Originally Posted by
invisible
First time I am hearing that cash advance from a credit account makes some practical usage except for dire emergency cases. Any specifics why/what is happening?
In the UK, most banks' credit or debit cards make a charge for foreign currency transactions. This can be made up of a basic fee plus a percentage of the transaction. Bureaux de change either take a commission or load the exchange rate to make their money.
For many years now there have been a handful of accounts which don't charge any of these (they can change over time), and currently the best are credit cards. Mastercard exchange rate, no loading for purchases or ATM withdrawals and even though they charge interest from the time of withdrawal for cash, any interest is far exceeded by the charges of "regular" cards.
Paying any cash withdrawal off promptly maximises the savings, but even leaving it for a month costs me 1% (my credit card APR is around 12%), which would still beat most other options.
There's some more examples and explanation on this UK based site:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/tra...l-credit-cards