I have a large overseas US$ purchase coming up & wondered if there are any credit cards that have benefits (eg frequent flyer points) but don't have overseas transaction fees?
Credit Card without International Transaction Fees
Gaz1 on 20/12/2017 - 16:29
Last edited 20/12/2017 - 16:37
Last edited 20/12/2017 - 16:37
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Does it have to be a credit card? How about Qantas Cash (prepaid MasterCard)?
Simply transfer the US$ into the account (lock in your exchange rate), then use this US$ for your purchase.
1.5 Qantas points for every $1 spent in foreign currancy (i.e. US$)
No monthly fee, no conversation/foreign transaction fee.
The only thing is you need to be a Qantas Frequent Flyer member, which you can join for free via Woolies' Rewards.
Poor exchange rate.
Bankwest Platinum credit cards have an annual fee, can accrue points, and have no FX charges. (Just not the Zero in the wiki as it doesn't accrue points).
28 Degrees Credit Card :)
-No reward points.
No international transaction fees as well :)
OP wants a card with both.
Do you have a Coles No Annual fee MasterCard? If so, ring them up and ask to be "upgraded" to the Coles Rewards MasterCard. The first year is then free, you get no international transaction fees, you get the spot MasterCard rate, and you also get reward points (in the form of flybuys points). Pretty sweet deal, eh?
20180227 I just tried to get the Rewards card and the first year is not free if you are upgrading from the "no annual fee ever" card.
Thanks for all the feedback (and the great link Baysew!).
It looks like most (all?) of the ones that have frequent flyer points also have an annual fee, so I'll need to work out if the benefit is worthwhile.
Cheers,
Gary.Going through all the options the best card I can see for no international fees & reward points if the Coles Rewards Mastercard.
Whilst this has a $99 fee they give you $100 off a Coles supermarket shop if you are approved by 31st Dec.
This card gives $10 back per $1000 spend or 1740 velocity points per $2000 spend (0.87 points per $).Does anyone know if this card will give you an exchange rate close to the xe.com rate?
(I assume that is the point of no International fee, but I'm always suspicious they are hiding the fee in a bad exchange rate like the Qantas cash card)Credit cards use MasterCard/Visa rates.
The terms and conditions aren't very clear about this. It sort of looks like no international transaction fees, but they appear to charge a cross-border assessment fee & maybe a currency conversion assessment fee. Has anyone compared overseas purchases with the xe rate at the time to see if this is true?
For example, section 11.1 for their terms & conditions says:(c) a cross-border assessment fee, set by MasterCard
International Incorporated (the fee is equivalent to an
additional 0.8% of any non-Australian dollar denominated
transaction amount, not including the currency conversion
assessment fee or international transaction fee (if any) )
where, in respect of a transaction, MasterCard International
Incorporated designates the supplier to be located in a
country other than Australia. This fee is paid to MasterCard
International Incorporated. The fee will be included with the
transaction amount when it appears on your statement;
(d) a currency conversion assessment fee, set by
MasterCard International Incorporated (the fee is equivalent
to an additional 0.2% of the currency conversion rate
applied to the amount of the transaction) when any
non-Australian dollar denominated purchase, cash
advance, cash equivalent transaction or other charge is
converted to Australian dollars (as of the date they are
processed by MasterCard International Incorporated, using a
rate determined by MasterCard International Incorporated).
This fee is paid to MasterCard International Incorporated.
The fee will be included with the converted transaction
amount when it appears on your statement;Yup, I've had this card for a while, and often check my transaction amounts with the MasterCard conversion site. It's always spot-on.
Here's an extract of a transaction I made recently:
Etsy.com - Morespc Brooklyn Ny 43.15
$32.83 Rate: 1.314346 . Txn inc. $0.00 Currency
Conversion Rate fee and $0.00 Foreign Currency feeThis transaction was processed 26 November and if you check the site it's converted it bang-on.
It's exactly like a 28 Degrees card, but with reward points added on.
Has anyone compared overseas purchases with the xe rate at the time to see if this is true
Don't compare MasterCard/Visa rates with xe, as xe is a mid-market rate that's only available to Currency Exchange markets.
MasterCard and Visa use a very similar rate, but I reckon they build in a bit of fat into their rates. However, it's close enough that we don't lose out much at all, so it's negligible.
Cards that don't have this foreign fee waiver add on a further 3% surcharge onto your transaction.
@MathNerd:
Thanks for the feedback (and Merry Christmas!!). So basically the 28Deg card is redundant & you only need a the Coles Rewards for purchases & a Citibank Debit (or similar) for ATM withdrawals?@Gaz1: Wishing you the same mate. Yep, 28 Degrees is redundant (without taking into account annual fees). Correct, Citibank debit is perfect for overseas ATM withdrawals. I don't have the account yet, as I haven't needed to withdraw cash overseas (I just transferwise money to a relative's account and withdraw using their card).
@MathNerd:
Great. Is it worth applying for the no annual fee & then contacting them after a month or so to see if they will upgrade (what do you think the chance of success is?).@MathNerd:
Thanks!
Do you know how long they take to approve?
They have a current offer of $100 Coles discount but this finishes on 31/12.
Alternately do they seem to do this regularly (and worth just waiting until next week to see details of the next offer)?@Gaz1: It's typically instant approval (well what they actually mean by that is within 60 seconds), but even then the card won't arrive in time.
They do tend to do these promos often, but at wildly varying amounts!@MathNerd:
You only have to be approved by 31/12, you then have 30 days to make a purchase to get the $100 off.
I'm guessing this promo would be one of the highest ones you have seen?@Gaz1: Ah my bad, awesome then. Yup it's the highest I've seen, typically they only do flybuys points promos rather than flat money off a shop!
The other options worth consdiering are the Bankwest & CBA ones mentioned on the above link (provided you can get no annual fee by having a home loan, etc with them).
Wonder no more. Cards with No Overseas Transaction Fees