28° Mastercard Cash Advances while overseas [No more free cash advances from 1/1/14]

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gosling

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28° Reference Information

Sadly No more free cash advances with this product:(

A cash advance fee is to be introduced from 1 Jan 2014 - this includes both international and domestic Oz withdrawals.

No more free cash advances - FAQs - 28 Degrees MasterCard




Introduction of a Cash Advance Fee

There has recently been an important change the fee structure of the 28 Degrees MasterCard which you should be aware of:

  • A cash advance fee of 3% of the cash advance or $4 (whichever is greater) will be charged to the account on each occasion on which you obtain a cash advance or make a cash equivalent transaction (except that if the cash advance is made by a direct transfer to a bank account nominated by you, this fee will not exceed $30 for that transaction).
This change will take effect on January 1, 2014. It’s important to be aware of the fee change, even though you may not be impacted. We are making this change to ensure that we can continue to offer customers the key benefits of the 28 Degrees MasterCard ...



[EDIT]
User Guide: See post #298

Cash Withdrawal Limits: See post #470

Preload into Credit? How Much?: See post #582 and following, also from post #832

Use this link to apply online: 28 Degrees MasterCard

Information on other (virtually) fee free cards for FOREX said:

[/EDIT]

Hi

has anyone had trouble taking cash advances off their credit card while in South America?

We thought we had struck it lucky by obtaining a Wizard Clear Advantage Mastercard before we left home for our south american holiday. No fees on international purchases or cash advances. ALthough the credit limit they give you is only $750 (!) we put the card into credit by $1000, so that we could take cash advances while OS and avoid the $5 fee for every withdrawal by using our regular eftpos cards. We even tested our cards before we left to cash advance to make sure things would run smoothly.

Only problem is our Wizard card has not worked once while we have been overseas to make cash advances. It has worked fine for purchases, in fact in Wizard's defence we have got significantly better exchange rates with them than with Commonwealth bank. But every ATM which we have attempted to withdraw from has said we don't have the funds available, even though our card is in credit. We have phoned Wizard in Australia and they claim nothing wrong at their end and can't do anything.

We have tried the cards about 10 or 12 times throughout Chile, Argentina and Peru.

Has anyone had a similar experience? any ideas on a plan of attack?

Thanks
 
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Does your card have a Cirrus, Plus or Maestro symbol on it? Do the ATMs?
 
Kiwi Flyer said:
Does your card have a Cirrus, Plus or Maestro symbol on it? Do the ATMs?
The Wizard card referred to doesn't have these symbols on the back, but it is intended to work at all machines accepting Mastercard, as far as I know.

I sympathise with gosling's plight, having experienced similar with an HSBC Visa card once -- a system glitch, though for a shorter period (4 days) than gosling has experienced.

The card certainly does offer good forex rates at least :?

Please make sure you update us if a solution/explanation is found, as there are a few of us here with this card.
 
My father got the Wizard card for his recent trip to South Africa with the same thought in mind and also put it into credit. Will have to ask him whether he had any problems (although he probably wouldn't have had the confidence to extract money from an ATM, but perhaps my mother taught him the rudimentary skills before he left :shock: )
 
GEMoneySite said:
MasterCard Global Service
Get help quickly from anywhere in the world, around the clock, with;

a lost or stolen card,
an emergency replacement card,
emergency cash advances, and
locating an ATM Network accepting MasterCard® or Cirrus® brands.
Simply call (+1) 636 722 7111 to be put in touch with a representative who speaks your language.

Just had a quick look at the Wizard site. The card is provided by GE Money, so I would think the same rules apply.

What you need is to find an ATM with the Cirrus logo displayed.

With cash advances, it goes through a third party provider, rather than Mastercard. ie When a PIN is used to get cash.

If Wizard say everything is OK from their end, they should also be able to tell you which Banks ATM will work with their card.
Failing this, on the GE Money site it has Mastercard Global Service information for finding ATM around the world. Information above.

Hope this helps.

Rob
 
wizard

your problem is not the ATM. Wizard put a lock on your a/c once you hit or got near that $750 or something or required some additional info. I'm sure if you call them they'll be able to explain it.

I did exactly the same b4 i went overseas and it got locked out. It's now been fine i've used it on our 200 transactions in the past month overseas incl 4 cash advances from various ATM's, all fine. Any ATM pretty much works that takes mastercards.
 
Thanks so much for all your advice.
WE will try to contact Wizard again in AUS and unlock the card. Weird though as the amounts we have been withdrawing are under the credit limit and even under the amount that the card is in credit!!
Will keep you posted on our progress.
FYI, we also rang mastercard global anf they checked the account was ok and said there was nothing they could do.

