Doing Any Good Things With The High $AUD?

[medhead]

Thanks for the advice. I will check out the recent thread. I am indeed talking about locking in a good rate by buying a sterling card at the most appropriate time. Of course, with the latest cash cards you can add more funds to them on separate occasions. Fortunately the sterling and euro fluctuations are not as jumpy as the USD is on a daily basis. Also fortunately, I have a daughter who is working as an emergency medicine specialist in London so we have free board and lodging for six weeks while we are there. I just knew all that money I paid for her education would be worthwhile one day!!!

My only difficulty is that you want to use a cashcard. These have terrible fees attached. My future strategy will be to get cash money at my preferred rate from the likes of UAE exchange (they have a good spread in Adelaide and seem to be available nationally). Then when I travel, I will use a fee free card, NAB gold banking in my case but 28 degrees card is another option. That way if the AUD has gone up since I did the cash exchange then I just hold onto the foreign cash. If it has gone down, I convert the cash I'm holding back to AUD to pay the card bill when it comes in. I can leave the foreign cash at home, so no need to carry around large sums of cash overseas.

The only disadvantage is the forgone interest by holding cash.

I probably didn't explain this well, hope it makes sense.

 

[Favfern]

My only difficulty is that you want to use a cashcard. These have terrible fees attached. My future strategy will be to get cash money at my preferred rate from the likes of UAE exchange (they have a good spread in Adelaide and seem to be available nationally). Then when I travel, I will use a fee free card, NAB gold banking in my case but 28 degrees card is another option. That way if the AUD has gone up since I did the cash exchange then I just hold onto the foreign cash. If it has gone down, I convert the cash I'm holding back to AUD to pay the card bill when it comes in. I can leave the foreign cash at home, so no need to carry around large sums of cash overseas.

The only disadvantage is the forgone interest by holding cash.

I probably didn't explain this well, hope it makes sense.

Thanks medhead! I think you explained it extremely well. I have a bunch of Gold and Platinum cards, but did not realize any of them were fee-free! Every time I have used normal credit cards in Europe or elsewhere, I have been hit with plenty of fees. I will take your advice and look closely at the fine print for all these cards. Also from what I have read in the press, cards such as the new ANZ international cashcard (or whatever its marketing name is) have toned down their usage fees somewhat. Fortunately, I don't leave until late September, so have a bit more time for research. I don't think the AUD will crash in a heap in the next week or three. The other thing in my favour is that with free accommodation in London, my spend overseas will not amount to "sheep station" money and I am probably just splitting hairs on my transaction costs. Still, better in my pocket thyan the bank's.

 

[medhead]

On the gold cards from banks, I'm only aware of NAB providing a benefit. Their gold banking product offers fee free ATM withdrawals, but still have to pay any ATM owner fee, and the exchange rate is close to the headline rate, maybe about a 1 cent spread.

NAB gold debit card offers the same ATM withdrawal benefit and is also a Visa card. They are saying there are no fees on foreign currency transactions either. This matches my experience in Germany earlier this year with some purchases. The only hassle I had was my tax refund from Germany was about $10 less than I expected. The bank can't tell me the reason why, unless I want to do some tracking process for a $2.50 fee. I'm just not sure if $7.50 is worth the hassle.

There is a $10 monthly fee for gild banking, but that is waived if you deposit $5000 a month or if you owe them enough money as in my case.

28 degrees card is the other good option. I don't have one and don't know enough about it. But hopefully, someone else will explain about it. It does sound good.

BTW next time I'll probably take the tax refund in cash.

 

[Flashback]

On the gold cards from banks, I'm only aware of NAB providing a benefit. Their gold banking product offers fee free ATM withdrawals, but still have to pay any ATM owner fee, and the exchange rate is close to the headline rate, maybe about a 1 cent spread.

NAB gold debit card offers the same ATM withdrawal benefit and is also a Visa card. They are saying there are no fees on foreign currency transactions either. This matches my experience in Germany earlier this year with some purchases. The only hassle I had was my tax refund from Germany was about $10 less than I expected. The bank can't tell me the reason why, unless I want to do some tracking process for a $2.50 fee. I'm just not sure if $7.50 is worth the hassle.

There is a $10 monthly fee for gild banking, but that is waived if you deposit $5000 a month or if you owe them enough money as in my case.

28 degrees card is the other good option. I don't have one and don't know enough about it. But hopefully, someone else will explain about it. It does sound good.

BTW next time I'll probably take the tax refund in cash.

See here: 28° [Wizard] Mastercard Cash Advances while overseas - Page 81

 

[travelislife]

I was on the road for two years and the only 2 products I used to access and spend my AUD was the NAB Gold Visa Debit Card and the 28 degrees mastercard, absolutely brilliant products. Would have saved me a fortune. As a side point, one time both myself and a mate withdrew $200USD at an atm in LA, it cost me approx $201 and him using a CBA card $220!

 

[Julesmac]

The Australian dollar is up or other currencies are down so what should we be doing to take advantage of this when we are travelling overseas?

Having travelled with the value of the $AUD at sub 50 cents to the US dollar and the English pound where 3 Australian dollars could get you one I have wondered whether we are changing our behaviour.I was looking at Dom Perignon champagne at a bit over 100 and thinking what a great price. Then I was thinking about a nicer hotel in New York and London.Is there something I am missing?

Cove, My neighbour has a US forwarding address; I'm sorry I'm not sure what it's called, but he uses it where items cannot be posted outside contiguous USA. Maybe other members could tell you how it's done. Imagine the options open to you once this is achieved!

 

[cove]

We have a US home address so that makes shopping easy when we want to buy something in the US.