Made any travel mistakes lately?

[Happy Dude]

I thought EVs aren't meant to be fully charged and 80% is pretty normal?

I've a had few now from europcar and more than half have been 80% or less but some have been 100%. Speaking with a friend who owns a Tesla, there is a battery "issue" that means that charging past 80% takes longer. But all km range figures are based on 100% so one would think that being fully charged (100%) would be normal, even if it's common for drivers to only bother to go to 80%.

 

[Flashback]

I've a had few now from europcar and more than half have been 80% or less but some have been 100%. Speaking with a friend who owns a Tesla, there is a battery "issue" that means that charging past 80% takes longer. But all km range figures are based on 100% so one would think that being fully charged (100%) would be normal, even if it's common for drivers to only bother to go to 80%.

Most providers only require them to be charged up to 80% (some, just under) when returning the vehicle.

 

[kookaburra75]

I've a had few now from europcar and more than half have been 80% or less but some have been 100%. Speaking with a friend who owns a Tesla, there is a battery "issue" that means that charging past 80% takes longer. But all km range figures are based on 100% so one would think that being fully charged (100%) would be normal, even if it's common for drivers to only bother to go to 80%.

I've been hiring BYD Atto 3 from SixT for a while and they come with a full charge - and you can bring them back empty (or close enough) if you want. They do provide free charging through ChargeFox in Australia. I have been avoiding Europcar for some years due to 'issues'.

 

[Happy Dude]

Most providers only require them to be charged up to 80% (some, just under) when returning the vehicle.

True, but Europcar have a deal where the charge is free (ie no specified level) upon return. I've swapped out some of the 80% ones at pickup for fully charged ones as I know that I'll do more kms than 80% will give, hence I then don't need to charge it. In this instance, I knew I'd have to charge it but that became a nightmare in south NSW coast without a 240v option.

If they send the vehicle out with less than 100% charge, then the information regarding range as provided during the booking process is incorrect. Also in this instance, an extra 20% would have made a difference to my problems because I would have had enough juice to get to a supercharger, even without a 240v top up (which I couldn't have done anyway as they didn't provide that cable).

 

[Happy Dude]

I've been hiring BYD Atto 3 from SixT for a while and they come with a full charge - and you can bring them back empty (or close enough) if you want. They do provide free charging through ChargeFox in Australia. I have been avoiding Europcar for some years due to 'issues'.

That's great to know and I'll be looking at them for future bookings. It's only reasonable that the car should be fully charged at pickup.

Against my will, I've learnt a lot about the charging systems and networks etc over the last three days. The ChargeFox charger at Tathra pub was agonisingly slow. Do they have fast charger locations elsewhere in the network?

 

[kookaburra75]

The ChargeFox charger at Tathra pub was agonisingly slow. Do they have fast charger locations elsewhere in the network?

When we were up in Ballina last week, ChargeFox showed two chargers in town, one was a NRMA fast charger which the Tesla can use, the other charger had the slower CCS2/Type 2.


The BYD Atto3 can only use the slower charger, so you have to take that into account.

Everything You Need to Know About the BYD Atto 3 | SIXT

Find out all you need to know about the BYD Atto 3 from SIXT Car Hire, including price, efficiency, range & more. Now available for hire.

www.sixt.com.au

Horses for courses as they say.

 

[RooFlyer]

Currently in Southern Africa and my NAB Signature card has been getting declined. it’s now Overseas fee free and I was looking forward to earning some points in my travels.

When it was first declined, I looked at my settings and saw that I had not approved “large“ Overseas purchases. The first one that was declined was about $150 so I thought maybe that was the reason. But I then did approve that and it kept getting declined. So then I thought maybe it must’ve been blocked because of that first non-compliant attempted use.

I had advised them that I was going overseas with the dates and places so that could not have been the reason

Kept going for a few days because there wasn’t any real reason to use the card as most of the meals etc. have all been part of my tour. But today there was about $500 to put on the card and it was it again declined so I had to go back to my 28° card.

So tonight I was girding myself for a frustrating chat session to see if it could be resolved but I thought I better check all the settings again first.

Grrrr- found I had not opened up and approved overseas card use. . My excuse is that it’s the first time I’ve tried to use this card overseas and I hadn’t really checked the settings for that.

 

[CaptJCool]

Currently in Southern Africa and my NAB Signature card has been getting declined. it’s now Overseas fee free and I was looking forward to earning some points in my travels.

