I also signed up to Zing and used it to pay for some flights in euros. I very occasionally need to send/receive money to/from people outside the UK, and can see how this would be good for that. But for general trips abroad surely it’s cheaper to use a fee free FX credit card that uses the Visa/MasterCard exchange rate, like Barclaycard Rewards? Maybe it’s better for withdrawing cash. And I guess it’s aimed more at people who spend extended time in different countries.
Unlike the HSBC Global Money account, Zing can receive payments in Euros directly into the Euro “wallet” without any conversions, but I think the global money account is fee free for currency transfers, unlike Zing.
Will be interesting to see what the “founder benefits” will be for Zing. Along with it being Visa Infinite, I wonder if I can get discounted airport lounge access.
@Loau you could check your CRA data directly to look for any issues. But the rejection from Metro might be more to do with Metro than with you.
Probably not as the card issuer has to offer that. However, you will get entry into the president status for car hire which saves a fortune (guaranteed upgrade, more free km, less per km when you exceed that, free second driver, express check-in, etc) and on hotels (upgrade, sometimes included breakfast, etc)).
And there’s the Visa equivalent of the MC Priceless offers
If you have a GB licence you can use it until it expires, or change it for an NI one. After expiry you get an NI one. No need for a new test, in reality they’re pretty much exactly the same lol
There’s no need for a new test but if I move to England then I would have to exchange my licence for a GB one and if you moved to NI you’d have to exchange yours for an NI one. They won’t issue an NI license with a GB address nor vice versa even though both are actually printed in the same place in England.
Even stranger as I’m finding out at the moment there are two slightly different theory tests and two slightly different Highway Codes. However, it’s possible to do the theory test in NI, your practical in GB yet get an NI license (and any combination of those options).
On a related note, there are two different versions of the Global Health Card (don’t forget get yours!). Union flag background for British, plain background for those who consider themselves Irish.
That’s my point, you don’t have to exchange it. You can drive on it until it expires then get one issued by the relevant authority
The page I linked made it seem like you can have both issued at once, so I’m not sure about the NI licence must be NI address thing though I’ll take your word for it. Seems stupid though, just another way to separate an important part of the UK from the bigger slice of it.
You definitely have to exchange NI for GB if your address changes as the licence is only valid if it has the correct address on it.
You therefore can’t have both for that reason but also legally. I work in DfI which ‘owns’ DVA, the place that issues the licences so was checking earlier for my son who is in uni in England.
There’s a £1000 fine if your licence doesn’t reflect your actual address.
I haven’t gone through the fee sheet, but given the outrageous fees charged elsewhere on the account, I would imagine an inward euro credit to the GB IBAN they provide will probably cost - the outward charge was €2 for a proposed €10 transfer ! The HSBC Global Money account is indeed fee free for currency transfers.
I was rejected by Metro as well - I think it’s because I used my German ID card (despite this being listed as acceptable ID) as identification. Their loss.
They don’t even take UK residence cards, despite specifically asking for It in our case.
One issue might be that I gather they insist on you having a right to stay in the UK for at least two years. Almost all UK residence cards expire on December 31st this year as they’re going digital so may have been that.
There are no GB/NI licences - it’s just two different authorities (DVLA/DVA) issuing UK licences.
If you get a Welsh one, it’s issued by the DVLA and is in English/Welsh for example.
It’s the other way round. There are no UK licenses as such despite them all saying UK on them. The regulations applying to NI ones are different from the GB ones. Two differences being that the NI one is only valid when presented with the paper part and the NI driver number is only 8 digits long rather than the 16 characters of the GB one. They are also supported by different IT systems (which is why it causes us NI folk difficulties when using it as ID in a number of instances).
Also, if you move to live in GB to NI or vice versa, you need to exchange your licence.
Why? Well, it keeps about 300 people in NI employed to issue the NI licenses, even though they’re all printed in the same place. And our licences cost about twice the GB price.
Some recent posts have been (rightly) flagged as off-topic, though it could be argued this topic went off-topic a while back. It certainly doesn’t reflect its original subject matter.
Let’s park it up. New threads will surely emerge if the need’s there.
