New Cheap Card to get Cash Overseas - Wizard Alternative

[Nutcase]

I was charged an ATM fee of $3 last month in Nashville BoA using my NAB Gold card...certainly not fee-free. If Wizard is free then that's a +1 for Wizard.

NAB Gold is best for making actual purchases due to no fees...If I need cash I'll make sure I get a large amount to minimise my ATM usage.

Wow - the things that we will do to save $1 or $2.

Frankly, It doesn't bother me with fees overseas. Just think - You're seen taking large sums out of an ATM - This will draw attention to you. You lose your wallet with $1000 in it -OR if you don't pay off your wizard card at the right time and start paying interest it will cost you more than $1 or $2

Just my $0.02 worth.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

Wow - the things that we will do to save $1 or $2.

Actually it can work out to a lot more than that. When travelling o/s with my old westpac mastercard debit i would be charged approx $8 for taking out $100 at an overseas location ($5 plus 3% or so). Since I switched to NAB Gold Banking, that $8 is reduced to zero. I am overseas every 6 weeks or so, with ATM withdrawals in numerous countries and numerous times. NAB Gold banking has already saved me hundreds of dollars. They also offer travel insurance if you purchase flights with the Gold visa debit card, good for those who don't have another gold or plat credit card. I estimate switching to NAB saves me at least 600 to 800 bucks a year, maybe more.

The only time I am charged anything for a withdrawal is if the ATM operator itself charges a fee. this can be avoided in many countries, including Thailand as I have stated before if using AEON ATM's (Currently other atms in Thailand charge approx 150 baht, which is over 5AUD per withdrawal). So combined with being smart about which ATM to use, and having the right account, I can save approx $13 on a $100 withdrawal in Thailand by using AEON and NAB. That is a significant amount of money IMO, in fact its more than the average daily wage in Thailand in savings.

 

[auriga]

approx $13 on a $100 withdrawal in Thailand

Wow, really bad deal.... hope no one is silly enough to do that!:shock:

 

[Aussie_flyer]

Wow, really bad deal.... hope no one is silly enough to do that!:shock:

Well you don't really have a choice when the bank you use charges $5 plus 3% for an overseas atm withdrawal, then 99% of thai atm's charge $5 on top.

 

[auriga]

Perhaps going to a money changer would be better for this kind of situation.

 

[colin5353]

Westpac (but not St George or Bank SA) still allow fee free wdls at their Global Alliance ATM partners, Barclays (UK), Bank of America (USA) etc. Last year I used my NAB Gold Visa Debit in USA, UK, Singpaore & HK without any fees. This year in the USA every ATM charged me a fee from $2-$3 USD, similar to ATM direct charging here in Oz.

Ing Direct's new Visa Debit has a $2.50 ATM fee for o/s wdls so thats a little cheaper than the other Oz banks. As does Victorian Teachers Credit Union. NAB's standard O/S atm fee is $4, the other majors it's $5 - eg: ANZ Visa Debit O/s $5AUD, plus the $2-$3 atm direct fee.

FYI there are NO Bank of America's in Hawaii

 

[colin5353]

In the US, Chase don't seem to charge for use of NAB Visa Debit at their ATMs. IME, Citibank do in some places - about $1.50 US. BUT, it varies from state to state in the US. CA and NY both seem to have higher/more fees.

Having used both my NAB Gold Visa debit & ING Visa Debit in San Francisco last week - Wells Fargo charged $2, BoAmerica charged $3 (no revfund from either Au bank on these atm direct charges)

 

[JohnK]

Exactly....more and more ATMs worldwide are adding their own up front fees. Recently in Thailand I noticed ATMs charging a fee of 150 baht...these fees are for OVERSEAS cards only...Thai bankcards don't attract this fee.

This is why the NAB gold card and Wizard card are better for overall fee avoidance.

Most ATM's in Thailand will add the 150 baht onto the withdrawal (eg. withdraw 2,000 baht and the receipt will show 2,150 baht) so not possible to avoid the fee.

 

[medhead]

Any idea what rate ANY provider uses to calculate the conversion?

My experience with NAB withdraws suggests that the rate they use is roughly the same as the TT rate on the NAB website. Of course this expereince is a couple of years old.

Also those 2 years ago, NAB did not charge an ATM fee while overseas or a conversion fee, for people with a Choice package. I haven't received anything that says this has changed. So for me NAB is the best alternative as it has not ATM and no conversion fee. I think NAB gold banking might offer the same benefit.

edit: I see most of this is covered, sorry should have read the thread before posting

 

[serfty]

Note that within Australia, there is no ATM fee when using WCAMC with Westpac ATMs.

FWIW, I did a Cash withdrawal at a LAX ATM earlier this month - I was charged a USD2 ATM fee.

The eventual exchange rate was 0.0015 worse than the cross rate of the day according to xe.com/ccc .