When it was first declined, I looked at my settings and saw that I had not approved “large“ Overseas purchases. The first one that was declined was about $150 so I thought maybe that was the reason. But I then did approve that and it kept getting declined. So then I thought maybe it must’ve been blocked because of that first non-compliant attempted use.

I had advised them that I was going overseas with the dates and places so that could not have been the reason

Kept going for a few days because there wasn’t any real reason to use the card as most of the meals etc. have all been part of my tour. But today there was about $500 to put on the card and it was it again declined so I had to go back to my 28° card.

So tonight I was girding myself for a frustrating chat session to see if it could be resolved but I thought I better check all the settings again first.

Grrrr- found I had not opened up and approved overseas card use. . My excuse is that it’s the first time I’ve tried to use this card overseas and I hadn’t really checked the settings for that.

Sounds like my card saga with the CommBank

Declined because you have a gambling lock on the card …
Oh and now wait 48 hours for that to pass on by
Oh wait and now you haven’t increased your daily allowances (purchases and cash)

Oh but wait there’s still more
You haven’t switched on ATM Advances

Oh but there’s still more
You didn’t get there to an ATM within an hour

Oh wait there’s even still more
200 euros ended up being A$347
Screwed on everything
Hardly makes me bother dragging
MOre cash out so I’ve insisted on paying everything on Citi card and keeping the ever dwindling cash for the coffee in Spain at 1.40 Euros per coffee con milk! That’s just ah-mazing

 

[zig]

Currently in Southern Africa and my NAB Signature card has been getting declined. it’s now Overseas fee free and I was looking forward to earning some points in my travels.

When it was first declined, I looked at my settings and saw that I had not approved “large“ Overseas purchases. The first one that was declined was about $150 so I thought maybe that was the reason. But I then did approve that and it kept getting declined. So then I thought maybe it must’ve been blocked because of that first non-compliant attempted use.

I had advised them that I was going overseas with the dates and places so that could not have been the reason

Kept going for a few days because there wasn’t any real reason to use the card as most of the meals etc. have all been part of my tour. But today there was about $500 to put on the card and it was it again declined so I had to go back to my 28° card.

So tonight I was girding myself for a frustrating chat session to see if it could be resolved but I thought I better check all the settings again first.

Grrrr- found I had not opened up and approved overseas card use. . My excuse is that it’s the first time I’ve tried to use this card overseas and I hadn’t really checked the settings for that.

Thanks for sharing.
I will have to check my settings as I don't recall even seeing those options. I have only used the card to withdraw cash from an ATM in Cape Town and had no problems. Purchases though were on my BankWest card.

 

[Cynicor]

Sounds like my card saga with the CommBank

Declined because you have a gambling lock on the card …
Oh and now wait 48 hours for that to pass on by
Oh wait and now you haven’t increased your daily allowances (purchases and cash)

Oh but wait there’s still more
You haven’t switched on ATM Advances

Oh but there’s still more
You didn’t get there to an ATM within an hour

Oh wait there’s even still more
200 euros ended up being A$347
Screwed on everything
Hardly makes me bother dragging
MOre cash out so I’ve insisted on paying everything on Citi card and keeping the ever dwindling cash for the coffee in Spain at 1.40 Euros per coffee con milk! That’s just ah-mazing

Why would you use a credit card at an atm overseas anyway?

 

[iamsuperandrew]

Sounds like my card saga with the CommBank

Declined because you have a gambling lock on the card …
Oh and now wait 48 hours for that to pass on by
Oh wait and now you haven’t increased your daily allowances (purchases and cash)

Oh but wait there’s still more
You haven’t switched on ATM Advances

Oh but there’s still more
You didn’t get there to an ATM within an hour

Oh wait there’s even still more
200 euros ended up being A$347
Screwed on everything
Hardly makes me bother dragging
MOre cash out so I’ve insisted on paying everything on Citi card and keeping the ever dwindling cash for the coffee in Spain at 1.40 Euros per coffee con milk! That’s just ah-mazing

I had something very similar with my Commbank card.

Worked in Jakarta and Bali for all transactions and worked for 2 small transactions in Singapore but then didn't work after that. Even though I notified them of my travels

I tried to call them, the hung up and blocked my card and told me to come into a branch

Lucky I had my AMEX platinum card (3% fee charged on everything)

 

[CaptJCool]

Why would you use a credit card at an atm overseas anyway?

I didn’t

Well the Commbank gives you one card for linked accounts. Pressed “savings” (3 options given) but it still hit the “credit” account anyway. While immediately transferring money across avoids interest I’m
Now left with $3 credit sitting there which will get sorted out when I return home as “it’s too small to transfer back”. That’s there response to my transfer attempt. Go figure why?

