Bankwest emailed and just updated my debit card to platinum for free. Assume it applies to all.
Pair it with the Bankwest Zero and your debit and credit cards will essentially be fee free for international use.
No need to go with two different banks. Time to ditch Citibank.
Citi bank has overseas support staff and bankwest app and website better
Any reason to get this if I already have Macquarie transaction card? Are they the same in terms of international ATM/withdrawal and forex rates?
Bankwest card has eftpos
Dumb question but what is efpos. Is it just ability to withdraw cash? Doesn't macquarie transaction card have this too?
You can withdraw cash while paying at Coles/woollies and avoid card surcharge at Aldi
Macquarie card only routes via Visa
You can't avoid fees for using Mastercard (eg Aldi charge a fee for Visa/Mastercard, but free for eftpos).
No cash out at retailers
No 'instant' transactions (ie instead of showing 'pending')
No Beem support
The card Macquarie issues is a debit card which means you can still withdraw cash and all of the other things you can do with a debit card.
I just opened a Macquarie account + debit card for an overseas trip, plus a Bankwest Zero Platinum & 28 Degrees credit cards.
Wondering if I should just close my Macquarie account + debit card… & get a bank west debit card instead.
Keep both as a backup
Yeah good idea to have a backup.
Would you pick one over the other to use day to day on an overseas trip or are they essentially the same?
@[Deactivated]: Essentially the same once overseas. Locally mac has better interest rate, while bankwest has eftpos which helps in a few use cases and they may have better service (with branch access etc. ).
Since you have a credit card with bw it can be easier to pay that off via a bw acct. Also, If the credit card is ever has a positive balance you can do a free transfer back to the bw acct. Definitely compliments a bw zero card well.
@silenthillrocks: What do you mean by eftpos? Doesn’t Mac have eftpos?
Also BW is going all branchless anyway
I can transfer money internationally without fees using Citibank. Decent exchange rate, too. I don't think Bankwest will let me do that. They have a $15 fee.
might get this just to use as a card just for the international subscriptions, such as yt premium, google one etc.
Up will keep track of regular transactions as well, though.
Do Citibank transaction plus card and this Bankwest card use the same exchange rate for purchase in foreign currency?
I thought consumer Citibank has been bought over?
It has
Anyone used this card to withdraw from atm in NZ and didn't get charge ATM fee?
ATM fees are charged by the ATM provider and different to the foreign exchange fees.
No mention of Hiver anywhere. Has anyone compared Hiver vs Citi vs Bankwest?
Not bother with Hiver bec they charge foreign transaction fee.
Ok, fee for foreign transactions but nil fee for international ATM withdrawal (except if imposed by operator) so the same as all others
So it's just good for using as a cash withdrawal card. Wonder how visa compares though.
Don't they still need to convert the currency, even if they don't charge a fee for using the ATM?
Two thumbs up from me, but note all transaction times are set to AWST, and customer service on all channels isn't the best - at least there is live chat in-app which is handy. Wish they'd bring back the ring.
Wish they would bring back the ring sizer. Ozb favourite.
Used the live chat this morning and was pleasantly surpised. and the last few in app messages have always been answered promptly so I'm really happy with Bankwest's service so far.
I'll be comparing this and ING head to head overseas in the near future. Hopefully there won't be a major difference between the two.
Ing better if you meet the monthly criteria as they also cover overseas ATM fee (where the overseas bank charges an access fee)
ING is most useful where there are overseas ATM fees but that shouldn't be an issue where I'm going. (Citibank Plus is also useful in those circumstances, assuming there are Citibank ATMs in that country.)
I'm mainly interested to find out if there is any hidden disadvantage to using the Bankwest option, as I discovered was the case with the Citibank Diners (and as seems to be the case with the CommBank Ultimate Awards as well).
What's the problem with CBA Ultimate Awards? Aren't they using Mastercard rate?
The worst scam is from Mastercard/Visa under DCC (Dynamic Currency Conversion) which sneakily asking you pay in the card currency which has 5%+ markup built into the rate and you still get slugged with foreign transaction fee from your bank as well with non-Australian merchant.
Never pay in AUD oversea, always ask and make sure you check that the merchant is putting the transaction in local currency.
It has been raised many many times in this thread, ING DOES NOT cover overseas atm fees anymore. They stopped last August.
Was lucky to be able to get a Macquarie credit card free for life which has helped earned points overseas and no transaction fees.
How long does it take for CBA to BW transfer? Used a paid and haven’t received the funds yet. Doesn’t look like they have OSKO! Is there any atm withdrawal fee overseas?
You don’t get charged cash advance fee for using your own money when withdrawing from ATMs, like 28 degrees does.
28 Degrees is a credit card - you're withdrawing the bank's money, not your own.
This is how credit cards work, it has nothing to do with 28 Degrees.
is this the card that has the really good complimentary travel insurance?
