Qantas Cash Card

[annielee]

i called QCC call centre, they told me if there is money loaded in US$, its supposed to be using the US$ and not AU$..
but i havent try yet, will try that next week.

 

[drross]

i called QCC call centre, they told me if there is money loaded in US$, its supposed to be using the US$ and not AU$..
but i havent try yet, will try that next week.

that's how it's supposed to work but the card 'used' $US in europe rather than euro

 

[opusman]

Nice that you can now activate new/replacement cards through the website instead of having to navigate the interminable phone system.

Just need to be able to pick our own PINs now

 

[BAM1748]

I don't use the card, but might consider it if they ever extended the expiry date to 2 or 3 years. As it is now when QF send me a new status card it goes in the draw and I keep using my old one at check in with the staff sometimes asking did I receive my new one.

Too many cards, too much waste.

Matt

 

[TheInsider]

Seems like their 'new' Daily Cash Rates are better then converting the money over to the required currency.

If you’re travelling to a destination where we don’t offer a locked in rate - such as Bali, China or South Africa, you can load and spend Australian Dollars and the Qantas Cash Daily Rate will be applied to any spend. You can use the currency conversion tool below to check the exchange rate on a daily basis and check what rates will apply to your purchases or ATM withdrawals.
Qantas Cash Daily Rates also apply to any spend made overseas in a currency you don’t have loaded to Qantas Cash. For example, you are spending Euros with only US Dollars loaded. You can check rates which will apply to your purchases or ATM withdrawals below.

Looking at it at the moment (https://www.qantascash.com/why-qantas-cash/daily-rates/)

If you have an AUD balance with no other balance:
$1AUD = $0.96SGD (XE rate $0.98)
$1AUD = $0.60EUR (XE rate $0.62)

If you actually pre-purchase the currency and have that currency balance it's:
$1AUD = $0.94SGD
$1AUD = $0.64EUR

Or is there something I'm missing here, because this seems to be quite good value now?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Seems like their 'new' Daily Cash Rates are better then converting the money over to the required currency.




Looking at it at the moment (https://www.qantascash.com/why-qantas-cash/daily-rates/)

If you have an AUD balance with no other balance:
$1AUD = $0.96SGD (XE rate $0.98)
$1AUD = $0.60EUR (XE rate $0.62)

If you actually pre-purchase the currency and have that currency balance it's:
$1AUD = $0.94SGD
$1AUD = $0.64EUR

Or is there something I'm missing here, because this seems to be quite good value now?

I was wondering about that. They seem too good to be true. Don't know if they are 'live' rates, or rates from last friday which haven't been updated?

 

[CMA222]

I was wondering about that. They seem too good to be true. Don't know if they are 'live' rates, or rates from last friday which haven't been updated?

I have had issues in the past with the QCC so I tread carefully whenever there is an "enhancement" but surely "daily rates" are issued daily, otherwise they are completely misleading. I have not checked the T's and C's but I expect the rate applied is that applicable when the transaction is settled, which can be several days later, so it will be that day's rate anyway.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I have had issues in the past with the QCC so I tread carefully whenever there is an "enhancement" but surely "daily rates" are issued daily, otherwise they are completely misleading. I have not checked the T's and C's but I expect the rate applied is that applicable when the transaction is settled, which can be several days later, so it will be that day's rate anyway.

That's generous! Because it's all capitalised - Qantas Cash Daily Rates - I see it meaning anything... could just be 'a rate' which Qantas determines and will apply on the day that the transaction takes place. It may or may not mean it is set daily. But I guess reading the Ts and Cs might shed light on it.

Unfortunately with many things promoted or issued by QF, the Ts and Cs are rarely, if ever, beneficial to the user or passenger. So I don't bother anymore.

 

[CMA222]

Qantas Cash Daily Rates - I see it meaning anything... could just be 'a rate' which Qantas determines and will apply on the day that the transaction takes place. It may or may not mean it is set daily. But I guess reading the Ts and Cs might shed light on it.

