More Suitable Card (Than ING) for Overseas Spending

Lprotocol77 on 05/08/2018 - 11:27
Last edited 05/08/2018 - 12:08 by 1 other user

Hey everyone

New to the community but a big fan of Ozbargain

I wanted to post to ask if people find the ING account a good choice for overseas use?

Of course they offer the great features like No fee ATM withdrawals and no international transaction fees which makes them perfect as the first

I use them as my everyday account and think it's great and best bank I've been with!

My only thing is that as I am soon going to be traveling overseas for a few months I get all those perks for the first month before I leave but as I am taking Unpaid leave I won't be receiving the $1000 deposit after that first month so come 2nd month in the perks stop and I get hit with all those fees

I don't really want nor can afford to just leave $1K sitting in another bank account and transferring it back and forth each month

To me ING is great but those restrictions really make it a less attractive option for those that travel for more than a month

So what I am wanting to know is..

For those that travel either often or for extended periods do you use your ING and keep a spare $1K sitting in another account for transferring back and forth?

Or do you use another account that offers all that ING does including getting direct Visa or MasterCard rate (without taking a cut like most banks do) but without these silly requirements?

Can anyone recommend good accounts to try for use overseas if ING is not the best one to use

• 

  retiredfeline on 05/08/2018 - 11:36

  +3

  I don't really want nor can afford to just leave $1K sitting in another bank account and transferring it back and forth each month

  If you don't have money to transfer in the second month how are you funding your travel?

  • 

    CyberMurning on 05/08/2018 - 13:03

    +2

    Yes agree. Plus transfering back and forth only takes like 10 seconds? If you saved the account. problem solved.

• 

  Dont Care on 05/08/2018 - 11:37

  +3

  if you can't afford it then don't go on an extended holiday on unpaid leave

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  Baysew on 05/08/2018 - 11:45

  +1

  Maybe something from here - Cards with No Overseas Transaction Fees

  Citibank Plus might fit the bill.

• 

  Shadowsfury on 05/08/2018 - 12:02

  $1000 at 3% interest is $2.50 a month. You'd be more out of pocket with the fees you'll now get charged.

• 

  Godric on 05/08/2018 - 12:04

  +8

  Use a nvidia card much better than AMD

• 

  Franconian on 05/08/2018 - 12:07

  As above. Citibank Plus will be better. No requirements to maintain fee free overseas withdrawals/payments.

  • 

    retiredfeline on 05/08/2018 - 12:10

    +2

    But you'll have to make sure the ATM is Citibank's or doesn't charge a fee.

    • 

      CyberMurning on 05/08/2018 - 13:04

      +1

      And also means op need to leave enough cash in the Citi account, no interest either.same like ING.

    • 

      blueyez on 09/08/2018 - 16:27

      I've used non Citibank ATMs and not been charged fees overseas.

      Although yes - not all ATMs are fee-free.

• 

  protocol77 on 05/08/2018 - 13:27

  To clarify it is not a holiday I am having to go overseas because of a family members Ill health

  Therefore it is not a pre-planned getaway and I won't be paying accommodation which is one less worry but of course I have bills and rent like everyone else back here in Australia

  Thank you to Baysew for the helpful link

• 

  pao2x on 05/08/2018 - 15:45

  Simplest solution have $1000 on any bank account at least for one moment during a month.

  Otherwise get citibankor 28 degrees mastercard. None of those offer the flexibility of withrawing from any cash machines with charges reimbursed- ( Citibank hass severely limited accredited or own ATMS on most countries)

  • 

    dazweeja on 05/08/2018 - 15:58

    You're not restricted to Citibank ATMs - you can use any that don't charge an operator fee. It depends on the country, eg. in Europe you can use most bank ATMs fee-free.

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  dazweeja on 05/08/2018 - 16:02

  Which country? If it's one where most ATMs don't charge an operator fee it opens up your options a bit, eg. Macquarie or Citibank Plus would be just as good.

  Also, I don't understand the bit about "sitting in another bank account". Surely the money is sitting in your ING and you transfer it out and back? If the other bank also supports PayID, it doesn't take any time at all to do this.

• 

  bonz on 05/08/2018 - 16:48

  +5

  You don't need to have $1000 sitting in an account, even with just $50 you can simply bounce that 20 times then you're covered

• 

  WreckTangle on 05/08/2018 - 21:28

  HSBC

• 

  kpyam2000 on 06/08/2018 - 10:20

  HSBC = https://www.hsbc.com.au/1/2/personal/savings/multicurrency

• 

  Poolprouk on 06/08/2018 - 16:20

  +1

  Withdraw all the money you need from the ATM's in month 1 and then pay cash for everything? Not an exact science admittedly but if you get it in the right ball park (underestimate is better) you may only need to do a small number of further withdrawals after that.

• 

  TimeWaster on 12/08/2018 - 20:50

  If you have multiple bank accounts (with different banks), you can just transfer <$1000 back and forth between the 2 accounts over the 1 month period until you make it to $1000 all up. Regarding the 5 transactions, you can usually just pay your bills in split payment (e.g. pay/pre-pay Telstra bill in $5 increments for 5 local transactions) and there’s the requirements met with pretty much as little as $50 to your name.

  I know this might not be the most convenient method, but it just takes a few minutes each day (until you’ve transferred a total of $1000 through the ING) and there’s no other account (to my knowledge) that will refund you the cost of ATM fees to truly let you get cash worry-free

• 

  123cheese on 12/08/2018 - 22:39

  -1

  Of course Macquarie transaction account and debit card. No ATM fees literally everywhere (they refund if any). No transaction fees, no deposit requirements.

• 

  illumination on 13/08/2018 - 19:59

  +2

  Everyone else has covered the alternative options already:

  • Macquarie Platinum Transaction Account
  • Citibank Plus Transaction Account

  Credit Cards:

  • 28 Degrees Credit Card
  • Bankwest Zero Platinum Mastercard

  I just wanna share my recent experience with using the Macquarie and Citibank cards overseas too. I deliberately withdrew a roughly equal amount from all cards to do a "comparison".

  Date		ING	Macquarie	Citibank	Foreign Currency Amount (TWD)
  10 Aug	1	$44.27	$44.12	$44.33	1000
  10 Aug	2	$22.13	Not Used	$22.27	500
  11 Aug	3	$31.29	$30.75 (Pending)	$31.51	700

  From this, it seems Macquarie actually has the best rates, followed by ING and lastly Citibank.

  Which is interesting…
  Does anyone else have similar experiences of doing such a thing?

  edit: On second thoughts, this might be worth its own post.

  • 

    jmsu on 13/08/2018 - 21:42

    As stated on the individual post… unfortunately, the MTA has a $5 international withdrawal fee that pretty much negates any benefit from using the card overseas for ATM withdrawals. Use it to pay for as much as you like, but the $5 premium on ATM withdrawals is a bit steep.