Best card with no forex fees

[Kscf]

Hi All,

I have a 3 week overseas trip coming up. I still have my US amex cards but not much money left in US bank accounts

Should I transfer the money from AUD to USD and lose a bunch in the fx conversions , fees and what not and earn some good points or apply for a good AU card with no forex fees or use my AU amex card.

Anticipated spend is $12-$15k AUD

 

[AIRwin]

Try Bankwest?

 

[encryptededdy]

Also try Commbank Ultimate Awards, which earns 1.2 Qantas points per dollar or 3 commbank points on international transactions along with no fee.

You can also try a Citibank Premier/Prestige card with the Linked Diners Club card - the Diners has no foreign transaction fee.

While Diners acceptance isn't the best, I find that most of your big spends overseas (e.g. hotels) will typically accept diners. For smaller amounts at places that don't accept diners you can just use a common foreign transaction fee free debit card.

 

[Kscf]

Also try Commbank Ultimate Awards, which earns 1.2 Qantas points per dollar or 3 commbank points on international transactions along with no fee.

You can also try a Citibank Premier/Prestige card with the Linked Diners Club card - the Diners has no foreign transaction fee.

While Diners acceptance isn't the best, I find that most of your big spends overseas (e.g. hotels) will typically accept diners. For smaller amounts at places that don't accept diners you can just use a common foreign transaction fee free debit card.

I have had the worst exp with CBA applying for the no forex fee card. Not going through with that again.

Can u give me an example of common fx fee free debit card please??

 

[encryptededdy]

I have had the worst exp with CBA applying for the no forex fee card. Not going through with that again.

Can u give me an example of common fx fee free debit card please??

I'm thinking Macquarie, HSBC, Suncorp, or UBank (owned by NAB)

 

[odysseus]

Keep in mind many of the "fee free" options only mean no explicit fee. They still have a hidden fee in the exchange rate. As I recall the AU AmerEx will use a 3% exchange rate. At least they declare it, but obviously that's higher than the point value you'll get back.

When you find a card you're interested in, check out what the actual exchange rate used is; ones that use the official mastercard or visa rate (for US transactions as you're looking at) are best.

 

[RooFlyer]

28 degrees MasterCard. FX at very close to spot and no foreign exchange fees. No points either. So choose what you value most, saving money or earning points? I'm for saving money as earning points really isn’t that difficult.

 

[stm1sydney]

Latitude 28 Degrees MC seems to be most popular. I certainly use it and am happy.

 

[Lynda2475]

For points earn pre-pay any expenses you are certain of (i.e. Hotels where dates are fixed) in AUD before you leave home. Some hotel loyalty programs dont support this, but if you have no status you can benefit by booking via Qantas Hotels or AU hotels.com in AUD so no fees.

This reduces actual spend whilst away where you can then use a fee free debit card like CitiBank Plus, Macquarie Transaction Account or ING Everyday - these use the Mastercard/visa cash rate and have no fees for card purchases; but if withdrawing cash the foreign ATM operator may impose a fee.

The advantage of a debit card as opposed to a travel card, is you dont have to pre-load other currencies or try to guess how much you will spend, just ensure you have enough AUD in the account to cover the amount you are prepared to spend at the time of travel. $ only converted as you spend them, so nothing to change back at the end of a trip.

 

[VPS]

if you are OK with a debit card then Wise is excellent

Wise: the international account | Money without borders There are some threads on here with referrals

 

[Buzzard]

if you are OK with a debit card then Wise is excellent

Wise: the international account | Money without borders There are some threads on here with referrals

Agree. Wise is one of several cards we are currently using in Japan.

 

[SYD]

There’s another (recent) thread on this topic. 28° and Coles MC (later earns FB points) are still staples. ING and UBank are fee free Debit options (and ATM). ING added benefit of rebated any local fees imposed by the ATM (if you do the easy monthly hoops and jumps).

 

[jpp42]

Keep in mind many of the "fee free" options only mean no explicit fee. They still have a hidden fee in the exchange rate.

This shouldn't normally be the case. For Visa and Mastercard at least, the fee used for conversion is set by Visa/MC globally on a daily rate (you can look it up on their site), and is what must be used in the conversion by the issuer. These daily rates are not going to be exactly the same as what you see on say, xe.net but are usually pretty close - they are a centre rate with no spread. Any additional fee charged by the bank has to be listed separate as a commission/fee. For Bankwest and 28 Degrees, they are definitely always using the global daily rate, though for 28 degrees you do get a the added benefit of privacy/data leaks...

