Given the recent re-emerging questions I think it is time for this to re-surface ..
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-1. Currency rate used after the sale of the Wizard brand..
26/May 149.48EUR, they charge 266.36AUD, means 1EUR=1.7819AUD used.
according to yahoo finance, rate on that day was 1EUR=1.7821AUD,
so it is about 0.6% charge, which is still good as gold....
0. New applications ?
This card is still available, See here:
http://www.wizardclearadvantage.com.au/
Here is the revised guide ,
Benefits of this card :
1. No annual fee, no overseas ATM fee charged by Wizard (although the ATM owner may charge a fee), no cash advances fee (home and overseas).
2. Generally it has the best exchange rate available for purchases and cash advances.
3. MasterCard acceptance, it has worked in countries such as NZ, USA, UK, Italy, France, Netherlands , Japan, Korea, HK, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia, China and the list goes on.
However, their customer services is considered bad, so always have a second source of funds ready for backup use when overseas.
Applying and getting ready for cash advance :
Apply through their web-site, after you have got the card and the pin, you need to go to their website and download the form in order to withdraw more than $1000AUD in case (not sure if this is still the case?).
How to use:
To avoid paying any interest for cash advance it is important that you put the card to credit before doing cash advance, and always remember how much you have put in and taken out. For example, the card limit is $3,000, and you put in another $2,000, the total credit available (for purchases) will become $5,000, and the amount of cash available to withdrawn interest free is $2,000. Because I mostly use this card for cash advances overseas I usually do not use it in Australia. (except sometime ago when JetStar take $100 off if paying by MasterCard !)
Timing of Cash advances and Purchases to avoid paying interest:
[Mel_traveller :However, the card will not distinguish between cash advances and purchases for the $2000 extra you have paid in.
So for example, if you pay, on day one, a hotel bill for $2500, then take out $50 as a cash advance, that cash advance will start to accrue interest immediately. (The card does not take the $2500 hotel bill out of your original $3000 credit limit, and take the $50 out of the additional $2000 you paid in before you left home!)
Users of the card will need to ensure that at the time of taking out a cash advance, that cash advance is coming entirely out of a credit (positive)balance, which includes considering any purchases that may have been made.]
One wise way is to use two cards, one for cash advances only and another for purchases only.
How to put the card to credit
The easiest method is to use bpay, the biller code and the account no. will appear in the statement , remember the account number for bpay is
NOT the same as the credit card number ! If you need to put the card to credit before the first statement arrives, call customer service and see if they can give you your bpay account number. [serfty : Just one comment with this; if you do not have a statement handy or otherwise do not know your account number and you want to make a payment/reload anyway,
the actual card number will suffice. Processing might take a day or so longer. The bpay biller code is:
150615 ]
Limits on daily cash withdrawals :
The daily limit for cash withdrawals is about $1000AUD, or the foreign exchange equivalent.
Gotcha on limits with cash withdrawals:
There is a
gotcha based on your credit limit that also limits the amount you can take out. It's actually a max of your credit limit per length of time it takes between you taking the money out, and the transaction showing in the transaction history on the wizard website. This length of time varies based on a lot of factors, and the only way to check it is to either log in, or attempt to take more money out, according to Wizard.
Exchange rate:
Over time, for me it always provides the best exchange rate available, sometimes the spread is as low as 0.3% from the real exchange rate (compared with at least 2.5% for other credit cards) , which can be checked form the
www.oanda.com/convert/fxhistory site. However if the currency fluctuates a lot the spread can be widen however in stable times the rate is always the best.
How to use the ATM:
Find an ATM with the MasterCard sign on it, select credit card and choose the amount to withdraw. In most cases ATMs do not incur a use fee, however in some ATMs (for example the ones in Wal-Mart) they do, but they will tell you before you proceed.
Online facilities:
For your deposits / payments to the card it will take about 2 working days to appear on the web. For purchases and cash advances to appear on the web will take longer, usually about 3-4 working days.
Beware of rip off merchants:
If you use this card (or any other card) for purchases in overseas currencies, sometimes the merchant (including on-line merchants such as Tiger Airways when book from SG website for departures not from Australia) will give you an “option” (or “no-commission conversion”) to debit the card in your home currency (AUD), almost certainly at a much worse exchange rate (usually at least 2.5% worse off). Always insist them to debit the card using the local currency of where you make your purchases, for example in US, use USD. The exchange rate provided by Wizard Clear Advantage is almost certainly better than those rates offered by them.
Last edited May 2010
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