Qantas Cash Card

[hossein_au]

re: Qantas Cash Card

I had quite a few purchases in supermarkets, etc, and NONE offered the choice of currency, but some have been posted in A$ with the corresponding charges.

This one has no fees, but why, oh why, has it been posted as A$??!!

04 Jan 2014	Store40967HamburgDERef no: xx_x	AUD	-$9.02
Currencies used for this transaction: Description Currency Amount TRAVEL EUR -€5.95 Fees: Description Currency Amount There are no fees.

I was using the damn card assuming it would use the right currency... I had planned for a certain amount in Euro, S$, and A$. Posting in the wrong currency, I had to deposit more A$ in there because an expense I had planned, could not proceed due to lack of enough A$. And we know the card takes quite a few days to show the money deposited; around twice to three times as long as what is the norm in Australia.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

re: Qantas Cash Card

This one has no fees, but why, oh why, has it been posted as A$??!!

04 Jan 2014	Store40967HamburgDERef no: xx_x	AUD	-$9.02
Currencies used for this transaction: Description Currency Amount TRAVEL EUR -€5.95 Fees: Description Currency Amount There are no fees.

I was using the damn card assuming it would use the right currency... I had planned for a certain amount in Euro, S$, and A$. Posting in the wrong currency, I had to deposit more A$ in there because an expense I had planned, could not proceed due to lack of enough A$. And we know the card takes quite a few days to show the money deposited; around twice to three times as long as what is the norm in Australia.

sounds like you might need to give them a call and get some forensic analysis done by the operator!

please let us know how it goes.

 

[Zero]

re: Qantas Cash Card

Spending in foreign currencies will appear in the relevant currency when authorisation is taken.

Once the transaction is posted, it will appear in AUD at the mastercard rate (no fees), and you must click to expand to show the original amount in the other currency.



So your €5.95 txn on 4 Jan was converted into AUD (for display purposes only) using the mastercard rate on 3 Jan of 0.659143 = AUD $9.02, and you should earn 10 QF points as QCash appears to round up...

This transaction used funds from your EUR balance, which you would have converted at a rate of something like 0.61, so you actually paid something like A$9.75.



For your cash withdrawal of €250 on 5 Jan, using the mastercard rate on 3 Jan of 0.659143 again, this works out to be A$379.28, as displayed. QCash charges a fee of €1.50 for EUR withdrawals at an ATM outside Australia, which is converted for display purposes to A$2.27. This withdrawal came from your EUR balance. You would have actually loaded something like A$410 onto the card for this withdrawal and converted it to EUR.



On 5 Jan you were then charged a currency conversion fee of A$1.17. I guess one of two things happened here:

a) your EUR balance was not enough to pay for your purchase, but you had some money in your AUD balance. Some of your AUD balance was used to cover the shortfall in EUR (which was about €25.70, resulting in a 3% fee of 77c, which is displayed as A$1.17)

b) the merchant forced you to use DCC, which means they charged you at a bad rate in AUD. But you had no (or not enough) AUD balance, so your EUR balance had to be converted back to AUD, incurring a further 3% charge. For example, you bought €23 of goods, merchant's DCC rate is 0.59, which becomes A$39. This uses up €25.71 of your EUR balance and charges you a 3% fee of $1.17 on top of that, meaning you paid A$40.17 where you would have paid A$34.89 with a 0% Mastercard, and earned 41 QF points.

 

[rainbowgirl]

re: Qantas Cash Card

I know I'm going to sound a bit behind the times and paranoid, but I don't trust internet credit card security so therefore it is only on rare occasions that I use online shopping facilities.

The Qantas Cash card has enabled me to use some online shopping sites where I can get cheaper prices for things or get things which aren't available instore. As a bonus I get points for the transactions and I have also found that they have rounded up.

The card was also useful for a transaction I had to make in US dollars when the website wouldn't take Australian dollars. I also got more points this way as a bonus.

Eventually I will be using the card to get Coles group giftcards online at a 5% discount so I will be saving money and getting points at the same time.

 

[hossein_au]

re: Qantas Cash Card

On 5 Jan you were then charged a currency conversion fee of A$1.17. I guess one of two things happened here:

a) your EUR balance was not enough to pay for your purchase, but you had some money in your AUD balance. Some of your AUD balance was used to cover the shortfall in EUR (which was about €25.70, resulting in a 3% fee of 77c, which is displayed as A$1.17)

b) the merchant forced you to use DCC, which means they charged you at a bad rate in AUD. But you had no (or not enough) AUD balance, so your EUR balance had to be converted back to AUD, incurring a further 3% charge. For example, you bought €23 of goods, merchant's DCC rate is 0.59, which becomes A$39. This uses up €25.71 of your EUR balance and charges you a 3% fee of $1.17 on top of that, meaning you paid A$40.17 where you would have paid A$34.89 with a 0% Mastercard, and earned 41 QF points.

Thanks for the explanation. I definitely had enough Euro and A$ in the card, and the merchant did not offer any choice of currency. Had I run out of Euro in the card, I would have expected as you described, but now I have some Euro left in the card (which I don't have any immediate use for), and less than what I anticipated in A$ (so I have had to top up the card for some transactions I had planned for, but had to wait around a week for the funds to become available).