Note that the banks do have costs to provide this service, as they can't actually obtain exchange at the centre rate, they have a small spread when exchanging with their partners (less than 1%). It's a cost they are willing to cover out of their revenues from interchange fees, in order to attract customers. This is why you don't usually see cards that offer both zero currency conversion fees AND frequent flyer points, as these both have to be funded from the same kitty. Although, I see that the Commbank card above may be an exception (though it has an interesting feature of a $35 monthly fee if you spend less than $2500 per month, which amounts to up to a $420 annual fee, so worth keeping in mind).

Note - the above discussion about centre rates and zero exchange fees is not including Dynamic Currency Conversion where the hotel / restaurant charges "in your home currency" in order to charge a bigger forex spread, that's a separate matter. Always decline this service and insist your card is charged in the local currency.

 

[Franky]

For points earn pre-pay any expenses you are certain of (i.e. Hotels where dates are fixed) in AUD before you leave home. Some hotel loyalty programs dont support this, but if you have no status you can benefit by booking via Qantas Hotels or AU hotels.com in AUD so no fees.

This reduces actual spend whilst away where you can then use a fee free debit card like CitiBank Plus, Macquarie Transaction Account or ING Everyday - these use the Mastercard/visa cash rate and have no fees for card purchases; but if withdrawing cash the foreign ATM operator may impose a fee.

The advantage of a debit card as opposed to a travel card, is you dont have to pre-load other currencies or try to guess how much you will spend, just ensure you have enough AUD in the account to cover the amount you are prepared to spend at the time of travel. $ only converted as you spend them, so nothing to change back at the end of a trip.

Agree on the Citibank card which I'm sure I picked up as a hint somewhere on AFF...

 

[albatross710]

ING added benefit of rebated any local fees imposed by the ATM (if you do the easy monthly hoops and jumps).

I'm a happy ING customer but be aware they are slowly eroding the fee structure. According to this page:

Bonus and Rebate
Full fee rebate on the first 5 eligible fee incurring ATM withdrawal transactions made on the account in that month (whether domestic or international).

International purchase - 3% of the amount of the International Transaction

I also have a Wise card so I usually spin up a local currency account for the country in which I will be travelling and transfer (daily) to local currency when I arrive. This makes it nice and neat to see the transactions coming through at the correct rate

 

[SYD]

I'm a happy ING customer but be aware they are slowly eroding the fee structure. According to this page:

Bonus and Rebate
Full fee rebate on the first 5 eligible fee incurring ATM withdrawal transactions made on the account in that month (whether domestic or international).

International purchase - 3% of the amount of the International Transaction

I also have a Wise card so I usually spin up a local currency account for the country in which I will be travelling and transfer (daily) to local currency when I arrive. This makes it nice and neat to see the transactions coming through at the correct rate

The 5x free* ATM withdrawals came in a while ago but easily manageable. Just be aware that even if the local ATM doesn’t charge a fee it will count as one of your 5 withdrawals for the month. In those cases, I use my NAB or UBank card.

The 3% Int tx fee is rebated* when you use the Debit card function and doesn’t count towards your 5 monthly withdrawals. The either day I made the same small transaction on ING VISA debit, UBank VISA debit and 28° MC credit card and all three converted to the identical amount.

The other main thing with ING at the moment is 5% interest* on the Savings Maximiser accounts!

*Note: subject to depositing $1000 and make 5x transactions in the preceding month.

 

[MollyJones]

I am a big fan of UP (part of Bendigo Bank) for both at home and away.
Currently using it in UK - no fees, M/c rate and instantly shows my AUD cost.
It’s a debit card, so no points but happy with that.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Point noted above about the data leak… but the question I guess is ‘who is next’? Are the companies that have experienced a data leak likely to be safer going forward than a company that hasn’t had one?

 

[Forg]

Point noted above about the data leak… but the question I guess is ‘who is next’? Are the companies that have experienced a data leak likely to be safer going forward than a company that hasn’t had one?

I reckon this is a good point … if they’ve been burned, and recently, they’ll be on higher alert.

Our ANZ card worked well in New Zealand.
Particularly in ANZ ATM’s …

 

[odysseus]

Point noted above about the data leak… but the question I guess is ‘who is next’? Are the companies that have experienced a data leak likely to be safer going forward than a company that hasn’t had one?

I'd say it's standards/tiers, just like you have with airlines. I wouldn't say they'd be better than (some of) those who haven't.

It's very unlikely any of the big 5 "banks" will have a data leak, due to their standards. However, as seen with Latitude and others, lower tier companies haven't been applying the same standards.

As for the future, you'd hope they learn their lesson - even though they've only been doing it at the expense of their paying customers so far. And the federal government is trying to get them into shape as well, so I'd expect things will improve. But if you want top grade security, this is one thing that paying more will get you.