Qantas Cash FX rates

[RooFlyer]

Finally getting around to having a look at the Qantas Cash M'card.

First thing was that I found out that you can use it for transactions outside the 9 currencies covered by the card - for a 3% FX fee, which is about market.

What I haven't been able to find out is the reference rate for the FX rate applied by the Qantas Cash Card. For conversion into a currency outside the 9, its (PDS, Part B clause 7.3)

The foreign exchange rate
used is the rate determined by MasterCard® to be
the wholesale rate or the government mandated rate
in effect on the day the transaction is processed by
MasterCard, plus a currency conversion fee of 3.00%
of the transaction value.

That's sort of clear - a wholesale or government rate (plus 3%).

However, for the loading of any of the 8 o/s currencies, the best definition of a reference rate I've found is in clause 7.2 of Part B of the PDS:

the foreign exchange rates used for loading
and reloading the Facility are set and determined by
Qantas and Access and vary each day

You can see what the FX applying at the time of transaction is, when you go to do the conversion, no problems. But how is it established?


* Does anyone know what reference Qantas uses to determine it rate-on-the-day (eg "spot + 2%") ?

* Has anyone made an actual comparison of a Qantas offered rate (buy or sell) compared to spot of any currency that day?

* Anyone seen a buy/sell spread for a particular day for any currency?

I'm not saying that the Qantas rate should be anything or the other. Just curious as to what the difference to spot has been so far.

 

[mushypeas]

Similar to visa, you can visit the actual mastercard website and view their fx and interchange rates.

You select the card currency and purchased currency and it gives you daily rate.

 

[mushypeas]

https://www.mastercard.com/global/currencyconversion/

 

[RooFlyer]

Thanks phat-dave; but I probably didn't make my main query clear. I'm Ok with the MasterCard determined FX, but interested in the "Qantas-determined" rate for initial loading / cashing out. Its clearly different from the MasterCard one (or at least the determination is) but there are no clues in the documentation as to what Qantas references to determine its rates, and what margin compared to spot.

Hoping some-one has done the comparison when they've loaded / unloaded their cards to date.

 

[markis10]

Thanks phat-dave; but I probably didn't make my main query clear. I'm Ok with the MasterCard determined FX, but interested in the "Qantas-determined" rate for initial loading / cashing out. Its clearly different from the MasterCard one (or at least the determination is) but there are no clues in the documentation as to what Qantas references to determine its rates, and what margin compared to spot.

Hoping some-one has done the comparison when they've loaded / unloaded their cards to date.

There are a number of comparisons in the Qantas Cash thread comparing real world versus QF cash VS mid market quotes, ie :

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....ou-received-your-new-53492-23.html#post899508

How exactly QF cash calculate their rates is commercial in confidence as its how they make their money, margin being the operative word, the card being useful if you want to lock in currency for an OS trip or used domestically. For loading and spending in the near future other methods (now mainly the Citibank Plus account since 28 degrees is starting a fee) are preferable.

 

[Robert K]

When i log into my account it shows the
[h=4][/h][h=4]Exchange Rates[/h]Sell rates (the rates at which we sell foreign currency to you) as at 03/10/2013.

Currency	Rate
CAD	Canadian Dollar	0.9257
JPY	Japanese Yen	87.7585
HKD	Hong Kong Dollar	7.0108
NZD	New Zealand Dollar	1.0914
EUR	Euro	0.6643
SGD	Singapore Dollar	1.1297
GBP	Great British Pound	0.5571
USD	United States Dollar	0.9126

Guess one could compare that to the spot rate.

 

[Mr_Orange]

For loading and spending in the near future other methods (now mainly the Citibank Plus account since 28 degrees is starting a fee) are preferable.

Lucky, I decided to can the 28 degrees card I had (but never used) since the Bankwest Platinum does the job fee free, although I note the new fees for 28 degrees are only on cash advances. I've also just swapped to Citi so as to avoid being rorted on cash withdrawals abroad by my current bank. I found using a travel money card (OzForex in my case) to be too much of a bore compared with just withdrawing from my current account.

 

[RooFlyer]

When i log into my account it shows the
[h=4][/h][h=4]Exchange Rates[/h]

<snip>
Guess one could compare that to the spot rate.

Thanks. Not having set up an account, I hadn't appreciated that they were all there in advance. In the on line demo, it appeared as the rate for one currency only appeared when you wanted to do a transaction.

It's not as though the margin compared to spot could be commercial-in- confidence; after all purveyors of FX usually display their rates literally up in lights!

Shouldn't be too hard to observe the rates over time and establish a rough model.

 

[serfty]

The daily trades are not available until you activate your account.

Once you have done so you can see them even if you have no funds.

 

[markis10]

The daily trades are not available until you activate your account.

Once you have done so you can see them even if you have no funds.

They are not necessarily daily either, having seen movements over a period of hours.

 

[serfty]

They are not necessarily daily either, having seen movements over a period of hours.

One would hope so - I just had a look at my account (having done a test purchase in the USA earlier this month).

That USA rate is a shocker! (Currently 91.4¢ on XE.com and the Mastercard rate is 90.9¢).

Exchange Rates Sell rates (the rates at which we sell foreign currency to you) as at 25/03/2014.
Currency	Rate
CAD	Canadian Dollar	0.9695
JPY	Japanese Yen	88.2327
HKD	Hong Kong Dollar	6.7209
NZD	New Zealand Dollar	1.0208
EUR	Euro	0.6269
SGD	Singapore Dollar	1.0992
GBP	Great British Pound	0.5258
USD	United States Dollar	0.8765
THB	Thai Baht	27.6216

4% !!?!?