Thanks again for your help.

Regards
Sarah.
 
hi everyone. Thanks for all your help.
Well after numerous emails and responses on the wizard and mastercard websites, someone has managed to únlock our account.
It is now working fantastically, and so far no charges on the account. GReat as we can check on the internet what we have been charged as we go.

So Wizard is looking like a great option for travelling now.. jut hope no one else gets locked out for as long as we did.

Thanks again,

Sarah
 
I'm interested in this card as well, because I want to apply for it, put it in substantial credit and use it to withdraw money from ATMs when over in the US, Canada and the UK.

It seems that the lock could be a major inconvenience if you are relying on this for travel - has anyone else had a problem with the lock, and is it possible to contact Wizard before you leave to make sure that there's no lock put on it whilst you're overseas? Would be difficult if it were to be put on whilst overseas. Of course, I'd call them to let them know my itinerary so that they can expect lots of overseas ATM withdrawals to happen.

Would this be enough to prevent them locking the account whilst I'm overseas?
 
Wizard is blocking me right now.
I had the same idea. At about $850 of my $1000 limit and almost no cash left (which is not a good idea) so I put $2000 to my card making me actually in credit like some of you.

If they block you at $750 or some percentage, etc. of your limit lets call it "X", they might as well just limit you X, then when you reach the limit you ring and increase it and then give them whatever info they would have needed to unblock then, at least you would know whats coming.

Thankfully my visa debit card (even though huge foreign fees) is keeping me alive until Wizard get their game together.

Another problem with wizard is they don't have a 24 hour service for such an issue, I am sick of staying up till midnight to call.
 
I have got one of these cards too, and noticed that they weren't really up front about the 100 points id check. I have downloaded a form from their site to complete the id check. Also noticed on the site that transactions may be blocked if id check isn't done. I'm wondering if this is causing the blocks some of you mention?
 
Yeah, i had to fill in the ID form.
I wish they had made this part of the application, especially if they demand it later, but I won't complain, I am still making great value out of their no foreign currency fee and cash advance fees :p
 
ok, so that's not why you've been blocked then. I don't have any other ideas,sorry.
 
The account gets frozen if you make a transaction over a certain amount in a day - they told me it was $1500. That's particularly for payments. It's a government requirement apparently, trying to crack down on fraud (money laundering etc).

I was a bit slack in sending mine back too, but that was my fault. With the card came a bright orange envelope warning me not to do a big transaction until I sent it back.

I applied for mine online, so I understand why it's necessary. Banks make you do a 100 point check - but that was never done with Wizard.

I'm so glad the exchange rate is good. I'm been having nightmares that they would rip me off by bumping up the exchange rate.

Great product Wizard. I just wish I could get FF points with it too! I used to have a home loan with Wizard - basic, but cheap and effective.
 
Gulliver said:
The account gets frozen if you make a transaction over a certain amount in a day - they told me it was $1500.

Nope, can't be a fixed figure, cos mine was blocked at a transaction below $400, despite the card being in credit -- however, there had been a transaction of similar size the day before, so my guess is something about spending pattern or frequency. Or, as suggested upthread, perhaps a percentage of one's limit or something?

If there were a govt freeze-requirement on CC accounts at a certain value, I think forum members would have complained about this previously. I might be wrong, but as I understand it AUSTRAC only imposes a reporting requirement (and that's at transactions of $10k+).
 
Hmm, dunno whether I'm talking about the same thing or not.
It was an Identification Refernece Form I referred to, and it states "Under the Financial Transaction Reports Act 1988 We must block your account in some circumstances if we have not verified your identity."
I rang and was told I could pay $1500 per day, but any more and the card would be frozen until they recieved the form.

That might have been based on my $7000 limit.
 
Gulliver said:
Hmm, dunno whether I'm talking about the same thing or not.

Yep, sorry -- overlooked that you were referring to the unverified status.
 
Has anyone used there Wizard Mastercard for cash adavances in France...particularly away from Paris.

My daughter will be in Brittany for 7 weeks and I was think of having her use it to obtain cash....

HOWEVER I have read that MC is not widely used in France?????????????

Does anyone know??

Thanks
 
lovetravellingoz said:
Has anyone used there Wizard Mastercard for cash adavances in France...particularly away from Paris.

My daughter will be in Brittany for 7 weeks and I was think of having her use it to obtain cash....

HOWEVER I have read that MC is not widely used in France?????????????

Does anyone know??

Thanks
I had no problems using a non-Wizard MC in Nice and Paris. Almost all ATMs seem to support Maestro. I would expect the ATM support for MC and Visa will be the same. Just some merchants may not accept both - but again that is rare these days between Visa and MC even in Europe.
 
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