You are spot on. A quick look at the Mastercard website reveals:

MasterCard uses multiple market sources (such as Bloomberg, Reuters, Central Banks and others) to develop exchange rates. These rates generally reflect either wholesale market rates or government mandated rates that are collected during the daily rate setting process. The displayed rates are derived from the buy and sell rates included in the MasterCard daily rate setting process and do not include any charges or markups applied by the Issuer. Please note that due to possible rounding differences, the displayed rates may not precisely reflect the actual rate applied to the transaction amount when converting to the cardholder billing amount. The exchange rate that is applied to a transaction is the exchange rate as of the day of settlement which is the day that MasterCard determines the settlement amount to be exchanged between the acquirer and the issuer. The settlement date is therefore typically different from the date of the actual transaction. MasterCard does not provide the exchange rate when purchases are converted from the local currency by the merchant to the cardholder's currency at the point of sale.

The daily rate appears to be whatever the bank and Mastercard want it to be. More confusion and disagreement are guaranteed to follow.

 

[opusman]

The daily rate appears to be whatever the bank and Mastercard want it to be. More confusion and disagreement are guaranteed to follow.

Not sure what else they could do. There's no "official" rate for floating currencies. It's like share prices - the current rate is simply the value of the last trade.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Not sure what else they could do. There's no "official" rate for floating currencies. It's like share prices - the current rate is simply the value of the last trade.

Credit card companies and merchants are pretty in tune with the concept of dynamic currency conversion - at a huge mark-up which they share between them. (Customer loses 99% of the time.)

They could offer DCC as a no-profit option, bringing certainty to the transaction and 'daily rate'. But that would lose them even more profit than they're making.

(I'm not against companies making profit, particularly where there is some sort of 'value add'. But when they are marking up for basically doing nothing, not even assuming risk, that's when it starts to grate a little.)

 

[Zero]

OK, so this Daily Rate thing is rather interesting. As far as I can see, it was incorporated into the T&Cs/PDS dated 21 Oct, so not sure why they have suddenly sent out an email about it now.

All Mastercards use Mastercard's exchange rate, which is usually the same in both directions, but leave it up to the issuing bank to apply any currency conversion fees. The 28degrees card also uses the MC rates and as we know, doesn't add any fees, but other cards do. However, the MC website doesn't show the rate until 1-2 working days afterwards, so you don't know the rate before spending. The eventual rate can be better or worse than the interbank rate on the day when you spent the money.

Now I always thought that QCash charged a 3% fee on top of the Mastercard exchange rate (when you don't lock in the DCC rate offered by Heritage Bank, i.e. if you have AUD loaded and spend euros). But it appears that this fee no longer exists. And with this new website feature, we are now informed of the rate in advance of making the transaction.

This means that if you notice that the QCash rate beats the interbank rate, you can make some money... if you can be bothered. You'd have to load AUD and spend it on the card, but also have the foreign cash which you can sell back to AUD.

For example, currently the AUD/EUR rate is 0.6262. But the QCash rate is 0.6507. If I were in Germany right now, and had $1500 on my QCash card, I could spend 976 euros at this rate. I could then withdraw 975 euros from my German bank account (worth A$1557) and sell it to a bureau de change I know, who would give me A$1540 right now.

Which means I've made $40 and 1500 Qantas points, but only if I actually wanted to buy the goods that cost 976 euros. I could do the same thing getting cash from an ATM and selling it straight away, but I would be charged the ATM fee and not get any Qantas points. This would be a waste of your time if you are actually on holiday.


However, I do have a similar card which is sort of worth it. It is a UK product called Supercard (http://supercard.io) which is in a closed 'beta' trial. It doesn't charge any forex fees but most importantly, it treats cash withdrawals as purchases. You electronically link it to a credit card and they charge your card when you use the Supercard. It's a Visa and the Visa Europe exchange rates are usually not as good as Mastercard's. But you get the occasional day where the rate is better than interbank. On those days, I can make an ATM withdrawal in Australia, which gets charged to my linked UK card as a purchase. As I have sold GBP for AUD, I now go to my UK online banking where I convert AUD in my account back to GBP, which will be more or less at the same rate, so I haven't lost any money but earned a lot of points on my UK card... it's not the best use of time, but if I have nothing better to do...

 

[opusman]

They could offer DCC as a no-profit option, bringing certainty to the transaction and 'daily rate'. But that would lose them even more profit than they're making.

I doubt DCC as it currently exists is based on the current floating rate either.

