How to make existing USD money accessible when travelling?

[doctau]

I'm currently planning a RTW trip, which obviously will involve spending money in currencies other than AUD. The other times I have travelled for leisure I've used my 28 Degrees card to avoid fees, which has been great.

Now however I'm employed by a US company who gives me some free shares, which when I sell then go into USD in the broker account before I can transfer them to my bank (converting to AUD in the process). Since I'll be travelling, it would probably save on fees to keep that money USD, since I can either use them directly in some countries or only have one conversion fee rather than two going via AUD.


A few banks have foreign/multi currency accounts, but they generally don't seem to have card access which I'd want so I could pay for things. It may be that I can get a travel debit card as well, and transfer the USD directly without a conversion, but it's not obvious from the sites if that's possible.

It looks like I can fill out an IRS form (W-7 I think) and get a bank account with a US bank, but that looks quite complex.


Does anyone have experience with already holding foreign currency before you travel and avoiding extraneous conversions?

 

[serfty]

There are some on this forum with such or similar experience in have a USD account, maybe they can help.

 

[RooFlyer]

Have you looked at Westpac? When I had a client who paid me in US$, I had a US$ hedging account here in Oz with them and was told by them that yes, I could get either a visa or master card ( forget which) linked to it. As it happens, I didn't follow up, so can't say if it was as straightforward as it sounded. That's about 5 years ago.

 

[doctau]

Thanks, I'll make sure I talked to them. I'm going to do some more research and talk to a few banks about it. I'll post a follow-up afterward for anyone who finds the thread in the future.

 

[doctau]

I'm waiting for responses from a few more places, but the general answers seems to be:

• For small amounts of money, just transfer it here, use your 28 Degrees card and suck up the ForEx fees
• For medium amounts of money (say $5k to several tens of thousands)
  • If you have the opportunity to be in the US, open an account with a bank there
  • If most of your time is to be spent in a country which readily accepts Amex, consider the International Dollar Card
  • If you are HSBC Premier or similar with other banks, get them to open an account with their US branch for you
  • Otherwise do the same as for small amounts of money, and deal with the fees
• For large amounts of money (more than me) you bank can do things, or you can pay people to deal with it for you

With the various travel money cards, non appear to let you load money in currencies other than AUD. I've heard rumors that if you go to a physical TravelEx shopfront with USD cash wanting to buy a Multi-currency Passport they _may_ load it directly without converting both ways in AUD, but that is unlikely to happen for decent amounts of money.


Commonwealth Bank have no card access to their foreign currency accounts. You cannot transfer money from a foreign currency account to their travel money card, but the guy I talked to said it was very commonly requested (he hears the question a few times a week).

HSBC and CitiBank Australia have no card access to their foreign currency accounts. If you are one of their valued customers (HSBC Premier etc), they should be able to open an account with their US branch for you which should have card access. I'm not though

I'm waiting to hear back from Westpac, I need to chase them up.


Australians can get an Amex International Dollar Card (American Express Dollar and Euro Charge Cards ? Dollar Charge Cards), which is a charge card issued by the UK branch in Platinum, Gold, Green or Basic. I haven't looked into the details of how you pay it off, since a considerable amount of my trip will be spent in countries where an Amex card is not readily accepted. There is also the Amex Global Travel Card which doesn't appear terrible, but again not for me.


Due to anti-terrorism/money-laundering laws, it's very difficult to open an account with a US bank as a non-resident unless you're physically present. If you get a chance to be in the US, strongly consider this. I'll have to see if I get to the US to do so - a few back of envelope calculations show that the amount I'd save in fees may pay for cheap flights to the US Using it as a KUPP-based run for US status couldn't hurt either.

Charles Schwab have a "One International" account (Open an Account) which has Visa cards and they refund ATM fees world-wide. There is a $US 10k minimum opening amount and you have to maintain a minimum balance. I think that Australians should be able to open them by filling in the right forms, but the response to an email inquiry was that we can't "due to regulatory reasons". I may have just gotten a bad CS rep though, so may call up.


Various banks (Barclay's, Lloyds, Standard Bank, etc) have off-shore accounts which could be used, but they usually have substantial minimum requirements, and their forex fees for spending in non-USD (especially withdrawing cash) mean that moving it home and using the 28 Degrees is likely to be just as cheap anyway.



So my plan is to talk to Westpac again, see whether Charles Schwab would allow me to open an account as an Australian non-resident, see if I can get to the US physically before my trip, and probably just end up using my 28 Degrees card and swallowing the extra conversion with it's fees.