But gives me the chance to throw a tantrum when I show up at the branch someday in September

 

[Seat0B]

Currently in Southern Africa and my NAB Signature card has been getting declined. it’s now Overseas fee free and I was looking forward to earning some points in my travels.

When it was first declined, I looked at my settings and saw that I had not approved “large“ Overseas purchases. The first one that was declined was about $150 so I thought maybe that was the reason. But I then did approve that and it kept getting declined. So then I thought maybe it must’ve been blocked because of that first non-compliant attempted use.

I had advised them that I was going overseas with the dates and places so that could not have been the reason

Kept going for a few days because there wasn’t any real reason to use the card as most of the meals etc. have all been part of my tour. But today there was about $500 to put on the card and it was it again declined so I had to go back to my 28° card.

So tonight I was girding myself for a frustrating chat session to see if it could be resolved but I thought I better check all the settings again first.

Grrrr- found I had not opened up and approved overseas card use. . My excuse is that it’s the first time I’ve tried to use this card overseas and I hadn’t really checked the settings for that.

Ouch

 

[henrus]

Well the Commbank gives you one card for linked accounts. Pressed “savings” (3 options given) but it still hit the “credit” account anyway. While immediately transferring money across avoids interest I’m

The ability to press savings (for the eftpos network) or credit (for the visa/mastercard network) is something only offered domestically. As soon as you use any Australian debit/credit card overseas they will process through the international credit network.

 

[CaptJCool]

The ability to press savings (for the eftpos network) or credit (for the visa/mastercard network) is something only offered domestically. As soon as you use any Australian debit/credit card overseas they will process through the international credit network.

Thanks for the tip
That I did not know

Could be worse
My kid got a Travel money card and the wrong mobile number was put on it so the passcodes occasionally necessary don’t show up - aside running a European SIM card which isn’t registered anyway. Back and frothy between sims
And it helped to switch on international roaming on the Australian SIM to activate it for the email for which he had been locked out because he wasn’t receiving passcodes …

 

[AL10]

Looked at flights in the US this morning for next week. Told myself I'll book it after work. Now it's doubled in price - switched over to a new day in the US, and it's now less than 1 week till the flight (27th). So there goes another 300 odd AUD for purely delaying the booking. Will now look at booking it using points, even if it requires a stopover.

 

[RooFlyer]

Okay now to admit to another money travel mistake. The biggest mistake was to forget to bring my Wise card.

That wasn’t such a big thing because I can still use my Wise card by tapping my watch but then I found out my new NAB debit card ( the Citi replacement) whacks me with Overseas fees every time I use it in an ATM.

The first ATM I used here in Namibia in Windhoek, Nedbank had a contactless bit on it and I was very pleased to find out that I could use my Wise card on my watch contactless and withdraw money. So far so good.

So later, I transferred a bunch more Rand onto my Wise card and then attempted to use here in Swakopmund. No dice - contact-less for Namibian cards and account only, even at Nedbank. So I had to use my NAB card again ouch ouch.

 

[prasaddk]

Everyone makes travel mistakes from time to time! Recently, I realized I’d forgotten to double-check visa requirements before a trip, leading to a last-minute scramble for documentation. It’s a good reminder to always review travel documents and entry requirements well in advance. How about you—any travel mishaps or lessons learned recently?

 

[VPS]

Everyone makes travel mistakes from time to time! Recently, I realized I’d forgotten to double-check visa requirements before a trip, leading to a last-minute scramble for documentation. It’s a good reminder to always review travel documents and entry requirements well in advance. How about you—any travel mishaps or lessons learned recently?

Welcome to AFF. Glad you finally got sorted

 

[Flashback]

Okay now to admit to another money travel mistake. The biggest mistake was to forget to bring my Wise card.

That wasn’t such a big thing because I can still use my Wise card by tapping my watch but then I found out my new NAB debit card ( the Citi replacement) whacks me with Overseas fees every time I use it in an ATM.

The first ATM I used here in Namibia in Windhoek, Nedbank had a contactless bit on it and I was very pleased to find out that I could use my Wise card on my watch contactless and withdraw money. So far so good.

So later, I transferred a bunch more Rand onto my Wise card and then attempted to use here in Swakopmund. No dice - contact-less for Namibian cards and account only, even at Nedbank. So I had to use my NAB card again ouch ouch.

Contact them when you're back, if the ATM operator charges a fee - that's fine. It NAB is charging you, that's incorrect, as the same T&C's (essentially) on the Citibank+ account still apply.