Advice sought!

[jase]

Hi everyone,

I've been reading this site for a few days now, confusing myself more and more, and have come to the conclusion that it's time to get some expert advice.

My fiancee and I are heading off to Europe next year, with a stop over in Singapore for a week of honeymooning. We will backpack through Europe for a few months, then fly to Canada, catch a train all the way across, and try to find work in BC.

Obviously this trip is going to cost us a fair bit! I booked the flights about a week ago (and thought about a rewards CC afterwards ) through Jetabroad on Singapore Airlines.

My questions are as follows:

- Am I able to claim for the KrisFlyer points after booking the flights now?
- If so, what credit card would be best to collect the points, and then to use while overseas (I am assuming we need a good one that gives us fair exchange rates).
- Should I be looking for a credit card that we can earn points on while travelling through Europe/living in Canada? Or do the points earning credit cards have poor exchange rates?
- Furthermore to the card I am looking for above, do any of them give competitive exchange rates for withdrawing cash overseas? I know that the Wizard Clear Advantage Mastercard is good for this.

If it makes much of a difference, we will be using our savings for the trip, so the interest rates on the cards don't really matter.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I know it's a long read!

Cheers,
Jase.

 

[medhead]

You're ability to get points from a CC will depend on if you've paid for the flights or not. You say that you've booked the flights so I assume you haven't paid yet. The critical question is whether you can get a CC before you have to pay for the booking.

The version of CC you get depends on what FF scheme you what to be in. I guess you might be looking at the Star Alliance side of FFP, and perhaps Krisflyer, but their are other options with other Star Alliance airlines that might be better. Anyway, I know next to nothing about star alliance matters. But there are a couple of CCs available that will convert to krisflyer. AMEX membership rewards, and I think there is a new CBA or Westpac CC.

My personal advice would be to use cash as much as possible. (But then I can use ATMs for free overseas) I think that CC fees can be excessive for currency conversion and I believe they still charge these fees even if the CC is loaded up with money. So probably something like the Wizard is the best option.

welcome to AFF

 

[Niiki]

Hi Jase
I am new to this site having only observed posts but have travelled extensively so thought I would give you my 2 cents.
As you have not flown, you can join KrisFlyer and claim points – you should be able to contact Singapore Air when you have joined and add your KrisFlyer details. When I joined, membership was free (unlike Qantas!) and you should be allocated a number immediately so you won’t have to wait for your card. Unfortunately, we didn’t get any use out of our points as we didn’t fly enough with Singapore Air (or have a credit card earning KrisFlyer points) to get us anywhere.


Credit card for KrisFlyer, Google search "krisflyer rewards credit card" and you should get Westpac coming up in the sponsored links at the top (I can't post link as I have not had 10 posts). Not sure of others but that's a start.


Exchange rates should not be affected by rewards points programs. It’s really the annual fee that you are charged that will be affected. For example, my Citibank card has an annual fee in excess of $300 – can’t remember how much, but I love the card, the exchange rate is always great and they monitor suspicious activity with a vengeance. Low rate, low fee cards don’t generally have rewards programs.


You’ll need to weigh up whether the annual fee on the card is worth the points earning potential. I know with my Citibank, I used to earn 1 point for every $1 spent. I think it’s about 18,000 points to get me from Perth to Sydney, so that’s an $18,000 spend to get me a one way flight across Aus. Check out how many points it will cost you to get from say wherever you are, across to Singapore (or wherever else you want to go) and compare this to your inflight points earnings and how much you will need to spend to get yourself a free flight or upgrade.


Beware “currency exchange fees” when you are withdrawing money overseas. Exchange rates should be pretty consistent across the major lenders, but you can be unpleasantly surprised at what it costs you to get it out of the wall with the “hidden” conversion charges – cough if you ask me, because you haven’t got someone sitting there manually calculating the conversion.


I am about to head over to the US this weekend. My husband and I have an ANZ travel card so that we don’t have to worry about exchange rates while travelling and we know how much we have to spend. It’s sort of like a Visa Debit card in another currency so you can use it anywhere that accepts VISA. Before your trip, you can exchange into US Dollars; Great British Pounds; Euros; and Canadian Dollars (among others but I have only included relevant currency here). And you can top up anytime with BPAY (but you are charged to top up). Not sure how it would work with your trip if you will be using multiple currencies. My guess, probably would need one for each currency. We think it’s worth it for us but you’ll need to make your own enquiries.



Hope this helps. Have a fabulous trip.


Niiki

 

[medhead]

Beware “currency exchange fees” when you are withdrawing money overseas. Exchange rates should be pretty consistent across the major lenders, but you can be unpleasantly surprised at what it costs you to get it out of the wall with the “hidden” conversion charges – cough if you ask me, because you haven’t got someone sitting there manually calculating the conversion.

I am about to head over to the US this weekend. My husband and I have an ANZ travel card so that we don’t have to worry about exchange rates while travelling and we know how much we have to spend. It’s sort of like a Visa Debit card in another currency so you can use it anywhere that accepts VISA. Before your trip, you can exchange into US Dollars; Great British Pounds; Euros; and Canadian Dollars (among others but I have only included relevant currency here). And you can top up anytime with BPAY (but you are charged to top up). Not sure how it would work with your trip if you will be using multiple currencies. My guess, probably would need one for each currency. We think it’s worth it for us but you’ll need to make your own enquiries.



Hope this helps. Have a fabulous trip.


Niiki

The ANZ travel cared seems good but it is still subject to the same range of fees as any visa CC. Maybe it avoids currency exchange fees as time of withdrawal but at the expense of locking in the exchange rate. Also, from memory there is a fee on the value of the transaction when loading up the ANZ Travel card that is within the range of other currency exchange fees - 1.1% reload fee, see the fine print here.

ANZ Travel Card

The wizard card is probably the best option but I think that it might not be available anymore.

Another option is Gold Banking from NAB. This gives no fee access to ATMs while overseas. The exchange rate is pretty good at about NABs advertised TT exchange rate. Costs $10 per month, but that is waived if you deposit $5000 a month. (There is no reason this $5000 can't be from recycling money from other accounts.)

NAB - NAB Gold Banking


One more thing Qantas FF membership can now be had from free via the Woolworths Everyday Rewards scheme. Maybe for a limited time only.

Hopefully, someone else will chip in with better advice then mine.