Funny this post calls to ditch Citi when Citi essentially offers the exact same thing for free as well. And now replicated under Nab
Citi is now visa though under NAB - not mastercard anymore.
Does MasterCard have better rates than visa?
Are you sure its replicated? My Citi account and card is being closed on the 24th of Feb and I am being moved to nab accounts. Where did you find this info?
The NAB account replacing your Citi has the same benefit
It's in the T&C of the nab account you are being moved into.
How does this compare to the HSBC Everyday Global Account?
Nice that they have a no annual fee credit card with no international transaction fee. But @anyone who's used it - how's their exchange rate compared to Revolut etc? TIA
Can confirm have used this card to withdraw cash from far flung places such as Siena and Hokitika. Just need to make sure you use a bank atm if possible vs a scam atm (such as euronet). The rate is the masterbank rate which is exactly what the official exchange rate was when I searched it on the spot in google.
So is macquarie banks debit card.
I'm currently clutching onto revolut since Citibank is no more because of the multi currency wallet, MasterCard FX rates and fee free withdrawals ($350 a month).
I've been looking for an alternative with a higher fee free intl withdrawl limit/no operator fees, but it doesn't look like Bankwest/ING have a multi currency account option meaning all non aud transactions are done at the spot rate.
How about the Bendigo bank CC?
Anyone know what kind of exchange rate you get with this card?
Citi used to be closely aligned with XE money, but not sure about these guys.
It'll be the Mastercard Exchange rate which is probably the best rate you can get with a debit card.
This doesn’t include the operator overseas atm fee yea? Doesn’t it make the same with ING?
I want to know this too. Is this card better than ING with overseas ATM withdraw limitation and fees?
I am with Bankwest but no emails?
I've been using the free Bankwest Zero Platinum card for ages for international transactions. Also free (though nowadays cut back) travel insurance.
I continue to use Citibank (now migrated to NAB with the same conditions) for ATM withdrawals overseas. The advantage with the Citibank one is that you get fee-free telegraphic transfers, which I use a lot. The NAB account they migrated it to has these same special conditions for those people who moved from Citibank.
What has been cut back from the travel insurance?
And the NAB account isn't necessarily free because overseas ATMs will charge a fee but previously there were lots of fee free Citibank ATMs to use to withdraw money from.
Yes previously withdrawal using Citibank card at overseas Citibank atm machines is free but not at non Citibank atm. Now using nab cards overseas at Citibank atm will likely have a fee. I dun think there are many nab atm machines overseas. Correct me if I'm wrong.
They closed my citi account and gave me a new nab account. How do you know that the same perks with the citi account went across to NAB?
Says so in the conditions
does the NAB account also offer fee-free telegraphic transfers? not seen in the conditions, used to use that to send money overseas with Citi account, but not yet tried with the migrated NAB account.
Yes - it has special fee exclusions in the terms and conditions for those who came from Citibank. It's one of the reasons I have this account. Exchange rate also still good.
Did anyone encounter an error?
It looks like you won’t be able to open this particular account online.
you're right. I got the same error.
I just use my Bankwest Zero Platinum card….have had that for years and it has free basic international travel insurance as well…obv don't use it to withdraw money at atms though. I have an ING debit card if I have to use that. I mostly take AUD to change at money changers instead if I have to. Not sure what is going to happen with the Citi card now it is going to NAB….also have the HSBC debit card for purchases overseas
Does anyone have any preferences between this and an UP account for overseas atm withdrawals and use?
They've reduced insurance inclusions in zero platinum card so it no longer is the best card out there (still probably the best card with zero annual fee though). NAB Signature card has got an excellent travel insurance and has no transaction fee either but comes with an annual fee (which is less than travel insurance fee for a single trip overseas anyways).
Very happy to be corrected but I've been getting excellent forex transaction rates on the NAB card that was issued as a replacement for my long standing Citibank debit MasterCard (RIP). Is the Bankwest offer better for, say, ATM withdrawals (on which I still get pinged operator fees occasionally)?
Otherwise still trying to work out what makes this deal special or at least better than the NAB card.
Those fees are usually charged by the ATM operator and not your bank. Anyone using these ATMs will get charged regardless of what card you use (I do recall there was a bank/card that refunded these fee's in the past but can't remember which it was)
Its Macquarie. they refund the ATM operators fees in Australia as well.
Bankwest customer service and app are excellent
Already have the free credit card and it's great
I'll keep Citibank due to free signature card
I'll keep 28Degrees because they process ANYTHING
Will use this for ATM
Thanks OP
Still looking for one bank that ticks all boxes. St George is actually pretty good in that regard. Maybe Macquarie?
Yep, I'm still holding my Citi Signature/premier card that is free for life. I also use 28 Degrees for international transactions. They increased the Bpay fee from $0.95 to $1.95.
