Hi i am traveling to europe this week. Just wondering if i should get the aud exchanged for euros in Melbourne cbd or just use foreign atms. (Not exchanges) (obviously transaction fee etc is not charged with ING) can anyone share their experiences please. Its sort of urgent :)
But can i get the best rates overseas or locally?
You get the visa rate (very slightly 1/100 of a cent hight than mid market rates) I believe which still beats the rates from Travellex or other exchange kiosks.
You always get a better rate in your destination country. But for piece of mind sake, have around $100 in local currency on you before you depart. Also stash some USD, you never know when it would come to help.
In my experience, the ING rates are much better than anything you can get at a money changer. Next time you're in the CBD, compare the rates with the Visa calculator (which will be pretty close to the ING rate):
https://www.visa.com.au/travel-with-visa/exchange-rate-calcu…
Does ING not refund ATM fees with the 5x transactions previous month?
Yes they do but sometimes private ATM operators may sneak in charges. I haven't had experience with that as I always try to use the known bank ATM overseas to avoid such issues.
Ahh so they don't charge you a 'fee' that shows on transaction, they just add it to the cash withdrawn. That way ING don't see a 'fee' being charged?
@knobbs: technically, if they are under the visa or mastercard banner, this is not allowed. All ATM operators within Visa and Mastercard need to follow standard technical and operational guidelines (where there is a separate field for what they charge the customer).
Assuming that the bank/ATM operator signs up to Visa/Mastercard and they follow the right process and procedures, then all additional bank charges need to be identified separately and will therefore be refunded by ING.
My personal experience at a remote bank ATM (i think it was a small town in Palawan) in the philippines (some call it a 3rd world country) was that the charge wasn't shown in the ATM receipt or the ATM itself, but ING still refunded the bank fee (which was quite high in comparison to the amount I withdrew). Judging by that experience, then you should be fine in Europe.
The only annoying thing is that sometimes the money isn't taken away immediately (i.e. it is a credit card hold where your balance stays the same and your available balance is reduced), where the amount held is actually cash taken+fee, but once the fund is cleared, then ING will only debit the cash taken and refund the fee. You basically do not have access to the fee amount until it is refunded by ING.
Just withdraw cash at airport ATM’s. I just returned from Europe (UK,France), I never arrived with local currency. No problem withdrawing cash, all ATM fees were reimbursed. Also payWave was available all places I visited.
Check for the ATMs at the airport where you will land. Alternatively ask someone at the info desk about the closest ATM at the airport and then withdraw the euros. Make sure its the one of the bank ATMs to ensure that you are not hit with a surprise fee.
Edit: ATMs will be most probably in the arrivals area after the customs and immigration.