Yes they "could" do this, but why would they? No one gives you the current floating rate (unless you're a currency trader). Even banks only update their rates periodically throughout the day.

 

[vosadrian]

Hi All,

Just after some advice on the current state of play. I have a family trip to Europe/USA planned in July. I am a qantas FF and have the option of enabling qantas cash on my FF card pretty easily I believe. I also have an ANZ black QFF card (Amex and Visa) which I can use overseas, and cop whatever fees and exchange rate associated with that. I have researched the 28 degrees and Citibank plus cards which I believe give you great exchange rates. I am not interested in buying currency now to save for any exchange rate benefit that may come. I am happy to buy at whatever the rate is when I travel, but I do want to get a competitive conversion and not lose lots of currency conversion fees. It would be great to get some extra points, but not at the expense of losing 3-5% currency exchange over another option that does not earn points. ANy advice appreciated!

Cheers,

Adrian

 

[rainbowgirl]

I'd suggest activating the Qantas Cash facility as one of your options but have other options as well as there are some things like Hotel deposits that you shouldn't use Qantas Cash for.

 

[SydneySwan]

Hi All,

Just after some advice on the current state of play. I have a family trip to Europe/USA planned in July. I am a qantas FF and have the option of enabling qantas cash on my FF card pretty easily I believe. I also have an ANZ black QFF card (Amex and Visa) which I can use overseas, and cop whatever fees and exchange rate associated with that. I have researched the 28 degrees and Citibank plus cards which I believe give you great exchange rates. I am not interested in buying currency now to save for any exchange rate benefit that may come. I am happy to buy at whatever the rate is when I travel, but I do want to get a competitive conversion and not lose lots of currency conversion fees. It would be great to get some extra points, but not at the expense of losing 3-5% currency exchange over another option that does not earn points. ANy advice appreciated!

Cheers,

Adrian

Just get the Citibank or 28 degrees card. The value of the points gained from using a credit card or Qantas cash card will not outweigh the currency exchange fees that you will pay.

 

[TheRealTMA]

If you don't have a 28 degrees or Citybank card, make very very sure you pay in US Dollars and don't get hit with DCC. It's starting to be a very annoying scam where the restaurants are sometimes not aware that the charges have defaulted to A$ for Australian cards.

 

[SydneySwan]

If you don't have a 28 degrees or Citybank card, make very very sure you pay in US Dollars and don't get hit with DCC. It's starting to be a very annoying scam where the restaurants are sometimes not aware that the charges have defaulted to A$ for Australian cards.

This is good advice but it also applies to the 28 Degrees card and Citibank card as well. Never ever allow anyone to charge using DCC or any card.

 

[vosadrian]

Thanks for the advice!!

On the hotel deposit thing, am I to understand that when paying a deposit or something that holds money without taking it that the Qantas Cash card is not ideal for this scenario and has fees associated even if the hold is removed later and payed using another method?

Also, if I need to have access to ATM machines for cash, is the Qantas cash a good way to do this? I assume the 28D card will start charging interest as a cash advance immediately when taking money out of an ATM, so that would not be desired. I suspect my Cirus ANZ ATM card will have higher fees and exchange rate than Qantas cash. Just after advice on getting cash while travelling if I don't want to carry a large sum while travelling and have access to get cashout every few days.

I think I will look into the 28 degrees card. I just did a google search on the DCC. It seems that my best bet is always to pay in local currency rather than option to pay in Australian dollars if I am reading that correctly. This being the case, are there ever times when a vendor may not give me this option and charge using DCC without my approval?

Thanks again!

 

[eminere]

On the hotel deposit thing, am I to understand that when paying a deposit or something that holds money without taking it that the Qantas Cash card is not ideal for this scenario and has fees associated even if the hold is removed later and payed using another method?

There are no fees (levied by Qantas Cash) associated with holds over card funds but yes, if a merchant requests a pre-authorisation you'd be better off using a credit or debit card, instead of Qantas Cash. As Qantas Cash is a prepaid facility a pre-authorisation will temporarily reduce your available funds, and this can last up to 30 days. You can still settle your final bill with Qantas Cash. If you do use Qantas Cash for a pre-authorisation and need access to the held funds within the 30 day period, you’d need to contact the merchant directly to request they lift the pre-authorisation.