Article: Best Credit Cards for Overseas Travel & Online Shopping

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One thing to be aware of is that while many of these products are "Fee Free", the exchange rate used in the currency conversion may have a "hidden" inbuilt arbitrage that can be significant.

they dont and cant have hidden inbuilt arbitrage.

since late 90s (quick guess) Aussie banks are required to highlight any 'profiteering' by charging as seperate line items on the credit card statement, hence the '3% overseas transaction fee" was born. A win win for consumers so was said, but formerly when the banks did add a margin hidden in the conversion it was definitely less than 3%. I forgot exactly how much though, but as a bank jerk in the 90's i did the math myself on my own transactions and would always tell the customers to just use debit/credit card rather than TC's or cash as the conversion was so much cheaper.


The Visa/MC card schemes in australia transact with the banks in AUD if you find they have added something for profit, then lodge a complaint as that would be a serious breach of their own T&C as well as banking codes of practice.

*note: Citi and HSBC do some funny business with their foreign currency accounts when linked to debit cards. avoid these.

 

[Gold Member]

Anyone with any recent experiences with complimentary Boingo wifi inflight? When broswing the affiliated airline websites it appears a personal account (free with 28 Deg MC) doesn’t cut it, and that you need to pay whatever the rate plan demanded by the airline.

 

[SYD]

Anyone with any recent experiences with complimentary Boingo wifi inflight? When broswing the affiliated airline websites it appears a personal account (free with 28 Deg MC) doesn’t cut it, and that you need to pay whatever the rate plan demanded by the airline.

I’ve never managed to get Boingo to work inflight - that probably explains why.

 

[Mattg]

Anyone with any recent experiences with complimentary Boingo wifi inflight? When broswing the affiliated airline websites it appears a personal account (free with 28 Deg MC) doesn’t cut it, and that you need to pay whatever the rate plan demanded by the airline.

I've always been able to use the wifi for free on Lufthansa Group flights (LH, EW, LX etc.) using my Boingo account from the 28 Degrees card. Not sure about other airlines.

As I fly on LH & subsidiaries quite a lot, this is actually the main reason I still have this card.

 

[Gold Member]

That’s good to hear Matt. So when you sign in to the airline’s wifi and agree to their terms, does it offer free wifi or are there other steps?

 

[Mattg]

That’s good to hear Matt. So when you sign in to the airline’s wifi and agree to their terms, does it offer free wifi or are there other steps?

It's paid wifi but gives you the option to connect using your Boingo account if you have a plan with them. I just enter my Boingo username and password and it seems to work fine.

 

[Gold Member]

It's paid wifi but gives you the option to connect using your Boingo account if you have a plan with them. I just enter my Boingo username and password and it seems to work fine.

That’s the catch, you’ve got to have a paid plan with them. The free account which is advertised as a benefit of the card doesn’t offer free in flight wifi AFAIK.

 

[Mattg]

That’s the catch, you’ve got to have a paid plan with them. The free account which is advertised as a benefit of the card doesn’t offer free in flight wifi AFAIK.

I don't have a paid plan with Boingo - just whatever you get with 28 Degrees. The wifi works fine for me on LH/EW/LX flights and I've never had to pay anything.

What I meant with my post is that normally on those airlines you have to pay to access the wifi, but that it also gives you the option to login with a Boingo account instead.

Edit: I found some screenshots from recent flights which show how this works.

For example, on Eurowings when you try connecting to the wifi it offers you various paid plans. But you can also connect via a roaming partner such as Boingo (it gives you a few options when you click on "Roaming" at the bottom of the screen) or a voucher (by selecting "Gutscheine" in this example):



And here's a screenshot I took on a SWISS flight, after I entered my Boingo account details:

 

[yojohnny]

For the free wifi - I also found that Cash Passport also offers it. Charge $100 on the prepaid card - give it 24h - full Boingo wifi for 3 months. Then cash out the 100$ by sending it back to your bank account.
Pretty good solution but this is a free prepaid card account - not a credit card.

Has anyone tried this recently?

 

[Thibault]

Has anyone tried this recently?

It used to work well but I haven't been able to make it work on my recent flights.

 

[yojohnny]

It used to work well but I haven't been able to make it work on my recent flights.

It hasn't been allowing your credentials during the guest Wi-Fi / boingo login process?

 

[cove]

28 degrees worked ok for one of my colleagues in the US and no good for the other. Latitude is a fringe dweller in our financial world.
Mrscove uses this card to pay for our London flat cleaning.

 

[SYD]

28 degrees worked ok for one of my colleagues in the US and no good for the other. Latitude is a fringe dweller in our financial world.
Mrscove uses this card to pay for our London flat cleaning.

28° is still our “go to” CC for foreign currency transactions (online and travelling).

As far as Boingo goes as a MC benefit, that’s been enhanced for other cards…

ENHANCED: Boingo Wi-Fi for Mastercard Cardholders In-Flight Usage Now Greatly Limited

Boingo complimentary Wi-Fi for select Mastercard holders is greatly limited from March 9, 2023.

loyaltylobby.com

 

[aerotravel]

I cancelled my 28 Degress card couple of years ago when I applied for a home loan and never re-applied for the card. Fortunately, I still have the Boinge access and used it last month on a SQ flight for their inflight wifi.

On the sign in to inflight wifi, login with your Boingo account and you're on your way.

 

[SYD]

I cancelled my 28 Degress card couple of years ago when I applied for a home loan and never re-applied for the card. Fortunately, I still have the Boinge access and used it last month on a SQ flight for their inflight wifi.

On the sign in to inflight wifi, login with your Boingo account and you're on your way.

Do you pay for Boingo? My Boingo account switched to “Inactive” as soon as the 28° arrangement ceased and they started the Flexiroam deal.

 

[knagelli]

28° is still our “go to” CC for foreign currency transactions (online and travelling).

How does the Coles Platinum Mastercard compared to 28 degrees card. We have been using the card the pretty much everywhere overseas including NA , Asia and EU. As I bank on velocity points , we prefer the Coles Mastercard but happy to understand if there are better benefits of 28 degrees card. ta

 

[SYD]

How does the Coles Platinum Mastercard compared to 28 degrees card. We have been using the card the pretty much everywhere overseas including NA , Asia and EU. As I bank on velocity points , we prefer the Coles Mastercard but happy to understand if there are better benefits of 28 degrees card. ta

@Mattg mentioned the Coles card in another thread. My understanding is they’re basically the same as far as foreign transactions go but Coles is better if you value VFF points.

28° doesn’t give any points directly but they do provide the occasional cash back offers. You can also link it to QF shopping and earn bonus points on offers.

 

[aerotravel]

Do you pay for Boingo? My Boingo account switched to “Inactive” as soon as the 28° arrangement ceased and they started the Flexiroam deal.

I just checked my Boingo account online and it says Inactive.
However, for some reason, I still manage to login to Boingo inflight wifi and used it.
I don't pay for Boingo.

 

[jgm]

28 degrees and Citibank Plus were both good in Canada last week.

 

[karen blancfield]

We have never had a problem with 28 degrees. It’s free, but you don’t collect points on your spending. I have no hesitation recommending it.