best way to spend overseas? just realised the fees on virgin cards for OS transaction

[traceyy]

gee just realised i am also going to get charged conversion fees, have around 5k usd of accomodation to pay, whats the best way to pay this and not pay fees? would be good to get the points from cards but its a bit of an extra chunk in charges

 

[asterix]

We use the Coles Rewards Mastercard, 28 Degrees card, ING debit card and Citi debit card since they all have fee free currency conversion.

 

[MattA]

ANZ Travel Adventures is the other one that gets you points on O/S spend and has no forex fees (alongside Coles Rewards MC). Both have annual fees and decent signup bonuses running at the moment. ANZ ($225 fee / 75,000 Velocity signup bonus): ANZ Rewards Travel Adventures credit card guide - Point Hacks
Coles ($99 fee / 150,000 Flybuys (= 75,000 Velocity with the regular 15% bonus on transfers) spread over two years): Rewards Mastercard - Coles Credit Cards

28 Degrees has no forex fees, no annual fee, but no points.

The other two (ING Orange Everyday and Citibank Plus) are debit cards. ING makes you jump through some minor hoops each month to get no forex fees (transfer $1k in and 5 transactions each month -- if you make it your main account then they won't be a problem, but even if not, it's easy to do; the $1k doesn't have to stay there so you can move it straight out again and they support payid so you can do this pretty easily in a few minutes; I've been meeting the "5x transactions" requirement using the Beem it app (transfer money between my own accounts but they go through as EFTPOS transactions and ING treats them as spend...) Also these hoops are waived for the first two months you have the card.

The Citi one has no hoops to jump through, but you have to deal with Citibank. Also make sure you get the Citibank Plus account, as I think that's the only one with no forex fees.

If you're actually going to the US, the ING one is well worth it, even despite the hoops, as it also has a unique feature of rebating the operator ATM fees as well (and *every* ATM in the US charges foreign cards a couple of dollars or more for each withdrawal). You don't need to have that much actual cash in the US these days (cards accepted just about everywhere now) but you'll still need to get some from ATMs -- the ING card saved me a heap when I was there earlier this year.

 

[BCons]

Debit Card - I use Macquarie debit card, pre-loaded. No 3% overseas transaction fee for a start and exch rate seems to be moderately good. There are non-bank ATM charges tho - 2-3 dlrs per time. Will Never Again Use normal C/card for cash withdrawals or daily overseas transactions.

 

[opusman]

The BankWest Qantas cards also have no forex fees.

 

[traceyy]

might have to try and go a travel money card? at this point i leave in less than two weeks and really dont want any more credit cards lol

 

[Buzzard]

Coles MC earns flybuys which can be converted to Velocity.

 

[RB]

might have to try and go a travel money card? at this point i leave in less than two weeks and really dont want any more credit cards lol

I don't believe that is the ideal solution! There is plenty of discussion on here re the poor exchange rates on the money cards

 

[jpp42]

The BankWest Qantas cards also have no forex fees.

I use a Bankwest Platinum Mastercard . No forex fees and no annual fee!

No points either but you can't have it all. I'm happy to give up points for this - the real way to earn points is from your daily expenses.

 

[opusman]

I use a Bankwest Platinum Mastercard . No forex fees and no annual fee!

No points either but you can't have it all. I'm happy to give up points for this - the real way to earn points is from your daily expenses.

The Bankwest Qantas cards have no forex fees and points. No need to give up anything. You can have it all!

 

[jpp42]

The Bankwest Qantas cards have no forex fees and points. No need to give up anything. You can have it all!

I didn't actually realise this card existed, but noting that they do have an annual fee of $160 to $270. The point I was making is that my Bankwest card has a ZERO annual fee. I use a different card to earn points domestically, so I would have to earn enough points overseas with this card to offset that annual fee. As it's only 0.75 points per dollar spent, that $160 annual fee would require over $20k of spend overseas to break even (depending on what value you put on a Qantas point). Still, some may in fact spend that much so would be worth checking into.

 

[opusman]

True but if you're paying for the card anyway then why limit its use to only overseas spend?

Also note the World card is 1pt/$ for first $5K / month.

 

[clipped_wings]

We've just finished paying around AUD13k for our upcoming US accommodation. Paid in advance by a mixture of credit card and direct debit. Got some points here and there. And copped some fees here and there.

Moral of my story? It's all paid and I'm not stressing about it anymore. Just looking forward to the holiday

 

[Stealthflyer]

I swear by the Citibank Plus debit card. I’ve had it for years and only use it when I travel. It doesn’t earn you points of any kind and the Citibank app is terrible, but hey, I also don’t have to pay fees for foreign ATM transactions or currency conversion.

 

[asterix]

I've also recently signed up for a Transferwise Borderless account with whom I opted for a US bank account, AU bank account and UK bank account, with options for for a EUR bank account. The debit card attached will use whichever currency has the best rate. There are no fees if the local currency is transferred directly to the account, ie USD to US account, GBP to UK account and no fees for using the local currencies you hold when using the debit card.

Currency conversion starts from 0.5% for main currencies. I get USD deposited into Paypal occasionally and am sick of paying nearly 5% for the USD to AUD conversion through Paypal, so I linked my Transferwise Borderless account and get Paypal to send the USD to my account fee free. From there I can either spend the USD using the debit card, or can convert it to AUD for 0.5% fee.

You can withdraw money from ATMs, but only the first AUD350 is fee free, it is 2% after that, so not ideal for ATM withdrawals.

Let me know if you are interested in joining I'll I can give you my referral link.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

If you want to use your own money, the forex rate might not be the best, the ING orange card is very good, if you have a while to go, and can open one in time, put in $1000 per month from any other bank account, and use the orange visa debit 5 times each month, they refund the foreign currency fee that I incur.
I haven't taken ATM access while there, but each fee I incur when I buy something, its always been a come back of the foreign currency fee that you incur, has been refunded.
((VFF side))
Also very good in my case, for use and earning of VFF points, is the VGW facility, of course with this one, there will also be the case that the forex rate might not be the best, but 1 VFF point earnt per Aud$1 spent when spending in foreign currency, is an ok rate, esp using my own funds.
The foreign currency fee exchange is included in the total transaction, so you don't see a separate fee in your VGW statement.
Have to put your own money into this one too, good if you don't want debt.
((QFF side))
On the other side, QFF members have the Bankwest debit card, have to put in $2000 a month though, and you earn QFF points per spend.
I went over the top many years ago, on the real credit card side, so have not used any of the true credit credit card for many years now.
My suggestion is in addition to those debit cards mentioned above by the other colleauges.

 

[Danger]

I use a Bankwest Platinum Mastercard . No forex fees and no annual fee!

No points either but you can't have it all. I'm happy to give up points for this - the real way to earn points is from your daily expenses.

How are you getting it a $0 fee on the Bankwest Platinum?

 

[HeavyElectricity]

How are you getting it a $0 fee on the Bankwest Platinum?

No annual fee credit card | Zero Mastercard® | Bankwest

The Bankwest Zero Mastercard range offers no annual fee, even on Platinum credit cards. Find out more about the additional benefits and apply online. Other fees may apply.

www.bankwest.com.au

 

[mrsterryn]

Another vote for Coles MC as credit card and ING if you need cash
I do get Coles points for it
My Coles card is my tiny credit card limit but having been stung significantly before on conversion fees with St George I just use and transfer funds over

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Bankwest has 2 sides, the real credit (credit) card and the pseudo credit (but is a debit card with MC holigram) card.
Both are MasterCard cards and both are called platinum.