never had one).  During our conversation, the CSR went over the differences of the WMC & Platinum versions of the Arrival card.....and she did in fact confirm that a FTF would apply to the Platinum version whereas there would be NO FTF with the WMC version.

Anyway, maybe contact Barclays to verify this?   Just wanted to add this info based on my experience today.