Don’t leave home without it, says American Express. The irony being, while my Amex card serves me well at home, I do tend to leave it in the safe when I jet off to Africa.
Does anybody actually use the Travelex at Sydney Airport? I truly hope not, because that’s basically just flushing 10% of your money down the toilet. When it comes to African currencies, the city or suburban exchange locations aren’t much better either. So how exactly do we covert our little dollar that could?
The easiest and most cost effective way is to do exactly what you do at home; go to the ATM. However, that comes with a bit caveat – you must have the right account. All of the Australian banks will happily allow you to use your card at a foreign ATM, however there will be differing levels of fees. Generally, they’ll hit you up for an “overseas ATM fee”, plus a “currency conversation fee” of about 3% and then the foreign operator will charge their own fee. Potentially, you’re looking at $15 per transaction plus 3%. Similarly when using your credit card for purchases, you’re likely looking at a 3% hit. So how do we get around this?
The good news is, it’s easy and free. There are a few options for fee free international transition cards. What’s in our wallet?:
ATM Card – ING Orange Everyday
This is by far the best of the “get cash” options. ING charge no overseas ATM fee and no currency conversion fee. There are similar products from Citibank, Macquarie Bank and a few others that do the same. So why ING? The big selling point is that they will refund the fee charged by the foreign bank. This is fairly new, but many banks will now add a fee of $4-10 to the debit amount (ie: withdraw 1000 ZAR and a Bidvest Bank ATM will add a fee and charge you 1050 ZAR in total). ING will actually identify this and apply a credit to your account for 50 ZAR. The drawback? There is a minimum monthly deposit and a 5 “VISA debit” transaction requirement in the month before you travel. This is fairly easily achieved, and worth it for the benefits (the account is otherwise free).
Credit Card – Coles Platinum Mastercard
At $99 a year, this isn’t the cheapest option for fee free international cards (the Latitude 28 Degrees card has no annual fee), but it does allow you to earn Fly Buys points which can then be converted to Velocity Points. In recent times, this then converted to Singapore Airlines Kris Flyer miles. While it’s annoying to have another credit card that you only use overseas, it doesn’t take long for the 3% conversion fee on your Amex to add up.
At home – American Express Explorer
While I loathe Amex’s awful customer service, the Explorer card is overall the best on the market if you’re looking for Kris Flyer miles. Amex also offers a few little perks like mobile phone screen insurance and regular cashback opportunities. They also offer decent signup bonuses, so if you don’t have one yet, consider signing up and you’ll be gifted enough points to get you half way to a business class seat on Singapore Airlines.
http://amex.com.au/refer/dANIERzs24?XLINK=MYCP
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