Asking all Australians for some advice on Travel Cards. Has anyone had any experience with the following cards -
-Australia Post travel card load and go
- ANZ travel card
- Commonwealth Bank Travel card
or any others
We will use euro, british pound and also UAE Dirham.
Any thoughts, troubles and preferences would be a great help.
Thanks
Outta curiosity, why not simply use your standard cirrus/maestro enabled card? Tis what I do (although I'm not Aussie).
PS - I'd double post this on the Oz branch if I were you, there's a lot more Aussies over on that branch than there are on this.
Plenty of ATMs in UK - also called cashpoints etc, which can be useful to know if you're asking for directions to nearest ones. Most do not charge for dispensing cash, but always check, particularly at machines inside shops, at festivals, at motorway service stations etc. You can also get cashback by using card at many shops etc. Key feature is VISA symbol on credit card or debit card, which enables you to use any VISA machine.
Most debit cards & credit cards in UK have chip & PIN, but if your card doesn't have a chip, then signature is accepted. A few remote youth hostels, stalls at adventure races etc in UK can only take credit card payments by carbon copy machines, as they are away from phone signal / wifi etc, so they ask for contact details, in case you lose card on way home and report it lost before they can process payment with card company.
In some places, particularly airports, ferry ports and on Northern Ireland / Republic of Ireland border, machines can dispense either GBPs or Euros, depending on what you select. Other ATMs in UK dispense only GBPs (GBP = Great Britain Pound or £, but use GBP if keyboard won't support symbol)
Personally, as a fellow Aussie who has done a shedload of research on travel cards, my advice is to steer clear of them. If you use them purely to make purchases they incur no fees, but they can be problematic and time consuming to reload with more currency, can have problems if you are loading more than one currency, and are very difficult to get the unused currency refunded from them.
I think you would be better off using a credit or debit card from your own Australian bank.
As an Aussie, who was like Koala very anti them I am now for them.
There is a big thread about them on the Aussie branch and I think it was Koala who was asking about them.
If you load them with the currency of the country you are travelling, you are locked into the exchange rate of that day. Can be good may be bad. There are no other charges for using them other than the initial purchase cost and the charge for putting more money onto it. Sorry there may be one, a charge for using an ATM for withdrawing cash, certainly not charged the international conversion charge (or whatever they call it) for each purchase. That may or may not be already in the exchange rate you got on purchase but if the exchange rate is fluctuating in your favour then it isn't a bother.
In Italy this year, I was using Aussie Dollars on it, only extra charge again was the ?$3.00 for withdrawing cash.
The only problem I have had with it, I accidentally used it as security for my hotel stay. Which at the time was something like £60 so didn't think it was going to be a bother. Unfortunately the Hotel stuffed up big time and managed to put a hold on over £300 of my funds, which left me without enough money to shop with. That could have also been a problem with an ordinary credit card, depending on funds.
The main advantage I see over an ordinary credit card, is being able to purchase your travel money when the exchange rates are good,even if you are getting a poor rate from the bank. For example, we have purchased Yen for my husband's upcoming trip, we purchased it at 93cents, it went higher so we have lost out there, haven't checked recently but think it has dropped below the rate we purchased - so then it was in our benefit.
Also, by loading in the currency you will be using it may be easier to keep track of your spending. ie load £1000 you can keep track of your receipts easier without having to do conversions.
Thanks, Interesting thread. I can see both sides of this conversation. Personally I feel a travel card would be good. There are minimal fees and I would feel safer if I primarily used the travel card and I could have my normal debit card as a back up.
My mother went on a overseas trip to england and a lady in her group had her card hacked and so the bank had to lock her account. This left her with no access to money as she didn't have a back up.