Overseas Spending : Qantas Travel Money Card VS TransferWise Debit

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qantastravelmoney.com

• 

  toniyellow on 03/09/2019 - 21:10

  +6

  Both have fees

  Any of these are better
  https://www.ozbargain.com.au/wiki/cards_with_no_overseas_tra…

  • 

    blackfrancis75 on 03/09/2019 - 21:23

    Really? TransferWise says the following:

    TransferWise debit Mastercard®
    The TransferWise borderless account comes with a debit card. It lets you spend anywhere in the world at the real exchange rate. You'll get low conversion fees, and zero transaction fees.
    - Free to pay with currencies in your account
    - Free ATM withdrawals up to A$350 a month

    How are they lying / misleading?

    • 

      toniyellow on 03/09/2019 - 21:47

      +3

      pay a small conversion fee when you convert your money — typically between 0.35% and 2,22%

      https://transferwise.com/au/borderless/card

      none of the above charge this

      Also paying atm fees once you withdraw more than $350 in a 30 day period is not great either

      • 

        blackfrancis75 on 03/09/2019 - 22:14

        If you're using your ING Orange Everyday Account card overseas, you'll be getting the Visa exchange rate. You can see what today's rate is on Visa's site, but keep in mind that ING adds 2.5% on top of this for all international transactions.

        Source:
        https://www.finder.com.au/ing-exchange-rates

        Edit: I guess this applies only if you don't do the following:

        • deposit at least $1000 from an external source to any personal ING account; and
        • make at least 5 non-cash purchases using ING debit or credit card
          Note that international transaction fees are waived for the next calendar month when you meet the above conditions in the current calendar month

      • 

        blackfrancis75 on 03/09/2019 - 22:17

        Other cards ding you in different ways; for example the 28 Degrees Mastercard:

        BPAY payment fee of 95c per transfer (free if Direct Debit or Direct Debit via. Online Service Centre) (as of July 2016). You can only put your card in positive balance (to avoid cash advance interest) by using BPAY, which always incurs the 95c fee.

        And many of the others charge an annual fee.

        • 

          toniyellow on 03/09/2019 - 22:30

          +5

          @blackfrancis75: Dude,I'm not trying to make you look bad, just to save money. The more popular the fee free ones get, the better to drive change in the industry

          There is heaps of info in the wiki:

          You avoid the ING fee by meeting their minimum deposit and transaction conditions

          You avoid the 28 degree fee by setting up a direct debit instead of paying by bpay

          Citibank is just free

          It's all here
          https://www.ozbargain.com.au/wiki/cards_with_no_overseas_tra…

          Read it all and make whatever choice works for you

          • 

            blackfrancis75 on 04/09/2019 - 16:50

            @toniyellow:

            Dude,I'm not trying to make you look bad,

            I appreciate that, and apologies if I come off as adversarial, but I do think the TransferWise card stacks up against most of these cards despite the small conversion fee

    • 

      nith265 on 04/09/2019 - 12:36

      +1

      I love this line:

      • Free to pay with currencies in your account

      You're free to pay with them once you've paid the conversion fee to get them into that currency!

      • 

        nith265 on 06/09/2019 - 10:20

        Also just thinking that you're probably going to have to pay a conversion fee to get any unused funds back into AUD at the end

• 

  nith265 on 04/09/2019 - 13:20

  +1

  Citibank Plus Account is simplest and best, uses Mastercard/Visa exchange rates, no conversion fees, no ATM fees

  TransferWise did seem to have a slightly better exchange rate to USD today, but those conversion fees and ATM fees bring it down again. Compare it to how much your normal bank charges - there might be hardly any difference.

  Qantas is consistently the worst option with the worst exchange rate, .5% load fee (might be free for first load), and $1.95 ATM fee

  • 

    Console on 05/09/2019 - 04:08

    +2

    To clarify, according to the info here, you can be charged an ATM owner fee on the CitiBank Plus card. This apparently applies to some (but not all) non CitiBank branded ATMs.

    • 

      nith265 on 05/09/2019 - 08:21

      This apparently applies to some (but not all) non CitiBank branded ATMs.

      100% correct - the correct term would be no ATM fee charged by Citibank.
      But just like those dodgy little ATMs at milk bars in Australia, the ATM owners fee would apply to every card not just Citibank’s

      This point is actually a net positive for Citibank in the USA as you have the possibility of finding a Citibank ATM to guarantee no additional fee from the ATM owner.

      The other massive sting that Citibank or any card can’t avoid is the user choosing to make an ATM withdrawal with dynamic currency conversion into Australian dollars – you get the ATM forex rates not Citibank’s

      edited to change to AUD

      • 

        Console on 05/09/2019 - 13:55

        +2

        The reason I mention it is that ING seems to have a one up in this particular area. They refund all fees, including those ATM owner fees charged by another bank for using their ATM, so it's one less charge to worry about in various countries.

        You're also right about the dynamic currency conversion. Always gotta make sure the transaction is processed in the local currency.

        • 

          nith265 on 05/09/2019 - 14:41

          @Console: Wow - sorry I didnt realise the ING refund extended even to overseas ATM owner fees - that is good!

          I'm self employed and at Xmas cashflow can drop to the zero for nearly 2 months - I might struggle or forget with the ING $1,000 monthly deposit requirement - so for me Citibank still wins but I can see that for many ING would indeed offer the absolute greatest value and flexibility

          • 

            Console on 06/09/2019 - 04:10

            @nith265: You can get around the $1000 monthly deposit requirement fairly easily by simply transferring some money from ING to another bank and then back to ING again.

            Unfortunately they have a second requirement to make 5 card based transactions per month which I find to be a deal breaker.

            Though, it would still be worth doing both requirements the month before going overseas if you know in advance.

            • 

              nith265 on 06/09/2019 - 10:19

              @Console: Yeah I did the transfer trick to get the $75 signup bonus with ING a few years ago.

              If I had all my banking with them it could be 100% no brainer but as it is I like having Citibank as a dedicated travel card seperate to my day to day CBA anyhow.

              Combined with ING purchase protection I was just learning about in another thread it sure is a good feature packed product