 

[Zero]

I've been monitoring the rates over the past months. The USD rate is generally the best one. Other currencies are 5.5%.

At this time it will be cheaper to load AUD and pay the 3% fee to convert. The locking in was useful when the AUD was plummeting at the end of 2013, as it enabled me to get cash out of my AUD bank account and profit while I was overseas

 

[Robert K]

One would hope so - I just had a look at my account (having done a test purchase in the USA earlier this month).

That USA rate is a shocker! (Currently 91.4¢ on XE.com and the Mastercard rate is 90.9¢).

Exchange Rates Sell rates (the rates at which we sell foreign currency to you) as at 25/03/2014.
Currency	Rate
CAD	Canadian Dollar	0.9695
JPY	Japanese Yen	88.2327
HKD	Hong Kong Dollar	6.7209
NZD	New Zealand Dollar	1.0208
EUR	Euro	0.6269
SGD	Singapore Dollar	1.0992
GBP	Great British Pound	0.5258
USD	United States Dollar	0.8765
THB	Thai Baht	27.6216

4% !!?!?

This is exchange rate taken from Commbank website.

• 0.8727 USD
• 0.6207 EUR
• 0.5239 GBP
• 1.0190 NZD
• 50.6200 INR
• 0.9684 CAD

QF is better.

 

[RooFlyer]

One would hope so - I just had a look at my account (having done a test purchase in the USA earlier this month).

That USA rate is a shocker! (Currently 91.4¢ on XE.com and the Mastercard rate is 90.9¢).

Exchange Rates Sell rates (the rates at which we sell foreign currency to you) as at 25/03/2014.
Currency	Rate
CAD	Canadian Dollar	0.9695
JPY	Japanese Yen	88.2327
HKD	Hong Kong Dollar	6.7209
NZD	New Zealand Dollar	1.0208
EUR	Euro	0.6269
SGD	Singapore Dollar	1.0992
GBP	Great British Pound	0.5258
USD	United States Dollar	0.8765
THB	Thai Baht	27.6216

4% !!?!?

Went to the Q Cash site looking to buy some USD as the spot went up to about 0.94 during the day.

At about 7:30pm various web sites are reporting:

Q Cash sell rate: 0.8995
CBA sell rate: 0.9003
ANZ sell: 0.8952
OzForex spot 0.9397
XE spot 0.9399

Will check back tomorrow to see if any overnight adjustment.

 

[Hydevanity]

Went to the Q Cash site looking to buy some USD as the spot went up to about 0.94 during the day.

At about 7:30pm various web sites are reporting:

Q Cash sell rate: 0.8995
CBA sell rate: 0.9003
ANZ sell: 0.8952
OzForex spot 0.9397
XE spot 0.9399

Will check back tomorrow to see if any overnight adjustment.

A bit odd, I've always found it a bit better than the banks...but then again I've also had issues with differences in the rates before/after logging in.

 

[serfty]

A bit odd, I've always found it a bit better than the banks...but then again I've also had issues with differences in the rates before/after logging in.

AFAIK You can't access the QCash rays without logging on.

 

[woodborer]

AFAIK You can't access the QCash rays without logging on.

You don't need to be logged in at all. Just go to to currencies page.

 

[Quickstatus]

This morning,

QFC AUD-USD pair is 0.8995
AusPost foreign cash the same pair is. 0.9011 and their multicurrency travel card is 0.8985

I think the QFC rate is better and there is points earn too.

I find AuPost foreign cash rates is up there with the best, their service is great, and you tend to get crisp new cash straight out of mint.

So im going to change to QFC for travelcard needs

The best is still Citibank select. Its 3.4% off the wholesale rate plus 5 points per forex dollar spend .. Which equates to 3.33 velocity points per $ spent on OS transactions. QF points are still 1:1

my rule of thumb is that credit cards give you 3-3.5% off wholesale aka interbank rate (essentially what you read in daily papers) and travel prepaid cards 4% and banks 5%

 

[markis10]

This morning,

QFC AUD-USD pair is 0.8995
AusPost foreign cash the same pair is. 0.9011 and their multicurrency travel card is 0.8985

I think the QFC rate is better and there is points earn too.

I find AuPost foreign cash rates is up there with the best, their service is great, and you tend to get crisp new cash straight out of mint.

So im going to change to QFC for travelcard needs

The best is still Citibank select. Its 3.3% off the wholesale rate plus 4 or 5 points per forex dollar spend I think.

my rule of thumb is that credit cards give you 3-3.5% off wholesale aka interbank rate (essentially what you read in daily papers) and travel prepaid cards 4% and banks 5%

If your using your own money and want access to small amounts of cash via OS ATMs, the Citibank Plus is a no brainer. Why anyone would use the QFCash or other travel card short of locking in exchange rates that need to depreciate by circa 4% or more to be favourable is beyond me.

 

[Quickstatus]

I totally agree. But for teenagers its great to keep tabs on their spend.

Ive gone back to Citibank CC and Auspost foreign cash.

Agree. A lot of people think they can lock in rates when its high - thereby they are instant forex trafing experts!!!. Also they forget the opportunity cost of using funds that might be offsetting their mortgage.

Putting cash into travelcards will cause the value to decrease by more than the inflation rate if you have a homemortgage. Essentially you will be losing value at about 6-7% pa.