 

[markis10]

re: Qantas Cash Card

Thanks for the explanation. I definitely had enough Euro and A$ in the card, and the merchant did not offer any choice of currency. Had I run out of Euro in the card, I would have expected as you described, but now I have some Euro left in the card (which I don't have any immediate use for), and less than what I anticipated in A$ (so I have had to top up the card for some transactions I had planned for, but had to wait around a week for the funds to become available).

Check your receipt, DCC is often not mentioned but is the default option.

 

[mulubinba]

re: Qantas Cash Card

On a trip to the UK last year I was using a NAB traveller card. I thought I had finessed it perfectly so that I had just sufficient pounds for my final cash withdrawal. However the card took funds from my AUD stock. I think what happened was some of the pounds were locked up by a pre-authorisation that hadn't lapsed. Just a thought as a potential explanation for funds being drawn from the wrong currency. (And I have since learnt not to use such traveller cards for pre-authorisation)

 

[hossein_au]

re: Qantas Cash Card

On a trip to the UK last year I was using a NAB traveller card. I thought I had finessed it perfectly so that I had just sufficient pounds for my final cash withdrawal. However the card took funds from my AUD stock. I think what happened was some of the pounds were locked up by a pre-authorisation that hadn't lapsed. Just a thought as a potential explanation for funds being drawn from the wrong currency. (And I have since learnt not to use such traveller cards for pre-authorisation)

I had no pre-authorisation on the card.

 

[hossein_au]

re: Qantas Cash Card

Check your receipt, DCC is often not mentioned but is the default option.

I don't have the receipts anymore, but I am pretty sure they only showed Euro (no mention of a dollar symbol or AUD any where on the receipts). The plot thickens...

 

[Zero]

re: Qantas Cash Card

I don't have the receipts anymore, but I am pretty sure they only showed Euro (no mention of a dollar symbol or AUD any where on the receipts). The plot thickens...

I had a hotel in Berlin use DCC but only showed EUR on the receipts. I'd like to know the response from QCash if they manage to figure out what happened.

 

[Stoopidsteve]

re: Qantas Cash Card

A recent trip to Sin, two transactions in the same store, minutes apart, one charged in SGD, the second (despite enough SGD being on the card) was charged in US$, so fee charged.

didn't follow it up.

 

[hossein_au]

re: Qantas Cash Card

A recent trip to Sin, two transactions in the same store, minutes apart, one charged in SGD, the second (despite enough SGD being on the card) was charged in US$, so fee charged.

didn't follow it up.

Yep; haven't followed up mine either. I just cannot be bothered with the hassle for a few dollars... but, and a big but, I have lost my confidence in Qantas Cash and therefore it will not be used ever again (whether domestic or international) unless I really have to.

 

[Pleb Status]

re: Qantas Cash Card

Article in SMH today stated that only 1 in 20 elected the receive the QF Cash card. A pretty poor take up I would say.

 

[moa999]

re: Qantas Cash Card

Not going overseas, not wanting another card, particularly one that you have to load with cash... General poor response due to the amount of mail we all get

 

[samh004]

re: Qantas Cash Card

Article in SMH today stated that only 1 in 20 elected the receive the QF Cash card. A pretty poor take up I would say.

Don't Qantas say they have 10 million FF's? Assuming they have only half that number, that means they still have 250,000 who elected to receive it. It's not that bad of a start

 

[hossein_au]

re: Qantas Cash Card

Don't Qantas say they have 10 million FF's? Assuming they have only half that number, that means they still have 250,000 who elected to receive it. It's not that bad of a start

Might not have been that bad a start, but I wonder how many of those people keep using it (I being a living example of someone who has walked away from it, albeit once I use up what is left in the card).

 

[Zero]

re: Qantas Cash Card

Don't Qantas say they have 10 million FF's? Assuming they have only half that number, that means they still have 250,000 who elected to receive it. It's not that bad of a start

"Qantas said in a press release last year that around 500,000 frequent flyer members had opted in to receive the Qantas Cash card prior to its release (August 2013 figures)."

smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/qantas-and-virgin-skirting-the-law-with-unsolicited-card-mailouts-20140130-31ol2.html

BTW, is that 10 million in Australia, or 10 million worldwide?

 

[samh004]

re: Qantas Cash Card

BTW, is that 10 million in Australia, or 10 million worldwide?

Their 10 million figure must be worldwide, but you could only opt-in for the QCASH card if you were based in Australia anyway, I thought?

 

[Sprucegoose]

re: Qantas Cash Card

Has anyone had problem with their Qantas cash card using the wrong currency? I had A$, S$, and Euro in my card. I used the card in Singapore and it used the S$ credit. But when I was in Germany earlier this month, some purchases used the Euro but some others used the A$ credit (even though there were enough Euro in there). And of course I was slugged with the corresponding exchange fees, which defeats the whole purpose of the damn card.

Did you have sufficient balance for the whole transaction? Maybe a point ? Have you checked your statement ?

 

[hossein_au]

re: Qantas Cash Card

Did you have sufficient balance for the whole transaction? Maybe a point ? Have you checked your statement ?

Yep, had more than enough for all the transactions in all the currencies... Now I have some Euros in there with no much use for them...