[Baron]

Apart from 'don't', I have to do the above.

My Barclay Card charges a 2.99% fee per withdrawal and then 29.9% interest, with cash withdrawals last to be paid off a balance.

To avoid being hammered with interest I have opened two new 0% cards, with balance transfer fees of 0% and 1.5% respectively, to which I plan to immediately transfer my Barclay Card balance after withdrawing the cash.

I'm withdrawing £1000 cash so should be looking at just over £30 in charges for this.

Is there a better way to generate cash from a credit card?

[lagerstarfish]

use somebody elses

[Fultonius]

Halifax Clarity. No charge, no interest and best of all - no exchange fees for foreign currency. I use it as my cash card in France.

[tomtom]

Halifax Clarity. No charge, no interest and best of all - no exchange fees for foreign currency. I use it as my cash card in France.

+1 though they do charge you interest on the cash withdrawals from the moment you withdraw to payment. (As I found out..).

[Fultonius]

Shit, so they do!  Hadn't noticed before.  Should probably start using my pre-pay card more often.

[petejh]

Depends how quickly you need the cash. By getting a credit card that allows for a cash transfer to your current account you could probably save a few more quid by getting the fee down to around £17 on £1000,
Best deals here: http://www.moneysupermarket.com/credit-cards/money-transfer/

The bottom one actually has a 0.35% fee if you qualify, so that would be £3.50. Combined with the fee for when you transfer the balance from this to your existing balance transfer card at 1.5% that would make total charges of around £18. Compared to £45 (£30 + £15 for the balance transfer).

A lot of hassle for a £27 saving though.

[tomtom]

Shit, so they do!  Hadn't noticed before.  Should probably start using my pre-pay card more often.

It's not too bad - 70 p interest for me! Still miles better than the £3 and 3% Santander charge me!!