Best Strategy for ATM Withdrawals or taking cash While Overseas?

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  PissLUR on 20/12/2018 - 11:24

  +9

  ING

  • 

    peterpeterpumpkin on 20/12/2018 - 12:37

    If not depositing $1000 a month, just make sure you shuttle $1000 in an out every month. I use CUA for this purpose since it supports PayID (unlike Citibank, yet).

    (5 transactions a month should be easy in Europe. 2 days max :)).

  • 

    mr-incredulous on 20/12/2018 - 13:09

    I was just in Europe (mostly Germany) for 2 months and spent around $15,000 in a handful of countries. I used my ING card for everything and it worked flawlessly. All ATM/transaction fees were refunded immediately. Total refunds were around $170. I wanted to double-check the exchange rates so I put my transactions in a spreadsheet and can confirm it was very close to the rates you see on Google and there is no difference between ATM vs EFTPOS or small amount vs large amount, so there is no reason to carry around large amounts of cash. Only catch would be sometimes the fancy EFTPOS machines at hotels offer the choice between AUD and EUR. Make sure you choose EUR since ING's exchange rates will be better (I believe, haven't checked this).

    For bank transfers I used TransferWise, also recommended.

• 

  Baysew on 20/12/2018 - 11:24

  +2

  Welcome to the jungle!

  Start here - Cards with No Overseas Transaction Fees

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  Marcsie on 20/12/2018 - 11:40

  +2

  Citibank Debit Card

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  FirstWizard on 20/12/2018 - 11:48

  +1

  I will be going to Europe for 6 months. I estimate I would probably spend $10.000-15.000 there. What is the best strategy to take spending money there?

  ING has a daily ATM withdrawal limit of $2,200.00 per day. so you may have to do it over a couple of days. Plus I found some ATMs overseas have lower limits per withdrawal for foreign cards.

  Citibank is another option, but I've been charged ATM fees in some European countries. You may have to be careful.

  You can always use the 28Deg card for purchases (which would be the most of that $10,000.00-15,000.00 ;)

  • 

    Marcsie on 20/12/2018 - 13:20

    Citibank didn’t charged you the ATM fees, the local ATM charged you for using their ATM which can’t help because you are not their customers :)

    • 

      FirstWizard on 22/12/2018 - 23:08

      Well now there's ING, I don't want to be distinguishing the two. Any fees charged while withdrawing money from an ATM is an ATM fee for me, be it by the bank or by the ATM provider.

      When I'm using an ING card I'm still not the ATM provider's customer ;)

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  chumlee on 20/12/2018 - 12:51

  I have w HSBC Everyday Global Card. I like it as I can preload the currency whenever I want and no fees if you use a major bank overseas.

  Their service is ordinary though

  • 

    kmwa on 20/12/2018 - 14:10

    And use CurrencyFair to do your currency conversions.
    CurrencyFair is an "online peer-to-peer currency exchange marketplace" so you don't get stiffed with pathetic exchange rates or commission fees.
    You can use it to flip AUD into euros or GBP and then flip it back at the end of your trip.
    I just used CurrencyFair for a trip to England, it worked well and saved me a bundle.
    (Transferwise is also supposed to be good - a comparison here http://transumo.com/transferwise-vs-currencyfair/ )