Wizard Clear Advantage Mastercard Exchange Rate Changes

ash on 21/05/2010 - 12:08
Last edited 21/05/2010 - 12:10

hi guys

Has anyone noticed the exchange rate for the wizard mastercard is now not as good? The best thing (or used to be)about the card is when you use it to make foreign currency purchases, it has no currency exchange fees and it used to follow the rate on XE.com. In the last few transactions (within last 2 months) it has appear that the rate didnt correspond tot he rate on XE. (its about 2.5-3.5% off the rate on XE). This is now similar to the rate i am getting from my other CBA credit card (even after exchange rate fees)

Can someone else comment on this?

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Comments

  • retiredfeline on 21/05/2010 - 12:12

    Haven't used it overseas recently so can't comment. However by FC purchases do you mean taking money out of an ATM? What about using it as a CC, is the rate ok?

    • ash on 21/05/2010 - 12:30

      i mean using it as a credit card for making purchases in a different currency .. eg. i purchase items on ebay from USA and pay via paypal. You get an option to bill in either your own currency using the paypal exchange rate (which usually sucks) or have it billed in USD which will be converted by your CC provider - i always choose the latter of the two.

      • retiredfeline on 23/05/2010 - 10:02

        Ah ok, so you're not actually buying foreign notes and coins, you're just using it as a credit card in a foreign country, even though you are not physically there. The word currency is a bit confusing there.

  • iinetchan on 21/05/2010 - 12:26

    i am currently in Taiwan, i made a purchase on Tuesday (Rate on Xe.com max = 28 min = 27.5). I got charged 26.8. by dividing 26.8/(27.75 - average of max and min) = 96.5%. Meaning i have been charged 3.5% fees. Not happy at the moment. That was a CC purchase. I have took money out from ATM yesterday, but it hasn't shown up any records, so i can't tell the rates yet.

  • hargainbunter on 21/05/2010 - 13:00

    I just checked a few on my last statement using www.xe.com/ccc, and the "hidden charges" range from -0.28% (not a typo) to 1.3%.

    Seems to be OK to me - the xe.com calculator works thusly: "Note: The above fee calculation is based on mid-market rates for the date in question. The fee results are estimated and may vary slightly."

    The -0.28% result was probably short term variation at the time the transaction was posted, so it was different from the average rate on the day.

    Cheers

  • grasstown on 21/05/2010 - 13:02

    If someone cares to do the maths, i recently made these buys from a US store with my clear advantage:

    18 May 2010, 18.47 USD, $21.17 AUD
    19 May 2010, 26.46 USD, $30.34 AUD

    I think it was 87.2 cents, so fine i thought?

  • hargainbunter on 21/05/2010 - 13:17

    0.051% and -3.9%. The mid rate for the 19th was $1.19335, so you did well there!

    Bear in mind that xe.com uses US dates, so the rates can look a bit odd when things are moving quickly, like they are now with the $US.

    Cheers

    • ash on 21/05/2010 - 13:29

      good pick up there.. i haven't realised that.

      Anyway I rang up wizard and confirmed that there hasn't been a change to their T&C recently. The rate still follows the mid-market rate published by XE.com

      But I think the guy didn't realise the data on XE.com is on US dates, and he has launched a dispute claim on my behalf. Have to mention that their customer service is very good.. everytime I rang up there hasn't been a queue and always very helpful and patient.

      cheers

      • dragonrabit on 23/05/2010 - 00:30

        just back from Singapore 2 weeks ago, after i did some transaction, i have compare the balance and the interbank spot rate, their rate is normal. may be different 20-30 pips. thats will do for me.

  • ash on 28/05/2010 - 16:18

    Just an update

    The difference in exchange rate is due to Mastercard converts all currency to USD first before converting it again to AUD.

    et.. The mistake I made was looking at Currency 1 : AUD from XE.com. The proper conversion would be Currency X : USD.. then USD back to AUD.

    cheers

    • Kelly666 on 30/05/2010 - 14:34

      This is interesting if this is the case.
      Did Wizard confirmed this themselves when you spoke to them?

  • Kelly666 on 30/05/2010 - 14:32

    Not happy, look at these rates the Wizard have charged me recently compared to the XE midmarket rate:
    FJD vs AUD

    06 May: WIZARD: 0.586 = XE: 0.557 (5% difference)
    10 May: WIZARD: 0.572 = XE: 0.563 (2% difference)
    11 May: WIZARD: 0.581 = XE: 0.552 (5% difference)
    12 May: WIZARD: 0.583 = XE: 0.556 (5% difference)
    16 May: WIZARD: 0.584 = XE: 0.570 (2.5% difference)
    16 May: WIZARD: 0.591 = XE: 0.574 (3% difference)

    • dragonrabit on 31/05/2010 - 00:05

      for me, wizzard charge me on spot interbank rate. i have confirmed when i pay some bills in singapore. then i check my available balance immediately. it was around spot rate at that time. bear in mind. in the last couple weeks, forex market is really volatile. have you check the time you did your transaction, not just the day of your transaction.

  • inherentchoice on 30/05/2010 - 17:16

    Well, this is GE money's claim about it…

    Any purchase made overseas is first changed into $US - by MasterCard at the current exchange rate. MasterCard then converts it to $A when they send it to the issuer (in this case GE Capital). However, it is not correct to think that the issuer (GE Money) makes any commission on this. In fact it is the opposite - MasterCard charges us (and every other issuer) the following two fees: a cross-border assessment fee; and a currency conversion fee.

    Normally these two fees are then on-charged from the issuer to the customer, but with the Clear Advantage card we absorb them. In addition to these two fees from MasterCard, normally the issuer also charges the customer an 'international transaction' fee. However, we do not charge Clear Advantage customers this fee. [emphasis added]

    Source: http://www.choice.com.au/Reviews-and-Tests/Money/Banking/Tra…

  • zhenjie on 30/05/2010 - 19:21

    Interesting. So while its still better then most other bank issues Masterbards, it seems its not that great for currencies other then USD!

    • [Deactivated] on 31/05/2010 - 07:05

      Not sure - most banks do the same if you look at their commissions.

      Anyone know how Paypal does this for other than US currency?

  • dragonrabit on 02/06/2010 - 02:10

    last week, i just made another online purchase, the usd interbank spot rate at that time was 0.8310. Today i just checked my transaction history, they charge me with the rate 0.8259. for me 40 pips different is a good rate.

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