Currently in NZ. Have wise and Bankwest. Bankwest was $1.10 and wise $1.09. Will stick to Bankwest. Bali had better exchange on Wise though.
Just a headsup that there is no longer any complimentary travel insurance provided with this card
So can someone explain me couple of things for my sanity check. I thought credit cards can reduce your borrowing capacity quite negatively. So if you're looking to buy home or any big item through loan, your borrowing capacity goes down. Obviously this will depend on other factors too like income etc. Other thing was how does anyone justify yearly fees on these credit cards? Do you get more value out of it (for eg. get many points, discounts etc.) that justifies fees on your credit card? Bit new to this credit card points accumulation etc. ball game so trying to get my head around it. Never used credit cards much to be honest. Not against cc completely but can't see much benefit. I have westpac credit card (from Virgin money) and it doesn't have any annual fees.
CC is good if you need the credit say for 40 days or whatever. Also good if you need the various insurances that come with some. From an Ozb perspective they are GREAT if you're a pro churner and racking up bonus points. Otherwise no.
I get close to a million points a year playing the churn game between myself and the wife. I'm sure a mere mortal to the real pros here. Just need a little research and a strategy. Worth the front of plane holidays!!!
are there any out there without any fees? I know chances are slim to none. Perhaps i need to get this Bankwest one or one from Macqurie bank to see how well I can do to get more points through grocery shopping etc.
You don't get points with free CCs or Debit cards like this one.
Look at the Virgin Money Flyer credit card. It's $74 first year annual fee and every year you get $129 in travel credit for Virgin Australia flights. So you come out on top. Once you get the bonus points and travel credit you can cancel the card anytime such as to avoid the 2nd year annual fee. Also some AMEX cards give you a travel credit that cancels out the annual fee.
Yes essentially the game is to get more from your points than what it costs you in annual fee e.g. redeemining it for business class. Do note that generally you can ask for a full/pro-rata refund from most banks. To get the maxmium effect you would open and close multiple CC a year and if you have a partner it can obviously make accumulating points a lot faster. How many CC you choose to open and close a year depends on your personal circumstances and management of your credit score.
There is a lot of information to learn about Qantas/Velocity/Other points systems but it's not too difficult.
To me the points game is basically worth it if you really want to fly business class or want to lower the cost of flying if you had a family for example.
I use my BW Platinum CC for international purchases, accommodation bookings that are charged in foreign currency, and when paying incidentals in hotels overseas, I use the HSBC global everyday for paying for meals etc overseas. We only have a CC with Bankwest as I don't need any of their other products.
What about international ATMs?
don't use them….except when I was in China in 2014 and they had no bank fees for using anyway. I was in Bali May last year and this year and didn't need to use an atm and only changed a small amount at the airport on arrival last year. I didn't use much cash at all. Will see how I go in Thailand in March.
👍
How does this compare to Wise card?
Wise limits free ATM transactions to 2 per month and $350 total. After that they charge fees.
To give a comparison (I didn’t have wise card at the time of travel) in March this year, for 2 weeks for a family of 4 (2 adults and 2 kids) going to usual spots (Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka) we used about 1k aud worth in cash.
I took $300 aud worth (with Unitedcurrency) and during the trip had to take out money from the atm (did a couple of times but in the end was an extra $700 in the end) via the hsbc card.
I wish I could use everything for card in Tokyo but there’s still places that only accepts cash so yeah need to factor this (especially Japan) depending on your status/travel plans you might take out more than $350 worth
Bankwest recently ditched their international travel insurance, so I am off Bankwest now
how does this compare to HSBC card or the ubank debit card?
HSBC uses their own rate which includes a margin
so in other words this is better when it comes to conversion fees? in that case how does it compare to Ubank (which i already have)
Any benefits of this over say UBANK or any other $0 fee debit cards see - https://www.ozbargain.com.au/wiki/cards_with_no_overseas_tra…
Very similar indeed….I have both so I know.
But bot being both cards, its more important to focus on the attached account.
In that respect both are attached to transaction accounts….not to high interest savings accounts.
Ubank offers their high interest (up to 5.5%) save account and their spend account to which the visa debit card is attached.
If you are happy to move money between these accounts then its easily a better deal than what Bankwest has to offer.
If you want an all-in-one account then the Macquarie Platinum Transaction account which pays up to 4.75% and with platinum debit mastercard card attached trumps everything.
No need for any other account really.
Bendigo ready has Purchase protection insurance, but has excess of $250 per claim.
there is still no card in Australia that reimburse atm withdrawal fees. last one was ing but that got rid of it. this card is also similiar to hsbc except hsbc is visa.
Besides the two bank comment - surely the Wise card still wins?
Why is it time to ditch Citibank? Their debit card still seems solid for overseas.
Then I run the 28° Mastercard for credit.